Google takes on Apple with unveiling of new Pixel phone

SAN FRANCISCO: Alphabet Inc's Google on Tuesday announced a new “Pixel” smartphone and a virtual reality headset, the company's latest effort to sell consumers on Google-branded devices and to challenge Apple Inc's iPhone at the high end of the more than $400 billion global market.

The new phone starts at a price of $649, and Google is working exclusively with Verizon Communications in the United States, Google executives said at a launch event in San Francisco.

Google's decision to launch with a single carrier echoes Apple's agreement to launch the original iPhone with AT&T, a deal that gave Apple unprecedented control over the look of the phone and how it worked.

While most vendors other than Apple use Google's Android operating system, the company has for years toyed with various approaches to building its own hardware without alienating manufacturers such as Samsung Electronics, the world's top smartphone maker.

Google also announced a “Daydream View” virtual reality headset, which will be available in November for $79, in time for the end-of-year shopping season.

Google hardware chief Rick Osterloh announced the Pixel phone shortly after the event began, adding that the camera was the best available on a smartphone. The new phone can get a 7-hour charge in 15 minutes, the company said.

Pixel phones will come in black, blue and silver and will have 5 and 5.5 inch (12.7 cm and 14 cm) screens. Google has sold another line of phones, called Nexus, since 2010, but the devices have gained little traction in a market dominated by Samsung Electronics.

Because its mobile software is available so widely, Google has struggled to distinguish its own devices, said analyst Jan Dawson of Jackdaw Research.

Google “wants to have this end-to-end experience, but it's not clear that people really want that,” Dawson said.

Shares of Alphabet were up about half a percent in midday New York trade. Shares of Verizon were down about 1 per cent.

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Facebook launches 'lite' version of Messenger overseas

NEW YORK: Facebook is launching a “lite” version of it Messenger chat app.

It is aimed at emerging markets, where many people use older phones that don't have enough room to store or ability to run the full-featured application due to slower internet speeds or other issues.

“Messenger Lite” will be available on Android devices in Kenya, Tunisia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Venezuela beginning on Monday.

The company did not say when it would be available in other countries or whether it is also coming to Apple devices (although Android is far more popular in emerging markets than even older iPhones).

There is already a “Facebook Lite” available for people whose phones are too old or simple to run the full-fledged Facebook. Messenger Lite is a similarly slimmed-down version of Messenger.

It will let people send text, photos and links but won't do video calls, for example. The move comes as the social media giant moves to force users to adopt Messenger if they want to send each other direct messages, instead of the main Facebook site or app. It is working: more than 1 billion people use Messenger each month.

For a while, there was a loophole you could log in to Facebook's mobile website to access messages. But Facebook is ending this option, too, so Messenger will be people's only option.

David Marcus, head of messaging products at Facebook Inc., said in an interview that Messenger's goal is to be a “product for everyone, not only people who can afford a higher-end device and more expensive data plan.”

He called the web-based messaging experience on Facebook a “remnant of the past” and added that he “can't think of any other mobile messaging service that has a web version.”

Facebook, he said, decided on the five initial countries to launch Messenger Lite in because there are a lot of Messenger users in these countries on older devices.

WhatsApp, the messaging app owned by Facebook but operated as a separate entity, is also popular in emerging markets.

Marcus said people use the apps for different reasons and they are not in direct competition. WhatsApp also has more than 1 billion users, and many people use both services.

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