Move Prices Out Of The Stratosphere.
When I started shopping for a new smartphone last month I had two specific goals: to pay something like $250 CDN, and to buy it outright without giving more money to our greedy wireless service provider. I absolutely refuse to spend the better part of a thousand bucks on something that will likely last me no more than 1 1/2 to 2 years.
The Nexus 5 was the number one contender, and the Moto G would have been if I could buy it directly in Canada instead of handing money to Bell or Telus.
As it turned out I got a good deal on a Blackberry Z10, which I'm liking an awful lot. The final deciding factor was a presumed likelihood that the BB would be good for writing e-mails and text messages, and generally being used for text communications as well as voice.
And it is - the predictive text is amazing - much better than what I've had in ICS or even Jellybean.
Ultimately though this story makes me happy - the Moto E is another phone that is more than adequate for most people, and priced sensibly. That will tend to force down prices from other manufacturers, and will encourage people to just buy a phone instead of locking into some wireless company's two year plan in order to get it for "free."