
The realities of a $50 smartphone - Pamar
http://www.engadget.com/2015/08/14/the-realities-of-a-50-smartphone/?a_dgi=aolshare_googleplus
======
noir_lord
So make the $100 device and get governments to subsidise them, you could give
a hundred million $50 subsidies for $5bn (or more like 7-8bn once you get the
pork and ancillary costs out the way).

Access to the internet and even feature phones has radically altered lives
around the world.

~~~
jayess
There are plenty of android phones available for around $50 now. No need to
subsidize. For example: [http://www.amazon.com/BLU-S410a-Unlocked-Smartphone-
Touchscr...](http://www.amazon.com/BLU-S410a-Unlocked-Smartphone-
Touchscreen/dp/B00J7Y90RO/)

~~~
Avshalom
Right $50 means a 4" screen and 2-4 year old hardware. It might not be
glamorous but it damn well ought to be able to browse the internet and run an
office suite.

~~~
agumonkey
I regularly scan for second hand Motorola smartphones, like Moto G 2013.

see
[http://chicago.craigslist.org/search/sss?excats=20-102-41-27...](http://chicago.craigslist.org/search/sss?excats=20-102-41-27-5-1&sort=rel&query=moto+g)

I didn't read the details, but lots of ~40$ ones. A 1st gen Moto G is very
potent.

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crusty
This is still a thing? Now I'm curious; what did it cost Nokia to build the
Lumia 520 (or 521) that I paid $35 for new from ATT about a year ago (no
plan/no strings, since unlocked for free) and just read this article on.

And just to inform HN readers who may have no realistic concept of what kind
of personal financial decisions are made by people that these phones
specifically target...

Dual SIM phones are big sellers in developing countries, so add another $1 for
that or whatever (note that it's mentioned in the "Display: $8" photo of the
Android One but not in the article). Dual SIMs aren't for the globe trotters
out there, although very useful in my experience, but many if not most of
these people will be on prepaid plans and without phone credits at times. The
dual SIMs let users leverage different promotional calling/texting structures
to reduce costs. As well, data for prepaid users is purchased in blocks of
data size or time, so being able to switch off the connection to one SIM or
the other offers another cost management tool.

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leke
$2.10 for a battery, eh? Well aren't we getting shafted for replacements.

~~~
fnbr
I suspect there's a vast difference in quality between the batteries used here
and those used in, say, the iPhone 6. I might be naive, but I doubt that Apple
is gouging consumers _that_ badly.

~~~
joshuapants
For $2.10, the battery certainly won't be state of the art. Probably bulky and
low capacity.

~~~
ValentineC
I've worked as customer service at one of these budget phone companies before.
The batteries are decent — I've had my fair share of battery bloating for
certain models, but the battery life is definitely comparable to the bigger
brands.

~~~
joshuapants
> the battery life is definitely comparable to the bigger brands

Sure, but the budget phone also isn't pushing a quad HD screen and a beefy
processor. The runtime may be similar, but that doesn't mean the capacity is.

I did a quick straw poll by looking at some budget Android phones against some
flagships and it seems like the budget batteries are about 1000mAh less than
the flagships. In a bigger case. So, bulky and low capacity.

~~~
Menge
> it seems like the budget batteries are about 1000mAh less than the flagships

But the flagships I'm aware of have non-removable batteries which is not a
fair comparison as swap-ability has pay offs that make up for all the plastic
and more robust circuit designs.

~~~
joshuapants
Absolutely, I didn't mean to compare the relative merits, simply the costs.

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drb311
Amazing what 50 bucks can buy.

Are smartphone manufacturers really as naive as the story suggests, churning
out phones at a loss in the vain hope of future profit? I know they're in
trouble but they're not THAT deluded, are they?

~~~
tdkl
The one who makes most of the profit in this case is Google, be it Play Store
revenue, or data collected. I'm actually beginning to feel bad for the Android
vendors.

~~~
aikah
> The one who makes most of the profit in this case is Google

And Microsoft do who basically gets money on every Samsung and HTC Android
device because patents.

And let's wait the conclusion of Google vs Oracle case, it might be a game
changer. If Oracle wins , it won't be so easy anymore for Google.

~~~
lgleason
I really hope that the Oracle VS Google thing might encourage Google to
release a new official language for Android that is not Java.

~~~
joshuapants
I'm surprised Google hasn't made a bigger push with Go on Android. It seems
like there's some rudimentary support, so maybe it's on the way.

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aikah
> As mobile networks kill off phone subsidies, users might now begin to
> appreciate just how much their new smartphone really costs.

The article doesn't really speak about Apple, but Apple has a much bigger
problem than Android. How many people are going to pay 800$ for a hand phone +
cost of data plan ?

This might be a huge opportunity for Microsoft and WP but they need to up
their game when it comes to the qualities of apps. I also strongly believe
that if WP sdk was supported on Mac and Linux it would have been a bigger hit.
But that's my opinion.

~~~
blowski
If price was the only determining factor in which device people buy, then
Apple wouldn't be able to shift $2000 laptops when there are plenty of $250
options. The reality is a lot more complicated, and I suspect Apple will
continue to do absolutely fine.

~~~
aikah
But Apple doesn't shift that many 2000$ laptops , and laptops aren't a fashion
accessory unlike cellphones. Most Macs aren't subsidized either.

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luck87
I develop on Android for a local business company. In my experience, I have
worked with a wide range of devices and most of them have specific problems or
bugs documented on internet. Most company use low-cost hardware (it is not
well supported or it is not accurate) or customize Android system in strange
ways: the result are bugs. So I am glad to reduce price, but I don't want to
reduce the quality.

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eliben
This is awesome, as long as it actually gives these people access to the
internet rather than to the monstrosity that is internet.org

------
chatmasta
You can get an iPhone 4 for around $50. Seems like a perfectly adequate
smartphone to me.

~~~
fnbr
Can you still buy them newly produced, or is that the cost for old inventory?
I believe it's the latter, which is an artificially low cost- it doesn't
reflect the cost of manufacturing, but rather is the highest price that the
market will pay for an outdated phone that phone companies already have in
inventory.

~~~
pen2l
Not to mention, Apple products past three generations are unusable. My old
iPhone 4S phone is so slow that it's practically unusable.

~~~
Yhippa
Why is that? I booted up an old iPod touch that was based on the iPhone 4 and
that thing is unusable. I would have thought it would degrade gracefully and
still run as performant as it did with the old software on it but it runs so
slow it's unusable.

~~~
pen2l
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence)

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bakar112
$50

