
Fewer than 10% of Americans are buying $1k smartphones, report says - paulpauper
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/12/fewer-than-10-of-americans-are-buying-1000-smartphones-report-says/
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throwGuardian
The article cites 5G as some decision making parameter, but I don't believe
this to be the case. People with slow networks (likely from urban construction
density and high subscribers/cell-tower, or being in remote areas) won't see
any meaningful difference, and those with fast access will have no impact
either, as 4G is pretty darn fast if pushed to it's limit.

The MAIN takeaway here is simple - phone prices have crept up from $600-ish in
2013 to $1000-ish in 2019 without a commensurate increase in value to the end-
user. To the extant that Apple has had to indulge in planned obsolescence [1]
speaks volumes to stagnation of _actual_ value delivered to the user.

This is just price gouging from [Apple, Google, Samsung] and the customers are
right in sending them the signal of "don't care". I've personally set the max
price/budget allocation to my phone at $600/two-years, and have been able to
buy fabulous devices with high DXO-mark cameras, and great Antutu-speed
benchmarks without breaking the bank. You should too.

[1]: [https://www.bbc.com/news/world-
europe-42615378](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-42615378)

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panpanna
Since you mentioned Samsung, check out their A-series.

They seems to be pretty affordable.

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wodenokoto
And crappy. You are much better off buying last years galaxy x (or the year
before that) than this years A series.

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panpanna
Actually, they are not. There are some really cheap ones in the series but the
ones around 300-400 have been praised by most reviewers.

(I don't work Samsung, don't even have a Samsung myself).

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adamiscool8
It's not super clear from the article, but it sounds like they're talking
about the outright purchase of an unlocked smartphone. Which, based on their
past reports is only 15% of the market. [0] The headline is somewhat
misleading when the vast majority of people are in fact buying the $1K
smartphones, just subsidized through their mobile bill over several years.

[0] [https://www.npd.com/wps/portal/npd/us/news/press-
releases/20...](https://www.npd.com/wps/portal/npd/us/news/press-
releases/2018/unlocked-smartphone-users-are-spending-more-and-upgrading-less/)

~~~
beatgammit
I really hate this trend. How did we, as a society, get to the point where
financing a phone is reasonable? Why do we need to be "eligible" for an
upgrade, and why do we let mobile carriers get away with this?

I wish the US was more like the rest of the world where you buy your phone
separately from your mobile service.

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tpmx
This staggered price jump into luxuary goods land that Apple has been leading
seems really weird to me. And not very sustainable.

I wonder how a Steve Jobs-led Apple might have managed this issue (of Apple
being asked to increase their revenue by some relative large factor each
year).

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paulpauper
Steve would not be opposed to the idea. the iPhone has always been pricier
than competitors, as are macs in general compared to PCs.

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AndrewStephens
That is not really true. The iPhone was launched at a lower price (and
basically killed) than what passed for smart phones of the time. Likewise, the
iPad was priced very aggressively.

Sure, you can buy cheaper smartphones now. But the iPhone is still priced in
line with the similarly featured flagship phones from competitors.

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tonyedgecombe
Apple’s margin is still high in all its categories. I suspect this is what
drives their pricing.

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hindsightbias
327M * .10 * $1k ~= $33B

Quite the disaster... if only I’d dumped my APPL stock years ago? I would bet
that Apple isn’t expecting 1 year turnovers on the iPhone11.

Not even a price point in my mind since I keep Apple products for 3-7 years.
Would buy it tomorrow if I didnt have a free i8.

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RenRav
I had no idea they even came at that price range.

