What the heck is going on with skyhigh smartphone prices ?

$600 is my max on a flagship otherwise they can piss off. I'll wait and grab a slightly used one off of Swappa. Disappointed that the Mate 10 is priced that high given the Mate 9's price point.
 
gunbust3r said:
The Chinese companies are creeping in to vacuum up all the sales. Apple, Samsung, and google are going it be screwed when joe average catches on that the $70 or $200 handset covers 99% of the bases of the 1200% more expensive phone.
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This is certainly the case for me. No way I'm paying $800 when there's an equivalent (or better) chinese flagship out there for $600. Thing is, even the chinese brands are starting to catch up im price e.g. Huawei Mate 10 at $1000, last gen's price increase in the Oneplus.
 
gunbust3r said:
The Chinese companies are creeping in to vacuum up all the sales. Apple, Samsung, and google are going it be screwed when joe average catches on that the $70 or $200 handset covers 99% of the bases of the 1200% more expensive phone.
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Not quite. All of this comes down to perceived value. You feel this way because it's not worth it to you versus buying a $200 handset.
However, in a macro sense I think it will be interesting to see what the market will bear. We will see what people are really willing to spend large dollar amounts of money on.

I think they'll all do just fine. For the same reason any halo product does just fine.

Also, thank you for recognizing that it isn't "Apple just raising a bunch of prices" but rather that is where the market is going. Hence why there are more than one manufacturer going down that road. Really this is just an extension of people charging more money for a premium product. And in that sense, you are right, we will see the market become more segmented. Those that are willing to buy an ultra-premium product and those who simply aren't.

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I myself think buying a $1k phone makes perfect sense. Especially considering that most people spend more time with their phones than any other computing device. This is also considering that to many it's a fun toy or cool piece of tech or even status symbol in addition to being a tool. For some types of work, having a flagship phone is worth the cost and then some. In the exact same way that for certain types of work spending $4k on a computer is reasonable, because the computing power, HD speed/redundancy, or accuracy is worth it.

Like I said earlier, I don't mean that it will make sense for everyone, in the same way that spending $4k on a computer doesn't make sense to everyone. But I think there is a big enough portion of the market that will accept these prices to make the flagship market be raised to this new height and that the $600-800 tier will be the high-middle range followed of course by a midrange, low-middle, and low end tier.
 
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Its all about profit from Western consumers and rich Chinese ones. Have any of you taken a trip to Asia lately. You can get a ton of $200-300 phones with fantastic roms that beat the hell out of so called premium devices sold here. Battery life lasts 2 days, dual sims, many features.

Its hilarious how people think paying $1k for a phone is acceptable when 99% of them won't even notice the difference if you replaced the internals with phones from 3 years ago.
 
phones are like video cards...you don't need to buy the flagship highest end one...best bang for the buck are the lower tier ones
 
Vote with your damn wallet people and don't give in. 500$ is the most I will ever pay for a phone. Give me gently used flagship phones off of swappa or one plus type phones. Screw this 1000$ for a damn phone business.
 
polonyc2 said:
phones are like video cards...you don't need to buy the flagship highest end one...best bang for the buck are the lower tier ones
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Precisely. This extended market segment is just becoming the ultra high end. And not everyone will need the ultra high end. Especially now that mobile processors have become fast enough to run 2 or more years worth of software updates with no issues.

I think the reaction in here is fine, it's just that it's not in context. Everyone who only wants to spend a lesser amount of money for a phone is right where they need to be. You're in a market segment that wants to spend less money and is less interested in having the ultra high end. There are more options than ever and more middle ground options that will be enough. FWIW, I'm with you. As I literally just can't afford to spend that amount of money on a phone. I would if I could, but it's unnecessary. And I'm sure I, like many of you, have more important things to spend $1k on than a phone, which would just be a luxury to have, but not at all critical.
 
exlink said:
On the flip side I purchased an unlocked Huawei Honor 6X for $180 for my father since even that is more phone than he can handle. I played around with it quite a bit and I have to say you can get some pretty nice phones for just a couple hundred bucks now...
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I got my parents the Honor 5x for 145 each. While they say there are a few things that bug them, they thoroughly enjoy them. They own them outright, no bloatware, no carrier bloatware, and a solid built phone.

I myself got the ZTE axon 7 enhanced. I had been eyeballing this phone since released and just happen to find somebody on here selling one. My phone is spec for spec on pat with the s7 but without all the crap. The s7 has a couple thing I don't, but in no way do I see it worth while to spend 650 on a phone to have to deal with all the crap they put on it ever again.
 
polonyc2 said:
phones are like video cards...you don't need to buy the flagship highest end one...best bang for the buck are the lower tier ones
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Yup that's why I went with the Moto g5 plus.. sure it doesn't have 802.11ac or the dual camera crap I'll never use anyways but it's just as good as my coworkers samsung s8 but without the bloatware for 270 dollars..

If it wasn't for the fact that I use Verizon I would of gone with zte or honor.. they have some really nice phones as well.
 
gunbust3r said:
The Chinese companies are creeping in to vacuum up all the sales. Apple, Samsung, and google are going it be screwed when joe average catches on that the $70 or $200 handset covers 99% of the bases of the 1200% more expensive phone.
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I just did this a different way. Sgs2 died and picked up a nexus5 under 100usd. More than enough phone for me and as fast or more than many of the mid range phones out today. So not only are the Chinese a threat but the used phone market is too, with all the contract phone churn.
 
sirmonkey1985 said:
Yup that's why I went with the Moto g5 plus.. sure it doesn't have 802.11ac or the dual camera crap I'll never use anyways but it's just as good as my coworkers samsung s8 but without the bloatware for 270 dollars..

If it wasn't for the fact that I use Verizon I would of gone with zte or honor.. they have some really nice phones as well.
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That kept me ties to a Samsung for a while. Once I went to straight talk I took my phone and kept it on Verizon for a while, but I paid 45 a month for unlimited talk, text, 8gb of data. I got the ZTE axon 7 and had to go T-Mobile, but it still works fine.
 
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