difference between flagship and budget phones and cellular network comparison

[parthm]

just wanted to hear some thoughts on this.i think the flagship phones are not at all justified now *cough apple *cough.

lets see what im talking about

 

consider the honor play smartphone which costs 20000 rs or 287 usd

antutu score around 208xxx and it competes with one plus but is much cheaper. how can one justify prices passing 1000 usd is beyond me.

the budget trend is much more in countries like India where im from.

 

Do you think companies dont need to be aggressive with pricing over at developed regions? whats stopping them to compete in that way? i agree they make more profit with flagship but when you think about companies like htc you start to think why dont they change their strategies or atleast be a little more aggressive?

 

Also the carrier model would affect it, im assuming since here generally you buy both the plans and phones seperately. talking about carriers the prices there seem to be very high.

in india you can get a 4g connection at 5.72usd for 3 months with 1.5gb per day which is like 126gb +unlimited calls +100 sms/day +some streaming services +64kbps after 1.5gb use.

  

[FrowningHippo]

It will depend heavily on the area you are residing in. In my experience Europeans tend to mix it up. Most of them will buy a more expensive handset with a carrierdeal if possible. Don't forget however that in (some) European countries buying a phone on a plan counts as debt, so that makes people more warry to buy on a plan and makes them buy it outright. Afterwards they will use that phone a couple of years instead of switching it up each year, making that flagship worth more to them since generally those devices stand the test of time better. In my experience only a select few care enough to get the latest and greatest each year. More or less like a hobby. Most people will buy when it's feels like a time to upgrade and will not hesitate buying a last gen iPhone to save cost. 

 

There have been several valuable video's about buying older flagships compared to modern budget devices. Video by Mr. Whosetheboss. Video by Techaltar

 

In the US people tend to buy more on carrier because these subsidize phones heavily. This also makes sure that phonebrands that don't have carrierdeals going on simply sell less because of availability and exposure.

 

India is heavily focused on budget phones despite being a growing market. Hence the reason Samsung seems to be moving away from big time investments in mobile phones. This can have multiple reasons, but the most important one might be simply: Budget availability. I don't have facts or figures about what a Indian household has to spend. But if you have less to spend, you are less likely to spend it on luxury products when budget products tend to work perfectly fine.

 

Phone companies will not be concerned about aggressive prices as long as people buy these devices. And as long as people do, they will keep pushing the boundaries. Furthermore. Flagships that push the boundaries are enormously expensive to make. Not in terms of production only, but R&D and marketing do cost a lot. 

 

To sum it up. All those nice extra features that will come to budget phones in a couple of years are on current flagships. And getting the newest costs more then simply putting in what's already there. That needs to be payed for. And when you do that. The laws of diminishing returns seem to apply. You pay more, for just that little bit extra. As long as people are willing to fork out that kind of money for those extra things, these phones are priced perfectly fine.

 

Edit: Companies like HTC have a problem in that they don't innovate enough to distinguish themselves. You need those features that make people want your device. Squeezing it apparently isn't enough.

[parthm]

4 hours ago, mathizel said:

It will depend heavily on the area you are residing in. In my experience Europeans tend to mix it up. Most of them will buy a more expensive handset with a carrierdeal if possible. Don't forget however that in (some) European countries buying a phone on a plan counts as debt, so that makes people more warry to buy on a plan and makes them buy it outright. Afterwards they will use that phone a couple of years instead of switching it up each year, making that flagship worth more to them since generally those devices stand the test of time better. In my experience only a select few care enough to get the latest and greatest each year. More or less like a hobby. Most people will buy when it's feels like a time to upgrade and will not hesitate buying a last gen iPhone to save cost. 

 

There have been several valuable video's about buying older flagships compared to modern budget devices. Video by Mr. Whosetheboss. Video by Techaltar

 

In the US people tend to buy more on carrier because these subsidize phones heavily. This also makes sure that phonebrands that don't have carrierdeals going on simply sell less because of availability and exposure.

 

India is heavily focused on budget phones despite being a growing market. Hence the reason Samsung seems to be moving away from big time investments in mobile phones. This can have multiple reasons, but the most important one might be simply: Budget availability. I don't have facts or figures about what a Indian household has to spend. But if you have less to spend, you are less likely to spend it on luxury products when budget products tend to work perfectly fine.

 

Phone companies will not be concerned about aggressive prices as long as people buy these devices. And as long as people do, they will keep pushing the boundaries. Furthermore. Flagships that push the boundaries are enormously expensive to make. Not in terms of production only, but R&D and marketing do cost a lot. 

 

To sum it up. All those nice extra features that will come to budget phones in a couple of years are on current flagships. And getting the newest costs more then simply putting in what's already there. That needs to be payed for. And when you do that. The laws of diminishing returns seem to apply. You pay more, for just that little bit extra. As long as people are willing to fork out that kind of money for those extra things, these phones are priced perfectly fine.

 

Edit: Companies like HTC have a problem in that they don't innovate enough to distinguish themselves. You need those features that make people want your device. Squeezing it apparently isn't enough.

great reply but id like to add some stuff here.

in the current scenario its better to buy a budget device with maybe an android one program like mi a2 and replace it afterwards.

the point you mentioned is exactly why i dont like the us model.i have restrictions due to my carrier and also the carrier deals arent that great(talking about data plans).

 

agreed as long as people keep buying expensive phones theyll increase the prices but there has to be a saturation point for the general consumer! spendin 1000 plus dollars on a phone that adds nothing special(touchid>faceid) is almost ridiculous.

 

youre wrong about bugdget getting features late.if you see the current trend its the mid range devices which innovate and once when its perfected it comes to flagships.le removed the headphone jack first,the pop up camera phones werent exactly flagships,the bezeless trend started with mi mix which again not a flagship grade phone.

 

i talked about honor play because it basically has every flagship feature youd want good screen to body,face unlock,ai trickery,flagship performance,current android version,fast storage,headphone jack,etc.

ill tell you what i mean by htc being stupid.almost always htc releases a phone at suppose 40000 rs,within 2 months the price goes down by 4000 rs.it always happens and its value drops down so fast its crazy.