Why are phones so expensive?

[Electroshadow]

it also depends on what price your contract deal is as if you have to have an expensive deal then the phone cost is irrelevant. like myself I have a £72 per month contract as I need a huge amount of 4g data as its used as an internet access point for the house hold due to a max 1mb land line speed. therefore the phone cost does not matter as all phones are free at this price point.

 

[VortexA1]

it also depends on what price your contract deal is as if you have to have an expensive deal then the phone cost is irrelevant. like myself I have a £72 per month contract as I need a huge amount of 4g data as its used as an internet access point for the house hold due to a max 1mb land line speed. therefore the phone cost does not matter as all phones are free at this price point.

That seems like a lot when you can get all you can eat 4g data from three for £20.

Can't you use your phones as a WiFi hotspot?

 

[MissChief]

It depends. All tech companies try to get as much IP as possible to minimise what royalties they pay. There’s a whole bunch of “horse-trading” involved between companies to reach agreements.

Qualcomm is currently in the brown and smelly due to most of their IP being related to CDMA which is almost obsolete now and various phone manufacturers using other chipset suppliers.

Even with the licensing costs the amount paid in licensing is likely to be a few pence per unit and at the most £10-£20 each. Hardly anything on a top end phone. Around half the cost of a smartphone is in the display and as they get brighter and higher resolutions costs go up.

 

[mrgubby]

I worked for a Korean company back in the dumb phone days & we made the PAYG phones for Vodafone.

We only made $1 straight profit on each phone

But we did ship 400,000 units a month

 

[wellibob]

Pure greed mostly. Apple firstly, then Samsung and few others followed. If your half sharp you can get great Android phones easily a 3rd and more of the cost of a stupid new iPhone/S10 etc.

 

[Avalon]

Overall leaps in functionality are relatively minor at this stage, flagship models are literally charging what they think the market will stand and getting away with it. The middle ground is getting quite interesting/competitive though, I grabbed my daughter a Honor Hero for the daughter and was pleasantly surprised, it's a very decent phone for £200, but at half that, it's a steal.

 

[SexyGreyFox]

Aren't the flagship models just better games machines?
For people like me who don't play games I don't need raw processing power and the best screens.
I bought a Moto G6 Plus and for me I doubt I'd find anything better.
Paired with my JBL bluetooth in-ears it is a great sounding music player (not as good as my DAP or triple drivers), it is great for playing videos, Google Maps work great, the camera is ace and so on.
The daft thing is that the people I see with flagship phones are those who still only take selfies and use Whats App and Facebook.

 

[IvanDobskey]

Samsung and Apple phones are hugely overpriced, no doubt about it. My previous three phones have been Samsung, but they have jacked up their prices year on year lately. My new phone is a OnePlus as I just won't pay it anymore. The OnePlus wasn't cheap, but it's 300 quid cheaper than the equivalent Samsung model.

 

[Things change I've changed]

Honestly they aren't, there are plenty of very capable cheap phones out there, we think they are expensive because most of the time we just spend our time looking at the flagships that are thrown in our faces via advertising hype.

 

[jpaul]

unfortunately p30 bom is not available, but you can use the BOM to evaluate if you think you are getting value for money on your phone, or just being duped
- so iphone x materials are 30% of 1K$ price, and screen is 1/9th ( not 50% of previous remark)

This does not include ongoing R&D investment in the design and software .. you can add on what you think the value of that it, in your mental calculation;
If they were selling twice as many iphone X's maybe the $110 scrreen price would reduce too, with the volume.


If you look up LG (edit: TV's) oleds the panel alone represent about 50%/$600 of the RRP, margins seem lower.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48113346148_47ab71ca65_o_d.jpg

 

[Avalon]

BOM only covers the direct cost to manufacture a handset, the indirect costs to get the product into your hands include things like shipping costs, import taxes, marketing, software, support, R&D, insurance - building the technical infrastructure to manufacture, staff, training and a whole lot more.

 

[Shocky-FM]

Samsung and Apple phones are hugely overpriced, no doubt about it. My previous three phones have been Samsung, but they have jacked up their prices year on year lately. My new phone is a OnePlus as I just won't pay it anymore. The OnePlus wasn't cheap, but it's 300 quid cheaper than the equivalent Samsung model.

The only plus for Samsung phones is they lose a lot of value over the first 3-9 months, at which point you can pick them up on Amazon and other sites when they start getting discounted, you usually find them on Chinese sites around the same day for a large discount.

Once you wait for prices to settle the OnePlus devices lose their appeal very quickly, OnePlus only have a small Window of time to get people to buy new devices.

 

[Squink]

Once you wait for prices to settle the OnePlus devices lose their appeal very quickly, OnePlus only have a small Window of time to get people to buy new devices.

Oneplus don't officially discount very much and rely on 6-month product refreshes. Unlike Samsung where it's £1000 as a day one purchase with a free pair of "£199" Samsung underpants, and then down to £599 through official channels six months later.

 

[Shocky-FM]

Oneplus don't officially discount very much and rely on 6-month product refreshes. Unlike Samsung where it's £1000 as a day one purchase with a free pair of "£199" Samsung underpants, and then down to £599 through official channels six months later.

I'm aware they rarely discount but that's their problem, not consumers.

By the time the refresh gets released, it's hard to justify the cost verse the discounted Samsung devices.

You can already pickup the S10+ for £630 from Amazon.it, as I said OnePlus have a limited Window to suck people in, once the window passes their "value" credentials don't cut it anymore.

 

[IvanDobskey]

I didn't want a notch, bloatware or snail like updates either though

So would probably have bought the OnePlus anyway this time.

 

[AndyCr15]

it's £1000 as a day one purchase with a free pair of "£199" Samsung underpants

Please provide link. Am interested...

 

[Squink]

Please provide link. Am interested...

First 10 customers only, I’m afraid.

 

[Shocky-FM]

I didn't want a notch, bloatware or snail like updates either though

So would probably have bought the OnePlus anyway this time.

Not gonna lie, I really like the One UI from Samsung, bloat isn't an issue anymore, most included apps can be disabled and increased ram and storage means it's less important.

Getting updates first is overrated, I've had OnePlus and Google devices and I didnt give a crap about the updates, its just for bragging rights.

 

[mrk]

Grey import.... Save hundreds. Yeah you lose UK warranty, but you get a much better deal and even if you have to send it in for reair and pay for it, you still save money. And in terms of Samsung, get a better SoC in the process.

 

[jpaul]

as opposed to a flagship phone purchase, with it's top tier camera,
can you realistically save £200-£300 on the phone and get a 'medium' phone with a similarly compact, dedicated camera, that will greatly outperform that in the phone ?
pictures from camera phones, when you load them onto a tv screen or even laptop rapidly show their limitations, and you're aware it is much less a keeper, than that from a pocket camera, with an optical zoom, better optics. I've had several social situation where you later regret not having a better camera.

....indeed camera's in phones seem the most compromised of its technologies, trying to fit the form factor of a phone. (periscope tech etc, considered)