Whats up with the ridiculous prices of new phones?

[beginner99]

I guess everyone has seen the huge price increases over last 2-3 years in the phone segment. It's bascially just what happened to the discrete GPU space. Huge price increases for same segment. Flagships went from $500 to >$1000 and upper midrange from $350 -> $700. The later increase is even more annoying because if you have an older flagship your basically not gaining much performance wise, just like in GPU space.

And why is everyone going along with these price raises? If a decent upper-midrange phone were to be released at $500 it would be a killer and you would still make a ton of money.

The new motorolas are just another series in this fiasco. Bascially the $700 phone now doesn't get waterproof, doesn't get wireless charging , a midrange SOC and slower wifi. My S7 at $500 had all of this with flagship SOC. Seriously?

It's all of the vendors. Just look at the smartphone section here on anandtech, Same applies for new honor series. the are a bit cheaper but also easily double the price compared to couple years ago and you need to pay $700 to get wireless charging. Not to mention these are all very heavy devices. In case of the motorolas at least it's explainable with the larger than usual battery but i guess all the "features" like 90hz and gazillion cameras will eat that up and you won't actual get better battery life. Do we really need 4k at 90hz at cost of battery life?
Huawei is the same. $800 for a phone without wireless or supercharge, a small battery and not water proof (p40). Seriously?
The Mi10 seems the only somewhat acceptable device. Still to heavy, too large and too expensive but at least you get the expected features at that price point.

 

[darkswordsman17]

They're getting away with it because they can. Mobile devices have become many peoples' primary computing platform, and the overall markets for these things have increased (GPU demand being driven by different things, but so is mobile, they're designing mobile chips with AI processing in mind).

I think the craziest part is that the deals have become rare as well. Used to be that the Galaxys would have buy one get one deals like right away (often with other extras too), but on the newer ones even those have started to fall away, so even smart buyers are paying a lot more.

I'm shocked at the deals on the iPhone SE (Wal-Mart had a $199 deal when activating on Verizon, ATT, or Sprint). That's going to make it a very common and popular phone (it already was going to be, but if deals like that happen with any somewhat regularity, iPhone is gonna start kicking the snot out of Android even more than it already is; I'm really wondering if its not a darkhorse for Apple to try and get boosts to their services which is quickly starting to drive their profits).

Which, I won't be playing the stupid expensive phone buying game. I was actually planning on switching to iPhones (where I'd figure on keeping them for 3-5 years, heck I've kept my current Android phone for that long and there were things about it that were a downgrade over my previous phone when I bought it), but after 11Pro prices, and then S20, I realized that I can't justify those prices.

I'm trying the V60 since T-Mobile had a decent deal and I value some of its features (Hifi DAC) while wanting to try the dual screen. Very well might end up returning them and going for the iPhone SE (which even if I can't get one of the awesome deals, it'd be same price as the V60 deal and if I really like it then I can give it to a family member and upgrade to a Pro whenever it offers what I want; and if my Mom doesn't like iPhone we didn't spend too much).

Which, it'll be interesting to see if the pandemic does anything to reign prices in. It'd almost have to some but Apple could just not produce as many while pushing the SE. Plus I think they're prepping people for the future. AR headsets/glasses are gonna cost a lot (and will require stuff like prescription for the lenses, I'm honestly surprised Apple hasn't started testing custom fit earbud/IEMs). I'll be surprised if the first Apple AR gear is under $1999, unless its some sort of hybrid (where you need an iPhone which does all the processing and stuff; I'm assuming it'd be a standalone; also have a hunch it might require watch or wrist possibly for tracking/control and some other features).

I think the computing market has been following other markets and a lot of those have been overheated (and were due for some correction). Look at the Surface line, its gone bonkers in pricing outside of certain specific very value oriented configurations/models. Until things improve I'm going to hold off on most purchases unless its really good value (i.e. used in good shape for great price). The V60 deal was only good because it let us get them without adding a line, doing a trade-in, or making changes to our plan, otherwise I would have passed. Which has also become a rarity.