PSA: the price of Nebula is going up from $30/year to $36/year starting September 1st. This increase only applies for new subscribers who sign up after the price increase. Get Nebula using my link for 40% off an annual subscription: go.nebula.tv/techaltar Bonus video: nebula.tv/videos/techaltar-how-different-countries-buy-expensive-phones
I have not had a Flagship since the Galaxy S8+ since then Moto G8 Plus (battery swelled), Nokia 9 Pureview (under 500 aud new, Didn't get 2nd OS Update promised and camera was rubbish!) Nokia G60 (Software and battery issues!) and Regular Moto Edge 40 (Not Ultra or Pro just Edge 50, Lost on a trip!) new Motorola Edge 50 Fusion on the Way so I can have a device that does not have phantom drain or black screens when trying to unlock and a night mode that does not freeze the whole camera app!
1) Phone replace a point and shoot camera, audio device, communication device, weather forecast, social interaction, news, reading device, etc. 2) People sometimes need to buy the best they can buy, as a psychological relief. Not everyone can buy a Ferrari, or luxury jewel, but most of people can buy the flagship smartphone.
1) You don't need a flagship phone to do any of that. 2) This makes more sense, even if imo it's dumb. There's a term for these kinds of goods - Veblen goods. Problem is the Veblen effect is meant to explain the behaviour of the ultra rich. If ordinary people are acting this way, then it calls into question all their moaning about house prices and the like. Veblen behaviour is financially irresponsible, but happens anyway cos if you're rich it hardly matters. If you aren't, then it's just stupid.
He also used 3 different tiers of iPhone 15 to suggest there was less profit margin over the years, when actually it's just the pro max had less profit the same year. He did the same with Samsung, comparing s21's
Yeah it's pretty stupid to say an iPhone back then cost only $200 and have "skyrocketed" to $1000 today. When you compared it correctly it stayed pretty much the same. And with a contract you often now even pay $0 upfront instead of $200.
Video fails to explain the WHY question... Reason is, phones are now considered a status symbol, instead of a tool. In less economically developed countries like mine (Turkey), this is even more pronounced; Our former gardener didn't have finances to buy a car, but he still had a then brand new iPhone, while I am still happy with my cheap *ss Xiaomi. With economic gap widened, this situation is also worsened. Now RENTING a phone is a thing here. That's right, instead of getting the right tool for the job and budget, people literally RENT iPhone 15s to look cool... Those lengths people go to "appear" rich is beyond me. Personally, I wouldn't move to any other phone for a few months even if someone gave it to me for free.
If gardeners are running around with the latest greatest most expensive iphone how can it still be a status symbol? For rich people it's probably the opposite: do they want to be seen with the same phone like their gardeners? Or do they buy cheap phones and make fun of people who buy phones which have 500% more features than people use at all?
@@frankfahrenheit9537 It's similar to the situation of Nike and Adidas trainers. They are a status symbol, but only poor people wear them. Rich people wear leather shoes, not Adidas. Could the same be said about certain sports cars, like BMW (as opposed to Mercedes) and especially muscle cara from the USA?
It explains it really well, its just not your explanation or the one you wanted to hear. 1. People use smartphone more regulary 2. people keep phones for longer due to slowed innovation
The removal of the SD card and headphone Jack pretty much killed my will to buy a new phone. Still using my galaxy Note 8 to the fullest. Swapped the battery easily and put half a terabyte external storage.
@@perfektpeter8037 Got the 10 VI, upgraded from a S21. Camera isn't as good but happy with everything else so far, especially the battery life. Like the slimmer profile.
Hey there, I think you might have mixed up some of the original iPhone prices, especially at the beginning. Like, the iPhone 6 was listed at $199 at 0:38, but that was the price with a contract. The full retail price was way higher. It seems like a few other models might have the same mistake.
I was coming to point out that blunder until I saw your comment. In fact, all the prices he listed for the iPhone 3G to iPhone 6S are all wrong. Those are prices with carrier contracts. Such a huge blunder on his side in an otherwise great video.
It's deliberate. The comment prior mentioned that even Steve Balmer thought $500 for the first iPhone on contract is absurd, thus they lowered the prices on contract for future models. Why was price on contract chosen? Possibly because that is the price most consumers perceive the phone as, as he also mentioned today's prices are significantly higher, but bundles, trade-ins and financing make them appear more palatable.
I will agonize over a 600-800€ expense, especially for a phone. Took me days of comparing offers in order to replace my old junker phone, went with a Pixel 8a for 300€ discounted, will probably keep it 5 years again. Meanwhile I see my colleagues, most of them making a bit less money than me buying the last Iphone for an eye watering 1500€. Where is the money coming from man T.T. It's the same phenomenon with cars, you see people you know are making average or even poverty wages driving luxury cars, it's weapon grade cognitive dissonance.
There's a term for these kinds of goods - Veblen goods. Problem is the Veblen effect is meant to explain the behaviour of the ultra rich. If ordinary people are acting this way, then it calls into question all their moaning about house prices and the like. Veblen behaviour is financially irresponsible, but happens anyway cos if you're rich it hardly matters. If you aren't, it's just stupid.
these cars are in 99% cases financed and phones on contract. personally i know some people buy used cars and brand new furniture and all that jazz on credit, which they'll be slaves to a bank for 10 to 30 years. not even a house, just stupid crap like that. many young people are irresponsible with money despite complaining about today's prices (which ARE high).
Unfortunately pixel phones are notoriously famous for bricking within 2 yrs, some say intentionally (look it up). Samsung is the most reliable android maker bar none but you also pay a premium for that. Most other brands falls a bit short with some being really risky like techno.
I'm not surprised in the slightest. Smartphones are at the CORE of modern life. They're the all-in-one computers many people use for everything. You don't strictly -need- a laptop for online tasks anymore, so many people just go all-in on their smartphones. It's remarkable just how much we use those handheld computers for.
Closer to 4 years today. A P30 pro or a mate20X 5g are still relevant today with kirin 980 at midrange. A flagship that you love and buy today i'm sure can last over 6 years.
@@theviniso samsung s24 ultra has 7 years support now for example so it can compete with iphone even without support you will not have problems after 3-4 years of update and bugfixes, it's highly unlikely to find major security flows at the kernel level after that and all other apps including GMS will still be up to date i imagine a S24 ultra with a battery replacement every 4 years could be a decent phone even after 10 years
0:30 they were only that cheap $499. The. $199/$299 because the carriers were subsidizing them. You see a large spike once people started just buying the phones outright on their own.
I'm going the same exact route. I started getting flagship phones when a powerful smartphone mattered. Now I'm considering 150-200€ phones that are powerful enough and not become an oven after 5 minutes of usage.
The best phones are the most expensive, although nowadays cheaper phones get better and better,flagship phones have clear advantages, nothing wrong with having a budget/midrange device though. So far I've only had a budget or midrange devices but after getting the Pixel 8 I can see how good it is and it's very understandable why people want a good phone. In my opinion though the midrange devices are the most reasonable bang for buck phones to get.
@@belphegor_devi think that they meant that 150-200€ phones used to become ovens years ago, but now they're perfectly usable. either way, flagships can become ovens.
Ironically nowadays the cheaper phones sometimes actually offer more features missing on higher end phones like expandable storage and headphone jacks.
Same bro... But then I bought a Xiaomi T-series "almost flagship" and the upgrade is obvious. Great screen, great camera, great battery and charging, great performance, just an overall great experience no matter what i need a phone for. For me it's worth it.
@@3nimac I recently got a S9 Tab Ultra, I thought T11 Pro was "fine", but after using a proper Android, now I realize that I should've not skimped out on it, the difference is huge and I don't even game on it.
Hey TechAltar, love the content. But I think your iphone price chart at the beginning of the video is incorrect. The 200$ was the advertised price but you only got that price if you traded in the previous year’s iphone. The actually price of those phones without a trade in was ~600$.
the price included a 2 year contract with the specific carrier you bought the phone from... until T-Mobile killed the whole contract thing, thats when you see the real price of that device
Are refurbished phones ok? Will They not Have Some issues ? What can be done if you have issues with the refurbished phone along the line ? I'm asking to know not to be silly @@alatusedits
I've always used more entry level phones because not only are they typically significantly cheaper (my current phone cost $250), but they also often have more features. You can't load an SD card or use wired headphones without a dongle on most $1,000+ models, and cheaper models also seem to be more durable in my experience. It really feels to me like people are paying more for less with high end flagships, just as some sort of weird status symbol. I would never even consider using an iPhone because it's so locked down and in many ways objectively worse compared to Android, so it's insane to me that it's not only the most popular phone brand, but something people would prefer over a less expensive, more feature filled model.
I first noticed this with GPUs back in 2013-2014, buying flagship seemed like a great deal at the time only to later realize the quality of life updates, support, general care about a product is never at the top end. Later I got the most popular GPU from the 1000 series (as stated in steam statistics) still supported to this day, no odd issues, price/performance 2x of my last flagship. It truly is better to have a slightly/moderately worse performing device with the popularity to guarantee much more widespread software support. As for your apple comment, only appealing part to me is the stable OS software and camera system. Android is far better to customize etc. But having your notifications, updates etc be so seamless is imo the only reason to buy apple. I can't tell you how many oddities I had to deal with on android like ringing with no UI, notifications that arrive hours late, chat apps quite literally not ringing. These are issues I'd expect 10 years ago with old tech. But yes, as someone with little time to tinker endlessly with such issues, I'd pay more to have more time for other things.
1st thing - you dont ever need expandable storage if you have a phone with 500gb or 1000gb. 2nd - most people just use wireless headphomes nowdays anyway, is much more convienent when traveling, walking and so on. I used to have mid range and quickly went to ultra premium and never going back
@@yesed you are the ideal customer for iPhones, a person that does not value modularity and has a need for unrepairable unnecessary accessories that are sold at beyond 200% return.
Why does this video completely ignore carrier deals, which was a huge driver of growth for over a decade? The unsubsidized value of the original iPhone for example was nearly $750, which adjusted for inflation would be over $1100 today. And financing deals allow customers like me to get the Pixel 8 for $1/month. You can’t pretend everyone is paying the sticker price when so many aren’t.
@@judeffr Yes, they totally expect my estate to continue paying $1/mo for the next 80 years. /s No, of course not, it’s a 2-year deal, the total I’ll be paying for the Pixel 8 is $24, or about $925/97.5% off (regular $949 CAD). And that doesn’t include trade-in offers. For example, Samsung loves to partner up with carriers to offer trade-in deals, such as trading in an S22 Ultra to get the S24 Ultra for only $10/mo, or sometimes it’ll be a switching offer and Samsung will offer a $500 trade-in bonus for anyone trading in an iPhone 13 Pro Max for an S24 Ultra, meaning it’ll be the regular trade-in value of $470 + $500 bonus, almost $1000 off. Many people will postpone getting a new device until these sorts of offers are available, and TechAltar should have known better.
Carrier deals might be a big sales driver in the US, but not everywhere. In the end, even through carrier deals, you end up paying for the phone in the monthly bill
@@J_videos820 The US isn’t the only country to have carrier deals, you know that right? And no, you don’t end up paying full price for the phone in the monthly bill because the cost of the device is separate from the cost of the plan. In my case, at the end of my 2 year agreement, I will have paid $24 (CAD, plus tax) for a Pixel 8 256 GB, a discount of $925 (CAD). The $925 isn’t financed, it’s never paid, it’s a discount.
2 additional reasons worth mentioning are: flagships as status symbol especially in undeveloped, developing and poor countries and second being young / teenager people who had the basic models transitioning to flagship premium models due to their financial improvement or being able to take credit
There's a term for these kinds of goods - Veblen goods. Problem is the Veblen effect is meant to explain the behaviour of the ultra rich. If ordinary people are acting this way, then it calls into question all their moaning about house prices and the like. Veblen behaviour is financially irresponsible, but happens anyway cos if you're rich it hardly matters. If you aren't, it's just stupid.
"flagships as status symbol especially in undeveloped, developing and poor countries" thats a nice way to condescend to the rest of the world, conveniently forgetting everyone in USA is using an iphone to avoid having a peasant color under their messages
@@cheezus4772 Yeah actually the video showed the opposite - it's in rich countries where this effect is most pronounced. He even gave the example of places like India where he thinks it probably doesn't hold.
This is just completely beyond me, especially the statistics for Germany. I just got the standard Galaxy S24, and the fact that somehow 72% of buyers in Germany are spending more than I did just doesn't make sense from my perspective. Of course that data will be skewed because it only looks at people buying new phones, and with that you have people in there that buy new smartphones a lot more often than I do, but 72% cannot alone be explained by rich buyers getting the latest high-end smartphones every year. Would be interesting to know if that accounts for contracts including smartphones as well.
Instead of buying s24 (600-700€) I would rather buy s23ultra (800). It's upselling (stuff from bottom is near the top product, so I would add some hundred to get the top product).^^
@@tomswan3401 Agree, that's almost always the tactics with electronics. Phones, laptops, tablets, anything. Buying past models is always more bang for your bucks since the price decline is exponential with time.
I don't think it is a rational decision for many people. If I check with my family what devices they use they don't even know the difference to the budged models nor did they compare prices / features. My sister in law even had one of the first iPad Pro with Lidar and strong processor to browse the web and take notes for classes. It makes no sense.
I can provide an example. Historically, I’ve been a budget phone user. However, last month I began driving for Uber and doing food deliveries, which requires the use of multiple apps, including maps. When I attempted to manage these tasks with my $200 Moto G, I found it inefficient due to its slow performance when switching between apps. Often, the apps would restart entirely. Additionally, the GPS accuracy on budget phones is subpar, leading to significant time and financial losses. Consequently, I decided to invest in an iPhone 15 Pro Max. Since making this change, I have experienced no issues with deliveries and can complete at least two additional deliveries within the same time frame, all while experiencing considerably less mental stress.
Oh god. 🙄 Imagine calling an iPhone an investment, and using Uber, Uber Eats and Door Dash as justification for buying a $AUD2500 phone. Poor enough and unskilled enough to have to do app based deliveries, but still buying a $AUD2500 phone.
Talk about overkill 😂. Reading that from a developing country where ubers are lucky enough if they have a phone without a broken screen just blows my mind lol
I work in IT as a systems administrator so I'm fairly passionate and knowledgeable about technology. That being said, there's absolutely nothing interesting about new phones at all and there hasn't been anything truly game-changing in years. My iPhone 13 Pro still does everything I need it to do (plus a whole lot more I don't care about and never use) and will probably continue to do so for the next 5+ years if I just replace the battery. Hell, I think I'd be fine even with an iPhone 8. I guess some people like to tinker with their stuff and are fascinated by all the latest tech, and that used to be me too, but I can't say I'm like that anymore. I just want my phone to work when I pick it up and that's about it. I spent 9 years with Android phones installing custom ROMs, kernels, launchers, icon packs and all that shxt. More tweaking than actually using the damn phones. That kind of stuff is cool when you're like 15 years old, but once you grow up, you become focused on what truly matters in life: living. Tech is there to augment your life, not to become your life. The correct way to go about things is to buy tech according to your lifestyle, not to change your life to accommodate more tech. This is a trap that most people fall for, but once you get into the correct mindset, you'll start holding on to your old stuff for a little while longer and stop spending ridiculous amounts of money on gadgets. I've come to realize that saving money is really important and having a savings account can really help when times are tough. I would much rather put some money into that account than buy the latest and greatest tech. I'm so done with all that. The fact that phones have become some sort of status symbol is so ridiculous to me that I'm laughing my a$$ off every time I see a tiny woman that's half my size holding the latest Pro Max iPhone. Meanwhile, here I am struggling to hold my regular-size iPhone sometimes. It's huge. Don't even get me started about people not using more than 10% of their phone's capabilities. People are literally setting money on fire everytime they buy the latest phone. It's also very sad to see people spend 5+ hours per day on their phone. That time could be spent outdoors or with family. I would rather ride a bike or go out with friends than scroll for 5 hours.
I buy $200 phones and keep them for 4-5 years by installing LineageOS on them so they still work even after the manufacturer stops supporting them. (I currently have a Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 that was first released in February 2019). Glad that you aren't buying a new phone every year, but you still bought a $1000 phone and it is only 2-3 years old.
@@amosbatto3051 You're right, I did spend a lot on my phone. To be fair, that was in 2021, way before I got into my current mindset so I'll definitely do better from now on.
Here's why I did it: First of all, I'm a tech nerd, I don't have any other expensive hobbies. With my computer, I just sell and upgrade individual parts, unfortunately that doesn't work with phones. I also enjoy taking photos on my hikes (definitely the less expensive hobby), but I'd rather not get a chunky DSLR just for that. So I do want a great camera on my phone. I also spend a lot of time on it (probably less than others since I do have a PC, but still), and that's how I try to allocate my budget. It's not a toy that I'll just get bored of. But I also don't feel like switching my phone all the time, I'd rather have something last for 5 years and be really amazing for the whole time - and since phones don't really change all that much anymore, that's definitely possible with a flagship. It's been 2 years now and I still pick this thing up and think "this is pretty neat!".
Exactly this. My friend is looking for a new flagship as he has ran out of storage on his older flagship. While on my super budget one I just bought a larger microSD card. Sadly this this expandability is remaining only on budget phones only.
1. For many people, phone is a status symbol and it is luxury you can have the same as your favorite celebrity 2. Social media and content creation is now a thing. I know few people who bought flagship models, while having financial troubles, because they ''needed it'' for they content creation. 3. As the phone is the device you hold most in your hand, a lot of people like to have a quality device, even though mid range is pretty decent these days.
I think also expensive phone is much easier to justify spending money on it than other expensive luxury products. $1000 Phone is way more functional than $1000 bag or $1000 watch.
The reason premium phones are more popular is simply because low and mid tier phones are "good enough" and the people that buy them tend to use them until they can't anymore. The total number of phones sold in the world peaked in 2018 and has been steadily going down since. That leaves mostly the people with more disposable income that are willing to buy a new high-end phone more frequently. Even if some of them have to go into debt to do so. While most of that revenue goes back into creating new high-end phones with new features much of that technology and software development will trickle down to lower tier products. We see this a lot, cheaper models will have the same or very similar camera's as the premium one it will just have 1 or 2 camera's instead of 5 and with fewer software features. Same is true with screens as most of the cost is in changing the supply chain they will re-use as much as possible to lower cost and that actually benefits the lower tier products. That and the second hand market, especially for iPhones, is huge.
to be fair, his reaction was somewhat reasonable when the First iPhone would be revealed, sind Keyboard-phones like Blackberry were quite popular back then
I'll never get why people buy really expensive top of the line phones when ***most*** of them will not even use the processing power the phone can provide. I mean scrolling instagram, watching video's or browsing the web doesn't require a beast of a cpu and alot of ram. It's just a waste of money and resources. I get that some people do buyt them and use them to the fullest but that's only a really small portion of the buyers.
I've similar experience, I know people with iphones and galaxy ultras that don't even know they have ultrawide cameras or wireless charging 😅 Meanwhile, there is me, with slow budget sammy A22...
If you take a lot of photos on your phone or want better software support for longer I could see why you would buy the top of the line iPhone or Samsung Ultra with 7 years of security updates. Does that mean most people will keep their phone for so long? No, but they can still sell it or hand it down in a few years.
Exactly. To me, it's mostly a status symbol, but also because people really aren't interested in comparing features and specs. By going for flagship phones they ensure that they have all the latest capabilities. I switched from a Samsung Galaxy S20+ to a Pixel 7 and there was no appreciable difference in performance. The Pixel is actually snappier day-to-day because the Samsung's fingerprint reader and Face ID were horrendous.
i have a galaxy s23. the reason why i have it is not because of the performance or the display, but it was because it is compact and has a great camera. and the other somewhat compact phone out there was the iphone 14-13 mini
My take : inflation and no company wants to look like they don't got something that other has... and the flagship device are becoming sort of a statement to the market like, hey we got this, have you???
@@DanKaschel oh yeah, haven't thought about that maybe the reason is as it states in the video smartphones are getting more and more buried in our digital life, may be I was wrong 😆😆😆 Thanks for pointing it out, appreciate it...
This only explains the supply. It doesn't at all explain why there's such huge demand. It's not the companies who're being irrational, it's the consumers.
Something you may or may not know but in the US a lot of American get phones financed by the phone companies and you pay it off by being in a service contract. If you want to upgrade before your contract is up you have to pay the difference of how long you've had it and what's left on your contract. Many people don't technically even pay for their phone but only pay for phone service.
Yep that’s very true. Now while I know that not everybody’s situations are the same to where saving up outright is always an option, I still think it holds a lot of value for getting a phone full price because that way the phone is fully yours. I take the same approach even for cars too, going outright on all that I’ve owned as well. Sure there’s risks but I’d rather not get strapped down and limit myself.
I live in Asia too, while many people i know still using midrange phones. But i can’t deny that in general public more people can afford recent gens iphone. Idk if social media skewed my perception, but back in 2015 or even 2017, owning an iphone still a luxury that many people can’t afford.
tbh it's the best investment you can do, I went from mid range Chinese phones to Google pixel and its been 3 years and its worth it. Smartphones might be the major gadget we use ubiquitously
@@cat12-b7i I disagree it's an investment. Entry-level to mid-level phones is an investment (I've tackled with OS problems myself), but I do not feel any difference between mid-level and high-level phones. It's a money sink, and mostly a scam The only difference ever is latency in GPU-heavy games. And the camera if you're into that. But in that case it's not for investment, it's for leisure.
Back in the day i was changing my android mid- low range phones every 1 - 1,5year. Now i stick to iphone which i change 2-3 years. Using lower end phones is always a mess. They are outdating so quick. I rather buy once a good phone than be upset with few phones
I always buy 1-2 year old best of the best flagship phones and save 50-70% while the phones are still extremely good. Best option I found so far. Saved 1200€ on the S22 Ultra with this method 🙏
If you had a $5000 budget - what would you get? I'd get: - Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra 1TB ($1659.99) - iPhone 15 Pro Max 1TB ($1599) - vivo X Fold3 Pro 1TB ($1559) - OnePlus Buds 2 Pro ($119) - Samsung 50W PD Duo Power Adapter with 5A USB-C Cable, Black ($59.99) This leads to a total price of $4997.47. I could get some gum after that.
I can attest to the use-case of a foldable. I need to keep up with research papers, read investor presentations, and attend conference calls. The larger screen eliminates my need for a laptop to read these comfortably and the added benefit of a phone is that I can attend the calls while having the presentations on the screen. For short trips, I can comfortably leave my laptop at home. However, a $1000 slab phone I would never pay for.
I was wondering if someone would say this! This has been my experience as well. My Fold 5 does so many different things because of its screen size and capabilities that because of that, I have no problem paying the higher price for this kind of device. If my job did not require me to be always on the go and in the car, I would get a mid-range phone or a 1 or 2-year-old flagship and be perfectly fine with it. That is what I did before I tested my first "foldable" which was the LG V60. I had a OnePlus 5T for almost 3 years, paid only $200-$300 because of a trade-in deal (even if I did not, the full retail was $550 I think), and absolutely loved the phone. For me, the things the phone can do are different from how I previously used to use it.
While i’ve had some great budget phones, a lot of the ones I’ve had have felt unusable 2 years on due to lack of software support or poor performance. I would rather get a used flagship.
One idea: look at a set of common apps' ( e.g. gmail / calendar / facebook / whatsapp ) compute resource usage over time relative to "average" RAM / SoC improvement. Could be a signal for if people with midrange ( "average" ) phones purchasing a premium replacement are partly driven by the "janky response time" after 3 years.
I have a 370€ Samsung since 2020 and i dont get, why i should ever pay more for a smartphone. For me it is still more a useful tool, than an entertaining machine, so i wont need any high end CPU, GPU or Camera for mobile usage. For entertaining i have a Tablet and a steam Deck while i am on the go and longer away than one Day. For the Price of one iPhone i can get 3 or 4 phones that fit my needs and serve me at least the next 10 to 12 years. Greetings from Leipzig
100% agreed. Even being an Android dev., I'd never go above 400euros for my personal phone. I am using the Xperia 10 III (bought for 320e 3 years ago) Testing apps on some 100-300 eur phones (even 5-6 y old ones) most of the time. They are fine for the 95% of people, especially the ones from the last 2 years. My problem is the size. Everything above 6.1" is not a pocketable sized phone, so it is a hard pass on my side for personal use.
@@Musa-xx6qe Third Xpeirais since the Z1 conpact. Then had the XA2. Now this. They last me like 4 years. Love the UI, and the slim tall form factor makes it actually usable in one hand. Had proper wide angle camera, not just the usual 2-3mpx the other mid phones had back then. microSD slot. 3.5mm jack, NFC, USB 3 with otg ( HDMI dispaly out dongle comatible) ... many small shings othera did not have.
Honestly that makes sense because those phones are more likely to be their primary device for everything where as people in wealthier countries are more likely to have multiple devices fit for different purposes like a laptop, desktop, console etc. They are still spending much less overall than wealthier countries, they just invest more into one device. You can see this in phone usage time being the highest in those less wealthy countries at 6:54 in the video backing this up.
@@Bargate that's actually true , for me I have many devices but they're not that expensive to buy , a lot of my saving go in devices because i'm into them. I spend more time on my pc but it's the cheapest one of all my devices. (extra : so I put it below/ not read worthy ) Personally I like both expensive product for enthusiasm and perfect budget device , even if second hand or new. If phones were fully custom we could remove camera or parts we don't need ( some people don't need social media or low qual camera for emergency pics is fine ) , removing some features or reducing warranty may be fine for some people depending on usage . I like finding products that are perfect price and should be recycled not just e-waste after use ( which is hard to find ) . I also adore crazy specs like 32TB SSD laptops , I like both , kind of devices. I do however don't like devices that cost crazy but don't have proper specs , or just made of " premium materials " over specs. It is for people who love the feels of device but for me that's not fun.
Because the iPhones are truly universal machines. They work with everything, with every carrier, in every place, for any other device like payments and they get proper carrier and apple support if something goes wrong. You don't get that with any other brand, Samsung included.
I just "upgraded" from my iPhone 8 to a used Pixel 4 and ive been loving it. For years ive spent $200 or under on phones and thats worked great for me, next one i may up the budget to $400
Looking at fractional margins makes very little sense in my opinion. There is a huge difference between selling a 500$ phone and making 250$ on it and selling a 1200$ phone and making 600$ on it. You still make well over twice the profit per unit sold. Given that sales numbers are not dropping for flagship devices that means that companies make way more profit on smartphones than they did 5 to 10 years ago. Since the market is more competitive then it was back then, the profit margins should normally be expected to shrink, not to grow. This essentially means that price wise, the smartphone market is quite unhealthy and lacks good competition.
The industry has done some good things, like commit to longer update cycles and add some genuinely good features/apps to phones. Also a lot of people have found that the phone they bought in 2019-2022 is still going strong so they have confidence a phone will last them 4 plus years. Finally, phone companies tend to cluster their best features in the top end model only (e.g. 120hz LPTO OLED, high speed storage, most power efficient chipset, largest battery, vapor chamber cooling, large amount of RAM)
4:57 this graph could be way more readable by color coding the prices to their respective % ranges instead of just aligning them with the first column, making the last columns harder to read
@@d9zirable we can do whatever else we can to lower the price a bit, or we choose convenient over that along with other advantages that we don't really need but it is nice to have, not a bad purchasing decision imo.
Your information is misleading ... iPhone 1 coast $499 in 2007 AD... FV of 499 at 5% for 17 years is $1,143.72... So iPhone today price are justified considering inflation... base model are much cheaper
You need to fix the graph at 0:30. $199 is a locked device in a 2yr plan with ATT. (Carrier subsidized). The true price for unlocked version has always been $700+
After my house and my car, my phone is by far the most valuable and useful thing in my life and it’s by far by far by far the cheapest so why are people complaining?
I just got a new phone, and I am extremely happy with what I got, if you want value per dollar, midrange is the way to go, I doubt most people would be able to tell it's not a flagship anyway.
in all fairness to Balmer is was $500 2007 dollars on a 2 year contract exclusivley with AT&T, and these days most phones cost next to nothing when purchased on a 2 year contract
I personally believe that it was the galaxy note that proved people were willing to spend more for more innovative product. Nobody expected it to be a hit, but it was so huge that it changed the phone market as we know of today, from increased phone sizes, to spending more amount. I think with the Folding phones we are in a similar state at the moment.
Can't help but feel that this video was a little below your standard quality. Appreciate that you were transparent when you weren't able to find all the data needed but there was a sense that the whole conclusion was rushed and not overly convincing. Things I would have really wanted to know: how does smartphone premiumization look with inflation taken into account, what is the validity of consumer psychology in pushing towards premium devices (ie. was the prior 'wisdom' that midgrade phones were rapidly bridging the gap accurate or is there still a significant gap?), and do we have any explanation for the discrepancy between market research for buying preferences and the actual sales numbers? I'd argue that all three questions are very directly linked to the title of the video. With your usual attention to detail, I usually find that I'm not left with questions after your videos, so hopefully this one is just a one-off!
As consumers, we've learnt that midrange to budget phones are properly usable a year or two after launch and the years after that, they're just laggy. But flagships can retain their performance for more than 4 or 5 years. And if you ask me, I'd rather buy a more expensive phone now and use it for the next 6 years instead of buy 2 midrange or budget phones in the same span.
I have been buying expensive phones for years. My first smartphone costed less than a hundred dollars back in 2012 and after a little bit of time, the experience was just bad. So I decided to get the flagship models from then on just be sure the user experience won't be disappointing. But reading the comments here now, I feel like my eyes have opened and I won't do that anymore. My smartphone just broke today and I have to get a new one and now I think why not just try a cheaper phone once and see how it goes. If I like it I can save tons of money :)
For a lot of people their phone is their primary computing device, viewed from that perspective 1200 eur isn't that much money if you're planning to keep using it for 3-4 years. I personally could never justify spending that kind of money on a phone, but on the other hand I have a laptop and gaming computer that also need upgrading every couple of years.
If i have 4000$ a month and i want a phone that is the same one has the elite and king’s would use due to being the best quality product i could get and if that 500 phones only cost 200$ to make then im been scam out of 300$ due paying above the true cost price of said item, if im gonna scam atleast let me get something thats worth with actual value insted of junk. So yea i pay 1000$ for my next phone hell i even pay 2 months worth of my wage ( 5000$) if i get to keep it for a decade or more.
perhaps its also because the people who want cheaper phones are the ones who then hang onto it for as long as possible, thus buying less in total, whereas those who buy flagship phones always want to be up to date with the latest model thus buy more of them because they are replacing it every year. this also explains the drop in total sales as those who want to spend less on a phone simply don't buy as often
Videos like these are always wrong. Phones didn’t magically get more expensive drastically. Financing changed. An iPhone 5 used to be $199 on a 2 year contract. Off contract, they were $650-$700. Then carriers switched to financing plans for phones instead. People pay $0 down and $12/mo for 24-36 months on top of their phone bill. Top end phones are usually seen as safer investments that “last longer.” They don’t want their phone to suck midway through their financing plan. The iPhone X, in reality, was not that much more than a 6 Plus, off contract. Financed, it wasn’t much more on your phone bill.
Great content as always, but I think you sped through the main reason: people are buying the most expensive models because those are the ones currently available, but they're also generally not paying the actual MSRP. At least in the US, most people still use the Carrier upgrade cycle and just have to absorb the higher monthly fees when it's their turn for a new model. Additionally, MSRPs have also become inflated compared to what people actually pay for phones. Google and Samsung give deep discounts from MSRP with trade-ins and prelaunch incentives, which makes me wonder what their average sale price is per unit compared to MSRP. I would guess the average purchase price is significantly less than MSRP for those buying retail. For example, I can get the Pixel 9 Pro for $400 off simply by trading in a phone that otherwise would sell for $100 used.
It got costlier because of US blocking free markets, general non inventions the last years, costlier raw materials, less sales because of market saturation and because these monopolists know they only need to implement as much hardware as the competition and can charge any price they made up because of wallrd gardens that lock in customers. It's a broken and locked down market. A real bad situation for consumers atm. Phones generally have LESS hardware features than older phones and only offer software updates that actually could roll out to all older models as well. Look at Pixel 9 and know that my 7yo Note9 runs on S24U rom - manufacturers just arbitrarily refuse to update old phones. There is no actual "innovation" on new phone hardware wise.
Yeah with these super high end phones I agree with you. A lot of people buying these just want the next new thing and features they will use once. However going from 3>700 bucks can provide a meaningful upgrade in terms of screen and camera. So if you tend make a lot of photos or watch movies you do get quite a bit of extra value in my opinion.
who is blocking free markets? you have every right to develop your own phone os and get developers and hardware manufactures to create apps and devices for your os.
I've been pondering this question for a while now and saw a lot of videos about it and none of them satisfied me. Finally you've made a video about it. Excited to watch! ❤❤
I am always buying a used phone (1-2y old or refurbished, 200-300€ such as last time for pixel 3a for me and pixel 4a for my wife) and use it for 3-5y before starting to see any big battery or performance degradation
Then you're definitely not in the 5hr a day usage group. I pay max 700 every 4 years. I replace my battery after 2 years because at that point it drains so fast I have to recharge mid day.
I bought a used iPhone XS (with cracked back glass) for 230€ in 2021 and had the battery swapped. I've used previous phones for 4-5 years on average and so far there's nothing really tempting me to get a new phone. Everything I use runs fine and I'm still getting security updates.
@@0xszander0 it definitely started draining quicker recently, but it has been already many years since I bought it. I use my phone mostly for reddit and browsing as I avoid things like twitter, tiktok or instagram. so probably like 2-3h a day recently as I now have less time for that with kids
One of the major reasons for the sale in the richer countries is peer pressure/keeping up with the Jones' sort of idea. Most people don't need the flagships but get berated or even shunned if they don't. But it is not just a flagship, it has to be the right one. In my day it was clothes, had to have the right brand of clothing to "fit in".
Actually that's more of a developing country trend. Luxury brands biggest Markets are developing countries like China & India where tangible aspiration goods will sell better than intangible services.
Actually more accurate in poorer countries. In poor countries EVERYONE who has slightly more money or maybe even not has the newest flagship. In richer countries, and judging lots of really wealthy people I know. Nobody gives a shit what phone they have. If it works well enough it's good. Though usually it must be an iPhone. If they want the new and cool phone they get it, but because it's good tech, not to flex.
I bought my S23 Ultra when it was launched. I got double the storage plus free galaxy buds 2 and enrolled in a no interest monthly payment of $77. I plan on getting the S25 Ultra through the same means
this title as always is only relevant for 20% of the world. Subsahara africa, SE Asia, South america and Central asia have a different market that is never captured in any video
100% true. You already might know that the popular ytbers/reviewers are in USA, who have no ideea what goes beyond their borders. They have no clue what's going on outside the USA.
I don't replace my phone every year, so buying a flagship makes more sense because they will last longer and will devalue less. Some people are also obsessed with snapping perfect photos or playing mobile video games. For all of these reasons you need a high tier phone.
How many of you are in situation where your old parents or grandparents ask for phone advise and then they disregard the advice and go with the most expensive Apple or Samsung phone and only use it to browse facebook and make phone calls? That's the reason
If I get a brand new phone, best believe I’m keeping it for 3+ years. Until it stops working. I’m still using my iPhone 12 Max Pro. It’s still working well.
I have been using a mid-range phone as my daily drivers for years (now I'm rocking a Galaxy A53) and I'm still thinking ovr 85% of people will do great with just a mid-range. This also have the advantag of having an MicroSD card slot (and I have a 250GB MicroSD in my phone). I've tested some high-end phones and I'm still finding difficult to justify the upgrade, even as an advanced user.
An hour ago I watched the making of Huawei Pura 70 Ultra retractable camera lens from official Huawei channel. When they explained with the footages. I realised they put so much efforts, money and time to develop this unique technology and ended up a very innovative product. So, R&D actually costs a lot sometimes that later helps companies to build their premium brand image in the global market.
I think there is one more upside (for manufacturers) of trade-in programs: The traded-in phone disappears from the secondary market and can't be handed to a relative or a friend, or sold.
TechAltar is the best channel for this kind of tech analysis video. This is how I discovered this channel few years ago and it's great to see it growing and making more interesting videos.
It's a weird market trend but i think it's mostly associated with our modern tendency to just credit absolutely EVERYTHING. I don't think anybody i know buys a phone in cash. I bought a cheap Redmi on monthly payments. And it's like, for a one time purchase you will never have enough saved up to get a good phone, but when you divide it per month and you notice how small the difference in payment is between midrange, premium and ultra premium, you might as well just go for the ultra. The upfront cost difference is massive but the monthly isn't. It's just an unfortunate side effect of our increasingly broken global economy. The classic "own nothing and be happy" model of new capitalism. Wages stagnate but living standards rise, credit being the only way to explain why this happens. Of course this is one bubble burst or stock shrinkage away from entirely and completely blowing up worldwide.
True. I think we will have a large group of seniors in the future that cannot afford to live comfortably. Because they went into debt and were unable to invest in their future.
@@0xszander0 people already say shit like "oh i know I'll never retire anyways" and that sentiment isn't even far from the truth, planning ahead isn't an option for most of us nowadays. Savings? Nonexistent. The things that we do own are all on credit or subscription services. Again, utterly insane economic model, and it is BOUND to crash catastrophically in likely the near future.
@@frankbacon1002 True but that sentiment is also a fulfilling prophecy. You're gonna be much better off when you're retired if you decide not to buy that fancy new gadget on credit. Often people say they won't be retiring anyways to justify their poor decision making.
@@0xszander0 Poor choices are a very tiny part of the equation. Believe me, older generations were no more capable with finance management than new ones. New ones just don't have the disposable income. When you can either finance some gadget over 12 months and be happy with it or be miserable for 12 months with nothing to show at the end of that period, then might as well get the gadget. Housing isn't "unaffordable", it's unpurchasable altogether. Unattainable for most people especially in big cities where all the jobs actually are. While vapid consumption is never good and the joy of a new product is at best a three day dopamine boost, most people find that you don't actually gain much from living like a monk either. You don't actually save up enough for a car and a house. In fact you don't actually save up enough for much of anything. Generally my point is is that this is a wider economic trend, not a personal failing on anyone's part. The reason everything is credited nowadays is that corps still need to make money regardless of whether people have it or not, so why not just put them into indentured servitude? Consumer spending is shockingly healthy when considering food inflation and the unstoppable real estate inflation, and that's because consumers are offered these plans for essentially everything, and again on a personal level when your savings and sacrifices are meaningless anyways, may as well get the stupid little gadget or unnecessary little item every now and again. I think the key point to tackle here would be stagnant wages and housing prices. The real estate industrial complex should be completely neutered, literally just fixed maximums for rent and price per square meter. And developers should be encouraged and subsidized to make lower middle income housing instead of the endless spree of developments building speculative investment housing for the billionaire class where nobody actually resides. As for wages, the minimum wage basically everywhere is so far behind of what a minimum wage should actually provide to a worker that it's downright infuriating. Quadruple it. Businesses clearly do not adapt their prices according to employee salary expenses since the prices keep creeping up with NO increase seen on the average wage side. An average chain restaurant basically upped the price 10x over the decade and the wages of their employees haven't reflected that at all. Clearly this is mostly just price gouging!
You are just delusional.See how smartphones improved and cheap phones are really good. With capitalist countries you mean countries with more and more goverment expenditure and social democracy.
I'm using an S22 since last year, so it was a year old when I got it, and I will use it for at least another year. I consider a midrange phone as a replacement replacement for it except for if I have the opportunity to get a flagship through a contract renewal for cheap (the way I got my S22). But if the Oneplus Nord 5 gets a telephoto-camera, the Pixel 9a a better zoom capability and the Oppo Reno 13 Pro a better chip, I'd consider these. And I hope they get smaller because even though the S22 Battery is rubbish, I love the formfactor
Misunderstanding: • *"Flagship phone are eating the market, making mid-to-budget end phones irrelevant."* What's actually happening: • A niche population of people are buying flagship phones, some of which often swap to new models every year. You'll get it if you just go outside and count the amount of times you see an iPhone 15 Pro Max vs some random budget Chinese device. Another common misunderstanding is: • "The average person will buy a new phone every 2 years." That's completely false. The average person will keep using that phone until it breaks. They will buy a phone that fits their needs, not because it's a flagship device. The likely reason to the misinformation is due to regular customers participating in surveys. There's 8 billion people all over the world. 100m sales isn't the entire market. That's less than a tenth of India's population.
I have my xiaomi phone for more than 3 years..the price was Rs 35000..i got it for 25 with exchange..and honestly no phone is exciting enough at this price range that i would feel like replacing it..
I think people pivot to more expensive phones mostly due to the push of the manufacturers themselves. Innovation in phones has been really stagnant for the past 5 years, so the flagships 5 years ago are today's midrangers, for example the base S24 series vs the S24 Ultra and the base iPhone vs the Pro models. I have a 5 year old flagship and don't feel the need to upgrade at all, the new ones only have a better processor and that's about it. I also feel like midrangers are being kept feature-poor on purpose to motivate people to splurge on a flagship. Bad cameras, slow processors, plastic build, etc. I want to have NFC and wireless charging, I want a snappy enough processor, a nice display and a good camera, so the only option for me is a flagship. And as I mentioned, the basic flagships don't even cover that anymore, their displays and camera systems haven't budged in 5 years, so only the ultra-premium segment is left. So I would end up paying double of what I did 5 years ago to get a phone with basically all the same features. It makes no sense. Nowadays innovation is just shoving useless AI in everything that the average person gives 0 f-s about. Smartphone innovation is dead as I see it. Foldables are also a fad in my opinion, there's no real benefit over a standard slab phone.
For me, mid-range and budget phones have improved so much I don't need to buy a flagship. I got a Samsung A34, best phone I've ever had. I don't play GPU-heavy videogames on my phones so I don't need a fast processor. I do take pictures but I don't zoom in on them. Most people are like me, but I am honest with myself.
I think this is a good thing, and the way things should be. Instead of making cheap, fragile and underpowered budget phones that will become as good as e-waste in a year or two, we can encourage people to sell their flagships for refurbishing so those can be sold at a discount to people with a tighter budget, that way those that care about having the newest thing can buy each new phone for less money out their pocket and those that don't can enjoy the best of 2 years ago instead of the mediocre of today.
Because nowadays phones last a lot longer than they used to. I'm still using a phone from 2019 and I still don't see a reason to change it, and it's not even a premium phone, so I ended up paying like 150 dollars per year. That's 10 dollars per month, which is what I make in an hour.
If you can trade in your phone, it wasn't a lease. I doubt much of the phone market is a true lease -- probably just subsidized sales paid on credit -- but even so, it doesn't matter to the manufacturer. The returned (if lease) or traded-in devices are handled by a third party logistics company that refurbishes/sells or recycles them. They don't pay much either; those trade-in values you see are also subsidized. For phones, a lease is just buying on credit but you don't own it at the end. Exactly the same as a cash sale for the manufacturer (except to the extent that they subsidize financing which they often do).
