Debate: How much should a flagship phone cost?

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Mariyan Slavov
Mariyan Slavov
Phonearena team
Original poster
• 1y ago
↵jasonlee81 said:

A flagship should be no more then double its bill of materials cost, so for the S23 Ultra and iPhone 14 Pro Max base models it should be around $900, this would put phones like the Fold Z5 and competing foldable phones in the $1300 range for retail.

In an ideal world a phone really shouldn't be costing more then $800 given that most of the hardware is cheap as chips and most of the software is simply carried over with a few tweaks to it, but then again, chip makers are absolutely creaming smartphone makers, Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor was selling for around $180 per unit which is just bonkers Vs apple A16 Bionic at $110 per unit

I think it's the bloated companies - 1000+ employees have to survive and get paid, even if the big bonuses go to the top management stuff. And also, this toxic idea of sustainable growth translates into price growth almost completely.

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jjface
jjface
Arena Apprentice
• 1y ago

$699.

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ErikOiseaux
ErikOiseaux
Arena Apprentice
• 1y ago
↵MariyanSlavov said:

Do you believe foldables are here to stay?

No, it just has no practical use other than “ooh, ah”. It s not a solution to anything, doesn’t solve any problems (in fact, I think it creates a problem).


once the fad wears off, just like the curved edge displays - people will again gravitate and ask for flat screens.

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ErikOiseaux
ErikOiseaux
Arena Apprentice
• 1y ago
↵jasonlee81 said:

A flagship should be no more then double its bill of materials cost, so for the S23 Ultra and iPhone 14 Pro Max base models it should be around $900, this would put phones like the Fold Z5 and competing foldable phones in the $1300 range for retail.

In an ideal world a phone really shouldn't be costing more then $800 given that most of the hardware is cheap as chips and most of the software is simply carried over with a few tweaks to it, but then again, chip makers are absolutely creaming smartphone makers, Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor was selling for around $180 per unit which is just bonkers Vs apple A16 Bionic at $110 per unit

The way the market works and survives - is that and particular item will and should cost based on what masses are willing to pay for. Especially if it’s not a necessity.


it also has to be easily profitable or these products would not exist. Dictating what each device should cost either based on component cost, on what society can afford for flagships is borderline socialism.


yes phones are a necessity today to be able to function and be productive member of society, but a flagship with all the bells and whistles is not a necessity. You can easily get by with a $150 android or old iPhone model.


let the companies set their prices and you vote with your wallet.

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ErikOiseaux
ErikOiseaux
Arena Apprentice
• 1y ago
↵MariyanSlavov said:

Given how companies are spamming models each year (sometimes twice a year), they can't expect us to keep throwing $1000 every year or every two years. In my opinion, a flagship phone should cost $599–$699 at most, while midrange phones should be around $300-$399.

Well they still do, technically, but our governments are causing the currencies to drop in value at a rapid rate - so basically you’ll need more of this paper they all money to buy the same device.


money is fiat (meaning it’s fake). The value of your money is volatile but it’s only been heading in the wrong direction for the past century. If we were still buying things with tangible gold or silver - we would probably still be basing exactly the same for our flagships, gas, cars, etc as we did decades ago.

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blueyzfr6
blueyzfr6
Arena Apprentice
• 1y ago

Mmmmmmm hmmmmmmm rolled up dollar bills.... what are you guys doing with em lol

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poptart
poptart
Arena Master
• 1y agoedited
↵MariyanSlavov said:

Do you believe foldables are here to stay?

They will stay because they are a natural progression from tablets. Also there are many who love the extra screen size. Companies are shrinking the thickness of these devices comparable to other single slab phones.

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domfonusr
domfonusr
Arena Master
• 1y agoedited

Before the iPhone came out, you could get reasonable (for that time) premium smartphones (unlocked) for $350 to $400 - think HTC S620 Excalibur/T-Mobile Dash, Nokia E62, BlackBerry Curve or Pearl, Sony Ericsson P810, or better - in the US. If you wanted something really special, there were some true flagship devices (for that day) available for $450 to $550 or sometimes $600 - like the Cingular/HTC TyTN, BlackBerry Bold 9000, or the Nokia N95. If you really wanted something absolutely insanely awesome, you could find one or two devices that were not-just-the-ordinary "flagships", but rather truly capable (for that time) 'business-luxury' smartphone models for up to $1200 - like the Nokia E90 Communicator, for instance. Just a few years before that, all 'commercial smartphones' were pretty much flagship (or experimental) models, and pretty much started at $400, and there just were not that many of them, or many choices available. Purely 'luxury' smartphone models were very, very rare at that time, as well, with the big OEM's often spinning off their own luxury brands, like Nokia owning Vertu, which really only started making smartphones once Symbian S60 5th Edition came around, and had them so blinged out with fine leather, wood/bamboo, and studded in diamonds or whatever (despite lacking technology that was already no less than 2 years old... that they were essentially obsolete at the time of launch while still costing tens of thousands of dollars) that the only reason to get one was for the vanity of a "real" status symbol... which didn't really actually work, anyway! So, for me, the 'correct' price for a "true flagship" is somewhere around $400 to $450 - and those days have long passed, as you cannot necessarily find a decent mid-ranger for that little these days (unless you start looking at Chinese whitebox stuff, which is really ridiculous). The 'true flagship' these days can easily cost three times that now, and if you go flexible-display-happy, you could expect reasonably four to five times that figure! Even just 'premium devices' now cost double that old figure, too. It is a mad, mad world we live in today!

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Nostromo79
Nostromo79
Arena Apprentice
• 1y ago

Ten years ago a Note 3 ran $300 when I bought it from Verizon; my first Note. I evaluated that Note 3 for two months before buying one for my fiancee for Christmas 2013. The Note 3 has a flat screen that so nicely accommodates a tempered glass screen protector. With the screen off the effect is that of a depthless pool.

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Crispin_Gatieza
Crispin_Gatieza
Arena Master
• 1y ago

Wow, either people have totally forgotten the way things were or everyone here is under 30. In 2008 I was torn between a Palm Treo Pro 850 or an HP iPAQ 910c. Both were WinMo 6.1, both had physical keyboards and both had 2.5” resistive touchscreens with toothpick stylii. They both also shared a $699 price. Those of us who owned a car also remember the summer of ‘08 when gas was over $5 in some places so it’s not like the price of some things have changed that dramatically.


For what you get today in terms of hardware and software, battery life, cameras and general user experience, you CANNOT complain about the cost of phones compared to 15 years ago. The fully loaded ‘06 Mustang I bought for my wife in 2005 was $18,000. That same car will set you back $35,000 today. Let’s not even talk about real estate, I can almost retire with the equity I have in my house.

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