Why are smart phones so expensive?

[anteries]

It just seems weird, a top of the range smart phone cost between

 

[LickTheEnvelope]

UK pricing might be a bit off for smartphones but i've been noticing a general drop in smartphone retail pricing in Canada over the last 2 years.

Smartphones would regularily roll out at $550-$700 CDN, now most launch at $500 or so and some under. (HTC Desire for example will be $499.95, where as the HTC Touch Pro was $599.95 when it launched a year or so ago).

 

[mikedt]

It just seems weird, a top of the range smart phone cost between

 

[_atlien_]

Where are the freemarket fundamentalists? I'm sure there are some on this forum waiting to explain to us that the smartphones are this expensive out of necessity. And if it weren't the real price (plus a tiny bit of profit) some other firm would underbid. Right??? That's how the line goes, yes?

 

[anteries]

Where are the freemarket fundamentalists? I'm sure there are some on this forum waiting to explain to us that the smartphones are this expensive out of necessity. And if it weren't the real price (plus a tiny bit of profit) some other firm would underbid. Right??? That's how the line goes, yes?

I understand what you say about free-market economics, but just an extra thing to what you say. capitalism is about charging the maximum profit it can get away with. There's only a handful of manufacturers they're probably all in cahoots. Do you remember the computer ram price fixing thing a few years ago.

I'm not expecting this thread to create a revolution and to stir up rioting in the streets over phone prices.

I am very curious and would love to see a cost breakdown of the components that make up a mobile phone. Screen, processor, and ram etc as well as manufacturing costs. I think it would be very interesting.

 

[mikedt]

Hey,

What about the prices in china? Any one know?

Decent smart-phones are not really any cheaper in China as they are in Europe.

There is a lot of cheaper Android phones available from many unknown Chinese makers. However they are generally not on a par with the likes of HTC or Samsung. Often with resistive screens, slow processors, poor cameras, low RAM, old Android versions. Some examples been:

Google Android products, buy Google Android products from alibaba.com

Google Android G2 products, buy Google Android G2 products from alibaba.com....these peeps can't even spell Google... 'Goolge'
There are many fakes as well with such brands as hiPhone, Nokla, Somsong, Snarp, and the lovely sounding Suny-Orocson. These are generally Android or WinMo, but the quality is usually very poor.

Well known Chinese makers such as ZTE and Huawei do produce some really good smart-phones. However these do cost as much as the Samsungs, Motorolas and HTCs.

 

[TheBrit]

If you want a cheap Android Phone in the UK then Orange have the San Fransisco which is a rebadged ZTE. It's

 

[Pryomancer]

It's economics. Laptops have been around for ages, and their design has been constantly improved on since they were created.
Smartphones have been around 5 minutes compared to laptops. The technology is new, and making things smaller increases the price hugely.

 

[JAL]

It's because the bits are very small, you see?

Where are the freemarket fundamentalists? I'm sure there are some on this forum waiting to explain to us that the smartphones are this expensive out of necessity. And if it weren't the real price (plus a tiny bit of profit) some other firm would underbid. Right??? That's how the line goes, yes?

You've never experienced a free market.

 

[mikedt]

I think the grossly inflated free market prices we are willing to pay for smart-phones is most apparent with the iPhone 4.

32GB iPhone 4