It’s OFFICIAL: At $2000… Phones Are Now Definitely Too Expensive

Richard Goodwin 25/02/2019 – 9:32am

If you want a folding phone, like the Galaxy Fold or Huawei Mate X, you’re going to have to cough up $2000… And that’s nuts!

How much is too much? When it comes to phones, the line between expensive and stupidly-insanely-expensive is constantly being redrawn.

Not so long ago, people balked at the idea of paying $1000 for an iPhone. Fast-forward two years and we’re now looking at $2000 phones which begs the question: where does it end?

Could phones cost as much as $5000 in 2024!? Probably not. But the idea that a $2000 phone is viable, given the trouble Apple has experienced with its $1000 iPhone, is almost laughable.

Don’t believe me? Let’s take a look at some facts then, shall we?

People Are Holding Onto Their Phones For Much Longer…

Back in the day, circa 2010-2015, most people upgraded their phones every year. You got the iPhone 5, for instance, ran it for a year, and then, when the iPhone 6 landed, you traded up to that one.

This same trend existed in the world of Android phones, though I’m sure there was more brand-hopping going on there. Either way, the moral of the story is simple: back when phones didn’t cost $1000, people were happy upgrading once a year – or 18 months at a push.

But nowadays this is no longer the case…

According to HYLA Mobile, a phone trade-in company, the average length of time people hold onto their phones has increased massively since the release of the first $1000 phone.

How much? People are now holding onto their phones for an average of 2.83 years. That’s almost three years. And this is why we have seen Apple struggling to keep pace with its historic growth. Its phones are too expensive, so people aren’t bothering to upgrade.

And that makes sense: why upgrade if your phone still works and looks, more or less, the same as the newest model?

Phone Tech Has Hit A Kind of Ceiling…

What’s the major difference between the last two iterations of iPhones or Samsung Galaxy S releases? Minor spec tweaks, slight improvements to the camera tech – nothing significant, basically.

Internally, chipsets and RAM are now so powerful and so high that most people could get away running them for years to come. 6GB of RAM in a phone is 6GB of RAM in a phone. It isn’t going to be slow in three years time, let alone one…

This slow down of technical, spec-based innovation is one of the key driving factors behind people holding onto their phones for so long. Samsung and Apple made its phones too good. People don’t need to upgrade, so they don’t.

Some Phones Are Too Expensive

I haven’t owned an iPhone since the iPhone 7. I work with phones for a living but I would never part with $1000, let alone $2000 for a phone. Not when I can get more or less the same deal for less than $500 from OnePlus or Xiaomi.

I get that folding phones are “new tech”, and they’re doing something rather unique, but I still wouldn’t cough up $2000 (a good monthly wage for a lot of people) to actually own one. And the reason is the price: it’s just too expensive for what it actually does.

For a quarter of that cost, I could get a solid phone, with a great camera, a gorgeous display, and killer battery life. Sure, it wouldn’t fold up but who cares? I like the concept of folding phones and that new stuff is finally happening… but is it worth DOUBLE the price of an iPhone?

I think not…

Sure, millions of people will buy these new folding phones, and that’s great, but for me, personally, I’ll probably wait it out until the price comes down or someone like OnePlus releases one, so I don’t need a second mortgage to buy one!