The Elephant in the room...

[Unicorn Rancher]

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that you've never had to try to pack all of the hardware and features of a 10" tablet into a 4.3" cell phone. It's way harder than you're making it sound and way more difficult to manufacture. It's the same reason you get less while paying more for a laptop over a desktop PC.

If he really believes his story, he could become a Billionaire in less than a year by manufacturing smartphones and undercutting the big boys.

Any bets?

 

[garublador]

If he really believes his story, he could become a Billionaire in less than a year by manufacturing smartphones and undercutting the big boys.

Any bets?

There's that, too, where all carriers and all manufacturers have to be working together for it to work. In reality they're actually competing, so if it were as easy as he claims to make phones hundreds of dollars cheaper but with the same specs then one of them would just do that and totally dominate.

 

[bp3dots]

Of any part of the OP, the thing we should really be pushing back against is the lack of discount for BYOD. The real ripoff is everyone but T-mobile keeping that extra charge that would cover the subsidy in the plan, even if you don't use it.

 

[Fields3212]

There is no reason why smartphones cost as much as they do. The materials and labor to produce them probably only add up to $100 and then they are sold for $600 outright. If the phone is subsidized then the carrier makes even more off of the phone. Verizon, at&t, and every other carrier gets these phones for a extremely low price then turns around and seems most of them for a subsidized price and gains 2 to 3 times the amount they paid back. Look at how much the nexus 4 cost when it came out, then compare it to an s3, I phone5, or any other phone that came out around the same time and you will see that the other phones are twice as expensive as the n4. Why? Because of lte? I think not. Its because google was selling the nexus 4 and the make very little of their money from phone sells, probably not even 1% of their net income where as samsung, apple and every other oem makes most of their money from smartphones so they must charge and extreme amount for their smartphones where as Google just wants the nexus 4 into as many people's hands as possible. That's because google makes their majority from advertising and google play sales, not hardware. Anyways, cellphones should not cost more than $350-$400. Its outlandish to suggest that a phone is worth $700, I would never pay that amount outright but I would pay it in monthly installments, why? That's just how people are but I would and will pay $350 for the new Motorola X phone. So please, please be that cheap so I and many other people can make you lots of money Motorola/google. Peace out

Posted via Android Central App

 

[Fields3212]

Oh and I truly wish the best for the t mobile. Please expand, if you offered your service everywhere I am 100% positive that everyone would switch over to your service. Every other carrier is so money hungry and when it comes down to it, yes t mobile loves money to just not to the extent that Verizon and every other rip off telecom giant is.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[Ry]

At the same time 45-50 percent of Apple's income comes from the iPhone, I wouldn't be surprise if the S4 has a high percentage (30-40 percent) of Samsung's income.

Yet HTC, LG, and Motorola aren't seeing anywhere near that amount.

 

[Ry]

Cellphone companies pay a premium for phones also. That subsidize latest phone that retails for 600 dollars is still costing the carrier around 500 or more dollars which they turn around and sell you for 200 dollars. The carriers want cheaper smartphones too because their bread and butter comes from their packages. Cheaper phones means more potential consumers.

If the smartphone market was around 350 dollars retail, data plan adoption would skyrocket because the carriers would sell you the latest greatest phone at a much cheaper price.

Boom. We, the end users, aren't the only ones paying $500+ for a smartphone. Carriers don't get deep discounts either.

 

[Ry]

Meet the tiny, Florida-based phone maker that thinks it can beat Samsung | The Verge

Very little to no marketing, light on the software and hardware R&D, "cheaper" components.

 

[gollum18]

Meet the tiny, Florida-based phone maker that thinks it can beat Samsung | The Verge

Very little to no marketing, light on the software and hardware R&D, "cheaper" components.

That actually looks like a phone I may pick up. Its quite nice, and with 4.2 it would be ahead of most of the big players devices which still run 4.1.

I'm glad to see a company not afraid to stand up to the giants, and at that price they may be able to convince a lot of people. As 650$ is to much to pay for most people.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Ry]

That actually looks like a phone I may pick up. Its quite nice, and with 4.2 it would be ahead of most of the big players devices which still run 4.1.

I'm glad to see a company not afraid to stand up to the giants, and at that price they may be able to convince a lot of people. As 650$ is to much to pay for most people.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

They'll have to use word of mouth vs. giant marketing campaigns from the likes of Apple, Samsung, and Verizon. I want them to succeed and I wish them the best of luck but I doubt they'll do anything significant.

 

[JRDroid]

So everyone is buying into the hype that these phones coast so much to manufacture and market? Nobody sees the price of an iPad or a 10" Android tablet costs less than most smartphones?

And how is it that phone prices stay artificially high even though they are a couple to a few generations old?

Every other type of electronic drops in price as it ages along with newer models.

There has to be collusion between the manufacturers and the carriers.

My theory is the carriers make sure the manufacturers won't sell direct at fair market prices and in turn the carriers promote/invest in new devices.

A GS3 should cost no more than $300 brand new right now and a GS4 should be about $350 to $400 depending on storage.

So why can you get cheap refurbished electronics but not smartphones? I'm not talking from carriers with contracts.

The iPhone 4S had $188 in materials. Even if you add shipping, labor, marketing etc to each handset it shouldn't cost over $500 new.

You are leaving out a huge cost, engineering. It takes a lot of time and effort to put all that tech into a such a small package. That and the lack of cellular radios are why tablets are cheaper than cell phones, they are easier (not easy still, just less difficult) to engineer. Not to mention the R&D money to develope all the new features and softwre that run the phones. That is not free. There is no way Samsung could sell a GS4 at $400 and make a big enough profit for it to be worth being in the cell phone space. That is why the Nexus 4 is so cheap, Google eats those costs because they make money of the Play Store and adverts.

 

[JHBThree]

They'll have to use word of mouth vs. giant marketing campaigns from the likes of Apple, Samsung, and Verizon. I want them to succeed and I wish them the best of luck but I doubt they'll do anything significant.

They won't. In this day and age, when components are easy to come by, the only way to cut through the BS is marketing.

Sent from my SGH-M919 using Tapatalk 2

 

[zorak950]

This is like people complaining that the manufacturing cost of a pill is ten cents, but they cost ten dollars. Well yeah, but getting to the point where they're manufactured at all was the expensive bit.

 

[A895]

You ever notice how you pay a lot for what you don't need? Just saying. Phones, TVs, tablets, cars, they are all expensive. If you want something nice and decent it will cost you. Know why? Because it costs the people who made it the same thing plus profit. Welcome to business 101. If you can afford it, go prepaid, if you can go T-Mobile. I'm going somewhere that's cheaper than Verizon, that's for sure. I'll deal with worse coverage, if I have a less of a hole in my pocket.

Posted via Droid RAZR M on the Android Central App

 

[gone down south]

The old saying is "the SECOND iPhone costs $188 to make. The problem is that the first one costs $15 million."

Sent from my Nexus 4 using AC Forums mobile app