Are Cell Phones over priced?

[ACTIONpack]

New Cell Phones are coming about every week and it's hard to keep up. To get a good price on a phone you will need to wait until you're at least one year in to your contract or start a new service. If you want to change your phone there is always craigslist but craigslist does not always have the latest phones for sometime. You can always go around it by buying it at full price. But who wants to pay $500 to $700 on a new cell phone of which you're going to switch it out after a year or two. I know a lot of people complaint that the iPad is way over price to a Nexus 7 but compare to a cell phone it's out of this world. I can get a Nexus 7 for $199(16GB) or $250(32GB) without a contract. Compare that to the Samsung Galaxy S3 which is $199 (16GB ATT) and you need to spend at least $110 for a good monthly plan. With all of this why in hell are all these cell phones just over price to everything else in the market.

[Brandon H Supervisor]

for the most part it comes down to hardware costs. smart phones are getting to the point where they're almost as powerful as normal computers in some ways. plus combine that with the components having to be much smaller. it ends up being where the cost to put the devices together is fairly close to that of some laptops

this is the reason why the top end cell phones cost so much full price

[DeadEndAccount]

Depends because end of the day there are cheaper alternatives thus the price being charged is what people are willing and able to pay. If individuals turned around and decided instead of paying the amount they for a Samsung Galaxy S3 instead decided to get a ZTE R22 or Huawei Ideos you'd see a change in products being offered and priced.

[Alwaysonacoffebreak]

for the most part it comes down to hardware costs. smart phones are getting to the point where they're almost as powerful as normal computers in some ways.

How about no.

The fastest ARM soc is nearly catching up with Intel's slowest Atom (Which on the other hand already says everything, Atom's suck out of the box)

[Nick H. Supervisor]

Are Cell Phones Over Priced?

Personally, no. I can afford it which in my mind means it isn't over priced. Would I like it if the cost dropped? Yes. I nearly bought a Kindle Fire the other day just because of how cheap it was, and I'd be more inclined to do the same thing with a phone if the price was lower. Instead I carefully try and decide on the phone that will last me the longest time.

[Brandon H Supervisor]

How about no.

The fastest ARM soc is nearly catching up with Intel's slowest Atom (Which on the other hand already says everything, Atom's suck out of the box)

read my post again, I said they're getting CLOSE in SOME ways (sure I used the word almost, but you're completely missing my point by debating the power part of my post)

[Wakers]

Yes, massively overpriced. A top end phone costs the same as it does to build a good-level gaming rig (sans monitor). That's just ridiculous. Then again, if people are stupid enough to pay ?500+ for a cell phone, manufacturers will set retail price at that mark.

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

Are they overpriced? Not really no. Break it down into usage/cost/time and it seems fair to me.

Now, as you say - "It's hard to keep up". Don't play that game, get a new phone when you need a new phone, not when a new phone is released.

[Brandon H Supervisor]

ok, I take back the other things I've said in this thread, I decided to check google instead of spouting without prior knowledge, and I found this article http://smartphones.w...-build-0123345/

~60% profit on phones .... yeah I'd say they're a little over priced

[Brian Miller]

Yes

[ACTIONpack]

[Wakers]

So they cost less to build than a console, and yet sell for a bit more than twice as much, in some cases.

And people want to say they're not overpriced?

[Arpit]

i think everything is expensive...maybe i'm actually just not making enough to afford it all :p

[LUTZIFER]

So they cost less to build than a console, and yet sell for a bit more than twice as much, in some cases.

And people want to say they're not overpriced?

If you're referring to a gaming console, they sell for so little cuz the companies make up for it selling the games.

[+InsaneNutter MVC]

Depends on the phone, the iPhone is probably the best example of an overpriced phone, some of the higher end Androids / Windows Mobiles too.

However I think phones like the Nexus 4 offer a great spec for the price.

[pack34]

ok, I take back the other things I've said in this thread, I decided to check google instead of spouting without prior knowledge, and I found this article http://smartphones.w...-build-0123345/

~60% profit on phones .... yeah I'd say they're a little over priced

Engineers aren't cheap

[ACTIONpack]

Engineers aren't cheap

Not when you can get them oversea for a third of the wage.

[Knife Party]

yes

[Crisp]

To answer thread question; Yes.

It's turned from an accessorie to a fashion item, so they sell for more. At the end of the day, the price you pay is for the name. Remove Apple / iPhone from the equation and your phone becomes worthless. Remove Nokia and Windows from the new 920 and no one would want it.

It's a fashion item on who owns the lastest device.

Example: People own iPad 3, apple announce new iPad a few months later and people HAVE to have it.

Welcome to the Human Race.

[stockwiz]

not only are cell phones overpriced, but phone service is overpriced. I bought a new droid 2 for 120 bucks and activated it on page plus to save a lot of money. Now if there are 4-5 people who need phones a family plan would probably do just fine, but for one or two people this is much cheaper than having to buy data plans (shut my 3G off) or even texting which I have shut off, but I know that's not practical for a normal person who checks their phone every 5 minutes all day.

I guess if you use it all the time, you should pay. It is a service, after all. I never used cable, so I cancelled that. I use my internet, so I keep that, bought my own modem and got the slowest speed because 5 megabits is more than enough to download torrents with BTGUARD when I'm away at work.

Of course ipods are overpriced too, but people are into image, and will pay for image. To each their own. :) I'll keep my rockboxed clip zip with it's 64GB microsd card I just bought for 38 bucks.

[tsupersonic]

You say this is as if your cell phone is going to magically stop working right after the contract ends. Who is saying you need an upgrade every year or two? Do I agree they're overpriced? Yes, but it is what it is...

[sanctified Veteran]

Not really, hardware its not the only thing that influences price.

if you cant afford a good piece of hardware that can last for a while then work more.

[Wakers]

Not really, hardware its not the only thing that influences price.

if you cant afford a good piece of hardware that can last for a while then work more.

That's a pile of crap, sorry.

It has nothing to do with how much you earn, but more to do with how much companies are ripping people off. 60% mark-up on phones? I could earn $1,000,000 and I still wouldn't hand over any money to Apple or Samsung for the top-end phone. It's just not worth anywhere near that much.

[typu]

of course that stuff is overpriced. or lets say, the workers producing it are underpayed.

a company such as apple/samsung should not be able to report such unbeliviable profits. in the end they just produce entertainment goods with little real life value. the margin of profit thou is way too high.

put apple in proportion to companies like the maufacturing-industry that produce real value. its very obvious that the "cell phone"-industry is too young and has too high margins. this will turn at some point, but currently its just unreal from a financial analyst perspective.

[inactive]

of course cell phones are overpriced, especially the monthly fee's

in general cell phones should not exceed $50 a month. even the fancy top end phones should not be more than $60-70 TOPS for the monthly fee's instead of this $100 BS which i would never pay personally for a damn phone as i would rather just use the internet on a actual PC (or Laptop) and save the $$$ and get a cheaper phone.

but you would think for how many of them (cell phones) that are out there you could find some cheap basic phones for $30 a month (just for some basic cell phone service to make calls) which is far more reasonable especially for those out there that don't use their phones all that much which makes $40-50+ just seem all that much more robbery. but since they can't screw you and make a killing you never really see anyone cheaper than around $40+ area and that's probably considered a 'good deal'.