zlacker

>>alphab+(OP)
Too expensive for my tastes.

Give me 380USD phone which lasts for next 5-8 years, feels premium, is repairable, camera is decent, replaceable battery, OS is just Vanilla Android with atleast 5 years(more years of Software updates would be welcome) of Software Updates and when you can't provide it, make it hackable enough to install Custom ROMs.

>>ireall+H1
No company will ever make a 5-8 year phone at that price. That's $47-76 a year.

People pay that amount or more for apps that help manage their fantasy football team...

Comparitively that would be an insane bargain for a phone and it's absurd for that to be your requirement.

I do wonder what the right price point would be for a subscription model. At the moment the average replacement time is every 2 years which would be the equivalent of $30 a month basic and $40 for pro.

Could they afford $30 a month sub but you got the yearly upgrades rather than every 2 years?

If the price of the parts is quite low compared to the R&D that could be feasible.

But I actually have no idea.

>>129078+q6
Why would they not make a budget phone? It's not like the BOM + assembly for a touchscreen, first(!) battery, motherboard, and plastic case cost that much. Check out some of the public reports from counterpointresearch.com: the profit margin on flagships is often double the BOM cost, the profit margin on budget phones is a little tighter but still not bad. Who cares what the revenue is per year? What matters is how much it costs to make the thing. Most vendors are just tweaking reference designs anyways.

The Moto G Play is just $170 list, currently going for ~$110. It has a rather pathetic 3 years support, but that's $4.72 per month at list, or ~$3.95 at current list rates - assuming you throw it away when the support contract ends. The Samsung A14 5g is $200, and gets 4 years' support, which is $4.15/mo, again, assuming list price and discarding when security updates are over.

I'm currently typing from my Moto G6, which came out in April 2018. I bought in July of that year for $100 (it was a BOGO with a buddy's $400 Moto One Zoom, they were literally giving them away as a backup to promote their more expensive phone because the BOM cost was so cheap). I plug it in on my desk at work because the battery sucks now, but that's no great hardship. By that math, I've enjoyed the use of a smartphone for $1.62 per month (would be $3.25 at list). Yes, it's only running Android 9 and not getting "security updates" anymore, but I have my phone app, messaging app, a camera, and Firefox, and that's about all I need.

I think it would be ridiculous to spend $30 or $40 A MONTH for a smartphone. It doesn't matter what some people pay for a fantasy football team app, that has nothing to do with buying hardware. Other people are buying 3000 lbs used cars for the same price others are paying for a flagship 200g slab of glass!