Why are mobile phones so expensive?

P

piggy

Guest
I have an old phone that I bought about 2 and a half years ago...a Nokia 3310 (I think)!
I was in the Square on friday and browsed around some of the phone shops...the prices are astronomical for what a phone is. Why are we being charged so much when electrical equipment in general has fallen in price over the past few years?

The cheapest phones they seem to have are circa the 150euro mark for ready-to-go!!
Any of the fancier phones you're talking 300+!
 
?

They are that price simply because that is what the market will bear.

It's basic economics.
 
.

Also, the customer grab is over so there are no more subs from the operators .

Anyway, what are you going on about didnt I pay the best part of 400 punts for an analog Motorola handset a few years ago ?

Kno Kno
 
Re: .

Anyway, what are you going on about didnt I pay the best part of 400 punts for an analog Motorola handset a few years ago ?

Is that question for me?
I have no idea what price phones have been in Ireland. I've only ever bought two phones ever. One was a motorola brick I bought about 4 years ago and it was well under £100. I think it was about 70 or something.
The phone I have now I bought in Australia.

400 punts seems like a lot of money...I'd imagine it was at the top end of the market? Anyway...the point I'm making is phones (unlike most other electrical equipment) are getting more and more expensive...seems ridiculous to me, especially considering the money the phone companies make on you once you have a phone.
 
!

"Anyway...the point I'm making is phones (unlike most other electrical equipment) are getting more and more expensive"

Do you have any evidence to back this up? - are you comparing like with like, year on year? Remember phones are getting more and more advanced as well

"I have no idea what price phones have been in Ireland. I've only ever bought two phones ever"

If this is the case, how can you claim that phones are getting more expensive?


(The civil service, or large multi-nationals might be able to absorb this.)
 
Re: !

Do you have any evidence to back this up? - are you comparing like with like, year on year? Remember phones are getting more and more advanced as well

To be honest I don't. What I should have said is phones are still very expensive. I'm not basing this on any particular evidence. I'm just approaching this as an average punter.
I'm able to buy a pretty state-of-the-art stereo system for about 270euro and a phone is costing me 150euro (minimum) - just seems like a lot of money for what it is.
 
Phone prices

I suppose it depends on what sort of a phone you want piggy but you can get a Nokia 3200 camera phone for E120 on O2 with E70 call credit or a Nokia 3510i or Ericsson T230 for E90 again both with E70 credit. The other operators have similar deals. All these are reasonably good phones.

Sure, if you want bluetooth or other bells and whistles you'll pay for them but entry level phones are not expensive in my opinion.
 
...

I'm with piggy on this one - the price of phones is being artificially inflated by the phone operators. Compare the progress in all other fields of electronics with that in mobiles - take PCs for example: X amount today will buy you an excellent machine. In a years time you'll be able to choose whether to buy that same machine for much cheaper, or if you choose to spend X amount again you will get a machine with much higher specs. In the mobile market new models are way slower to hit the market and the difference in the specs you get for the same price does not change as quickly.

I reckon that this is because mobile operators decide on certain models they want to push and then subsidise these (you still get a subsidy when you upgrade, though its smaller than it used to be - which increases the amount the customer pays over what they used to pay) and so want to keep them on the shelf until they get a return on them.

You can't blame them for that I suppose but maybe they should think about making less of a committment to each model, and change the models they push more regularly. This would drive more sales for them as some people would be enticed by the flashy gadget at nice price, and the customer would get products that increase at a rate more like the rest of the electronics industry (e.g. take the astonishing progress in what you get for what you pay in portable MP3 players as an example -this market is not affected by any semi-regulation like that the mobile operators impose on the market).
 
Re: Phone prices

OhPinchy,
I'm glad to see at least one person agrees with me!

ring ring,

I see where you're coming from. E90 is relatively cheap I guess...but then the nicer phones are a lot more expensive. I'm not really looking for an entry level phone but that's not really the point anyway. My phone still works fine...just want something smaller, lighter and with some bells on it! I still think E150 is very expensive for what you're getting...especially when you compare prices for other (arguably more sophisticated) pieces of equipment. I'm not completely naive but you'd imagine that phone operators could absorb the high prices considering the profit they're making. I just think it's greed.
I have no idea what a mobile phone costs them...but my guess is very little.
 
well

I'd say that given the amount of special offers for upgrading/transferring to different network/chaning to bill phone etc. that the cost of an actual phone is very low. I upgraded my speakeasy phone recently and paid 80 euro for the upgrade but get 120 euro credit with the upgrade (20 immediately, then 10 per month for 10 months). I haven't looked into it that much but it seems that there are no end of offers which involve similar prices - get phone for free if you sign up for 12 months contract - pay but get free credit - there are lots of variations.
 
Re: well

The cost of making the phone is very little in terms of components.

But Nokia etc. charge huge markups to pay for the research and development. Mobile is hugely changing market and you need to keep ahead of compeditors and up with latest technology. This is funded purely by sales, hence why a mobile phone works out so dear.

It was the same with cd payers when they came out. You could not get one for less than 1000 punts. Now you can nearly get them for a tenner. Becasue the technology has been fully developed and can go no further, so they sell them off just for a per centage markup,

Same is now happeneing with dvd players and recorders, playstation2's etc
 
...

I reckon it depends which way you look at it - decbuck correctly points out that mobile is a hugely changing market but thats the point - the technology is progressing faster than the choice of models that are made available. The mobile companies don't release new models as often as they could as they want to keep the latest model at the top of the market for as long as possible (too long in my book) so that it can recoup as much of the R&D cash that was spent on it as possible. I went into the Vodafone store the other week to see about upgading my phone (turns out I'm not entitled to one though its been just over a year since the last and I spend €60 a month on my bill) and was surprised at how poor the selection was: a camera should be the bog-standard by this stage but you still pay extra for them. With DVDs etc. once a model is no longer top of the market its price drops rapidly, but with mobiles I don't see this happening.

In my book €100 - €150 for a bill payer to pay for a phone is not cheap - just look at the UK where you can get deadly phones for free with your contract. If it weren't for the fact that the percentage profit they make on Irish customers is amongst (if not the highest, read this in paper a while back, can't remember source) the highest in Europe these prices would be OK - but they should be giving us much cheaper handsets due to the fact they make so much on us from then on.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top