Outrageous Phone Pricing

As a young adult in the 21st Century, what phone I have makes a huge difference to me. With new brands, and new technology coming out every other week, it gets pretty hard to choose the right phone and keep up.

I wouldn't go so as to call myself a tech geek and invite hell from that crowd, but the technical specifications of a phone are really important to me. Now, when I say tech specifications, I'm not talking about the no. of megapixels in the camera, simple screen size and stuff like that. I mean information like the processor speed and build, RAM, OS upgradation, connectivity ranges, screen resolution etc. The second important and just as important to me, is the look and the feel of the phone. A phone could have the greatest and best suited tech specs I can find, but if I don't like the way it looks, or the way it feels when I hold it, if it is oddly shaped, the buttons are ugly, or if the phone looks like cheap plastic, I wouldn't buy it.

The next criteria while choosing a phone, and this is the most important one, is price. Most people set a budget with associated feature-expectations when they decide to buy a new phone. And that then helps narrow down your choices. The prices depend on the brand, and trending technology inside the phone. Notice I said trending and not new or breakthrough, because that's what it is these days. The upgrades, or new flagship versions launched every 6 months or every year of any brand, rarely contain a breakthrough in mobile technology that would justify the insane pricing of the new model. They just increase a bit of hardware, redesign the looks minutely, make it bigger(latest trend) and then charge obscene prices for a phone that will be considered outdated within a year.

There is giant void, to explain why the latest phone should cost between 40000 to 50000 rupees, and the next best phone can be bought for around 30000-35000. Also, how come the phone that started off at 40k plus, sells for 25k or less after just 4-5 months, once the next version comes out. There seems to be no logic behind these pricing strategies. But clearly, it works.
Because everytime there is a new top of the line model being launched, plenty of people line up to buy it, use it till the next one comes out, sell the old one at least 10k cheaper and then buy the new one. And this cycle is being maintained by the corporations by allowing easy finance options and small sum EMI options, lulling the buyer into a false sense of financial strenght to afford such gizmos.

I mean, for me, I get to buy one good, big budget phone, every two years or so. But if any model I buy gets outdated and or discontinued within a year of its release, the selling price goes down by nearly 30% after 5 months, and new, even better and cheaper options come out every 4 months, no matter what phone I buy, I am getting ripped off. But, on one plus note, once a phone is discontinued, you have now become part of a small group of people across the planet, who have the same phone as you, a phone that has now become part of modern history, and you will now strive to maintain it and have it running for as long as possible, because the phone is just that good.