Why the most expensive phones sell the best

Prices are going up from $30/year to $36/year starting September 1st. This increase only applies for new subscribers who sign up in September or later.

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

►►► This video ◄◄◄

There is a huge increase in the sales of flagship phones, premium models and ultra premium smartphones. This trend is called premiumization and in many countries, ultra premium devices completely dominate the market. What's driving this trend?

The Story Behind

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

►►► TechAltar links ◄◄◄

Patreon:

Social media:

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

►►► Attributions & Sources ◄◄◄

[TechAltar]

PSA: the price of Nebula is going up from $30/year to $36/year starting September 1st. This increase only applies for new subscribers who sign up after the price increase.

[amermeleitor]

1) Phone replace a point and shoot camera, audio device, communication device, weather forecast, social interaction, news, reading device, etc.
2) People sometimes need to buy the best they can buy, as a psychological relief. Not everyone can buy a Ferrari, or luxury jewel, but most of people can buy the flagship smartphone.

[batuhancokmar]

Video fails to explain the WHY question... Reason is, phones are now considered a status symbol, instead of a tool. In less economically developed countries like mine (Turkey), this is even more pronounced; Our former gardener didn't have finances to buy a car, but he still had a then brand new iPhone, while I am still happy with my cheap *ss Xiaomi. With economic gap widened, this situation is also worsened. Now RENTING a phone is a thing here. That's right, instead of getting the right tool for the job and budget, people literally RENT iPhone 15s to look cool...

Those lengths people go to "appear" rich is beyond me. Personally, I wouldn't move to any other phone for a few months even if someone gave it to me for free.

[ak]

I'm going the same exact route. I started getting flagship phones when a powerful smartphone mattered. Now I'm considering 150-200€ phones that are powerful enough and not become an oven after 5 minutes of usage.

[lelio]

Hey there, I think you might have mixed up some of the original iPhone prices, especially at the beginning. Like, the iPhone 6 was listed at $199 at 0:38, but that was the price with a contract. The full retail price was way higher. It seems like a few other models might have the same mistake.

[Alarios]

I will agonize over a 600-800€ expense, especially for a phone. Took me days of comparing offers in order to replace my old junker phone, went with a Pixel 8a for 300€ discounted, will probably keep it 5 years again.

Meanwhile I see my colleagues, most of them making a bit less money than me buying the last Iphone for an eye watering 1500€. Where is the money coming from man T.T. It's the same phenomenon with cars, you see people you know are making average or even poverty wages driving luxury cars, it's weapon grade cognitive dissonance.

[timr.]

Your data is completely wrong. Your prices before the iPhone 7 are all with a 2 year contract. iPhones were also expensive back then.

[abdalla]

I would take a 2years old premium over newly announced midrange

[smiththewright]

some people use phones instead of laptops and desktops. that's one reason people may splurge big. 🤳

[cms]

This is just completely beyond me, especially the statistics for Germany. I just got the standard Galaxy S24, and the fact that somehow 72% of buyers in Germany are spending more than I did just doesn't make sense from my perspective. Of course that data will be skewed because it only looks at people buying new phones, and with that you have people in there that buy new smartphones a lot more often than I do, but 72% cannot alone be explained by rich buyers getting the latest high-end smartphones every year. Would be interesting to know if that accounts for contracts including smartphones as well.

[Timotheeee]

I've only ever used 200$ phones and they work fine

[InwardRTMP]

Pretty hard to get good statistics. I doubt there are much stats on used phones being sold. It would make sense that the people that are buying phones every single year are buying the top end phones, and the people that would buy the low end phones are instead just buying used flagships instead.

[RunForPeace-hkcu]

Because top 10% of population can afford it.

[robertmarshall]

Hey TechAltar, love the content. But I think your iphone price chart at the beginning of the video is incorrect. The 200$ was the advertised price but you only got that price if you traded in the previous year’s iphone. The actually price of those phones without a trade in was ~600$.

[tomekkubiak_]

10:02 Nokia 9 PureView was truly ahead of its time.

[ayoCC]

I personally enjoy used flagships more than a cheap phone of an equal price

[mjdxp]

I've always used more entry level phones because not only are they typically significantly cheaper (my current phone cost $250), but they also often have more features. You can't load an SD card or use wired headphones without a dongle on most $1, 000+ models, and cheaper models also seem to be more durable in my experience. It really feels to me like people are paying more for less with high end flagships, just as some sort of weird status symbol. I would never even consider using an iPhone because it's so locked down and in many ways objectively worse compared to Android, so it's insane to me that it's not only the most popular phone brand, but something people would prefer over a less expensive, more feature filled model.

[Andromahlius]

People are dumb enough to burn money on leased cars, they're doing the exact same with their smartphones. And then they complain about the rent.

[chrisd]

2 additional reasons worth mentioning are: flagships as status symbol especially in undeveloped, developing and poor countries and second being young / teenager people who had the basic models transitioning to flagship premium models due to their financial improvement or being able to take credit

[himalthapa]

My take : inflation and no company wants to look like they don't got something that other has... and the flagship device are becoming sort of a statement to the market like, hey we got this, have you???