Cheap Smartphones Quietly Becoming Popular In the US 209
An anonymous reader writes: Bloomberg reports that ZTE and its cheap Android smartphones have been grabbing more and more of the market in the U.S. It's not that the phones are particularly good — it's that they're "good enough" for the $60 price tag. The company has moved up to fourth among smartphone makers, behind Apple, Samsung and LG. That puts them ahead of a lot of companies making premium devices: HTC, Motorola, and BlackBerry, to name a few. ZTE, a Chinese manufacturer, seems to be better at playing the U.S. markets than competitors like Xiaomi and Huawei, and they're getting access to big carriers and big retailers. "Its phone sales are all the more surprising because it's been frozen out of the more lucrative telecom networking market since 2012. That year, the House Intelligence Committee issued a report warning that China's intelligence services could potentially use ZTE's equipment, and those of rival Huawei Technologies, for spying. Huawei then dismissed the allegations as 'little more than an exercise in China bashing.'"
Nokia 635 (Score:5, Interesting)
35$ on amazon it is a great phone
Re: (Score:2)
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3)
Nope. That one has a 512 MB RAM, and 4GB internal memory (Win 10 is likely going to require 8 GB, despite what that amazon page says). If you want a cheap & good windows phone, you get a Lumia 640 for $79 [microsoftstore.com]. The sunlight readability feature alone is worth it.
Re: (Score:3)
no carrier app crap, quad core with a GB of RAM and 8GB of storage and it asked when I put in my MicroSO if I wanted to save my apps to SD, hassle free.
Lumia 640 does all of this BTW. It has one AT&T Music app and if I remember AT&T contacts. You simply long press it, click uninstall, and it is gone. The concept of locked apps doesnt exist in Windows phones. It is quad core with a GB of RAM, 8 GB of storage, when you put in a MicroSD, you can go to the settings and set apps to be installed to SD card hasslefree (it doesnt ask on it own, but it is 2 clicks away, and one time).
Re: (Score:2)
Completely with you.
I have been using a Nokia 520 I got on Amazon last year for $35. It is a great phone and does everything I need it to.
Nice find on the BLU phone. That could very well be my next device!
Re: (Score:2)
It kind of depends, really. I went from cheap phones to expensive ones, because the expensive ones were better on performance.
However, if the quality of less expensive ones goes up (as it inevitably will), I'm going right back to cheap ones.
Re: (Score:3)
So I'd say the rise of the "cheap" smartphones is easy to explain...many of us don't give a shit about using phone brands as status symbols and the new so called "cheapies" do everything we want our phones to do so why would I spend 3-5 times the cost to have a big name label?
You shouldn't, for a label...
But don't kid yourself, a $500 phone is in fact more powerful than those $90 phones are. Now, you might not need the power, and if so, then don't pay for it.
The chip in a Galaxy S6 or iPhone 6 is indeed more powerful than the chips in the $90 phones, as is the GPU, and they have more RAM and storage. They also tend to have nicer screens, better cameras, etc.
Is there more profit in those phones? Of course, they are probably $250 phones being sold at huge profit margins, but th
Re:Nokia 635 (Score:4, Funny)
Why don't you post with your account?
Re:Nokia 635 (Score:4, Funny)
Why don't you post with your account?
Why don't you get naked, climb a chain link fence, and gash your nutsac open when you swing your leg over the top?
Assumes facts not in evidence, i.e. presence of said scrotum.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Really? I think it works great. Android feels like junk in comparison.
Re:Nokia 635 (Score:4, Interesting)
I agree with this.
A cheap Android phone is unusable, whereas a cheap Windows phone is snappy and elegantly simple to use.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
I used a 635 for a week; now my daughter uses it. I actually thought that the Windows Phone OS part was pretty nice, at least as good as iOS or Android. And the phone itself was pretty nice too, if the camera had a flash I would have no problem with the hardware really. The problem was that there were a number of apps that I was used to on Android which were not available. That's the Achilles heel of that phone.
Re: (Score:2)
windows phone is just a little less painful than bone cancer
Perfect tagline for their new "Damned by Faint Praise" ad campaign.
Work Phones (Score:2, Interesting)
This year work implemented the "use your phone for business and we'll give you $50 a month" plan. We turn in our existing company supplied phone and install their apps on our personal phone.
Sounds to me like getting this one will keep the megacorp off of my personal phone and they can deal with whatever garbage is running on it.
(Technically I'll probably just add a second phone to my existing contract and be done with it. No Android phones though. I've had one for the past few years and I just don't like it
Re: (Score:2)
I worked at a place that offered to allow us to use personal phones for business with their "wipe everything" app. Instead, I just published my personal cell phone everywhere (and on my sig) with a note that said "urgent issue? text me." If I was interested in work email, I could always VPN in, but I didn't want full email following me around during off-hours. (These days I work at a place with gmail, so I just run multiple email clients on my phone since the company doesn't care about remote wipe, and
Re: (Score:2)
Strange that a VPN gateway cares about the hardware running the client, but whatever. I just use the webmail access and I'm good. But dang... remote desktop in a pinch would be nice!
Hypervisor (Score:2)
BYOD, whatever you like as long as it has dual SIM. Load whatever crapware work foist upon you via a "xen for phones" virtualized image that auto-self-destructs remotely if the device is stolen or you leave the company.
I'm shocked we can put a man on the moon but it's late 2015 and this still isn't a widespread thing.
Could Xiaomi take over? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Could Xiaomi take over? (Score:5, Insightful)
They might, but not for long.
The problem with Android is that manufacturers are basically franchisees of a Google product. They are allowed to put in better or worse processors and screens and batteries and cameras but that doesn't differentiate their brand; any competitor can do the same. As such, Android phones are a commodity: the moment a manufacturer tries to turn a profit, a new competitor comes in with no margins and cuts their legs out from under them.
Samsung did the best job of anyone trying to differentiate their phones, and as such was the only profitable Android manufacturer for several years. But even they are losing market share rapidly to the likes of Xiaomi and Huawei and their profits have fallen off a cliff in the past couple years.
So... could Xiaomi take over the Android market? Sure, as long as they're willing to lose more money than everyone else. Could they topple Apple? Not likely. If people are willing to pay for a $650 iPhone over a $150 Android, they'll likely pay for a $650 iPhone over a $100 or $50 Android. Apple has the luxury of differentiating itself as a product and reaps the benefits.
Don't get me wrong, I have no issues with Android as a platform. I own Android devices, I enjoy many things about them (and my list of dislikes shrinks each year), and I think it's wonderful a relatively open platform has seen such widespread adoption. So far, Android manufacturers' loss has been Android users' gain, but if those losses continue I fear Android may follow the PC industry's race to the bottom: Many manufacturers could abandon the platform while those remaining steadily cut quality and pursue 'alternate revenue streams' like trials and ads and other paid placement. I hope I'm wrong, though.
Re: (Score:2)
The PC industry's race to the bottom seem to have come to an end in 2014. There are all sorts of nice and expensive PC:s on sale now. The average screen resolution probably declined in 2010-2013, but it has gone way up in 2014 and 2015. Just to name one metric.
It does make sense that the PC industry will see a slight recovery (or at least an end of its decline) since the laptops that people bought in 2007, before the smartphone and tablet revolution, will have lost their movable parts to wear and tear by no
Re: (Score:2)
I've been using Samsung phones and just recently switched away as their flagship models imitate Apple too much - no user-replaceable battery and no microSD slot. I'm sure I'm not the only one...
Re: (Score:2)
I think they're making great profits even if they pretend not to. Their prices are only slightly lower than Apple's very premium pricing and all they do is integrate components from other manufacturers (OS from Googl
Re: (Score:2)
Consider the current state of smartphones (Score:2, Insightful)
My smartphone is five years old (HTC Droid Incredible, considered the best phone on the market at the time I bought it). Even though it only supports 3G and will never be updated beyond Android 2.3.4, it still browses the internet at acceptable speeds with a modern browser (Firefox). Smartphones have been at "good enough" for quite some time now.
Re:Consider the current state of smartphones (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm not sure what I'm going to do when it's time for mine to be changed. Mainly I'm looking at connectivity first and foremost, as not all phones have all bands that the carrier can use. I want the most bands so that I can have stronger signal for better battery life. Beyond that, the fancy phones are nice, but I can't say that I'll actually use all of the features they offer. I don't need video on the go, I have bigger devices that can do that far better. I don't know that I need a 20 megapixel camera, I have an SLR and it takes far better pictures than any cell phone camera will, but admittedly the SLR is not on my person during my whole waking day.
There is a good argument for a simple, basic multifunction phone that doesn't cost a whole lot and provides a solid experience, even if it's not the flashiest or the fastest or the highest resolution.
Re:Consider the current state of smartphones (Score:5, Interesting)
I will soon need to upgrade my old phone, and I'd just like a upgrade, they want to change everything:
Current one: 3.7" with slider qwerty keyboard and a 3-day removable battery. Fits in all my pockets, because it's thick, not tall.
Desired one: 4 to 4.5" 720p to 1080p with slider qwerty and a 3+ days battery. Maybe with wireless charging. Thickness under 2 cm, weight irrelevant.
Available stuff: thin massive flimsy with 1440p 5 to 6" and fingerprint reader designed to look cool when it pokes out of your pocket. Soft keyboards which speak twit, but not three languages at once.
I can't be the only person in the world who wants something that fits in my pocket and lets me type fast with tactile feedback.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I flat refuse to do phone contracts, and don't need/want the latest/greatest in Android phones, so I buy phones on eBay or Glyde and use Ting as my carrier. I'd been using an old HTC G2, but found it was real pain to root, just to get a newer version of Android, being that the G2 was still on 2.3.5, and several apps I wanted to use had been updated to require 4.X or better. I'd bought my wife one of the tmobile prepaid phones, since our carrier was Ting, who had recently implemented GSM support via tmobile,
And if you don't like bloatware... (Score:4, Interesting)
...there are some other interesting things you can do with your inexpensive smartphone. I have a couple of these:
https://developer.mozilla.org/... [mozilla.org]
For use in development with this:
http://www.rangenetworks.com/p... [rangenetworks.com]
And it may enable SCADA and text message coverage of farms and places that will never get commercial GSM coverage at an incredible pricepoint.
Market share != $$ (Score:5, Interesting)
The article does mention, toward the end, the common problem all of these low-cost handset makers have: ZTE has expanded its US marketshare by 50%, but only seen its revenue increase by 4%.
Apple is making plenty of money on smartphones. Samsung is making some money on smartphones. Everyone else is either barely scraping by, or losing money on the category.
Really makes you wonder why they do it sometimes...and why none of the other smartphone makers even seem to be trying to crack the actually-making-money part of the market.
Dan Aris
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Bloated price tag, or baked in bloatware/malware. Which is worse?
I mostly loathe my Samsung POS Android phone due to the small internal memory that is larded up with crap I can't delete, but can't stomach an iphone price tag. My wife loves her 5s, and it is a much better widget that works far better and has held up better as well. She upgraded from a different Android POS that auto-updated itself until it ran out of memory and there was no easy way to clear it out and make it a usable phone again.
So in l
Preinstall to user partition, restore after reset (Score:2)
I mostly loathe my Samsung POS Android phone due to the small internal memory that is larded up with crap I can't delete
Android 5 "Lollipop" introduced a mechanism to let the manufacturer preload apps into the user partition. A factory reset erases them, but when the user connects to Wi-Fi for the first time after a reset, the phone restores the preloaded apps from the Google Play Store server. At least this way, the user can delete the apps from the user partition instead of having the factory version sit in the system partition even after the user has uninstalled updates. I wouldn't be surprised if use of this mechanism be
Re:Market share != $$ (Score:5, Interesting)
Apple products are generally overpriced, but that doesn't make them poorly-designed crap.
Actually, quality of design is one of their high points.
I think they could do much better with the Mac, I'd love to be a Mac customer, but not at their prices. I do however own an iPhone and an iPad and like them both.
Re: (Score:2)
buy a Dell with an Intel processor and lob OSX on it. Done.
Re: (Score:3)
You don't own OS X, you licence it under an agreement. To install it requires that you accept that agreement.
This is very well established legal doctrine. You're welcome to install Linux on that Dell machine, but you have no rights to install an OS that you don't own, and you don't own OS X.
Re:Market share != $$ (Score:5, Insightful)
Maybe because some money is better than no money. Foreign companies likely don't think the way US companies do: these days in the US, if a large company can't be #1 or #2, with an insanely-huge profit margin, they just throw in the towel and go chase after something else (usually failing, whereas they would have made a lot more money just sticking in there and making lower profits as #3, #4, or #5). In other countries, they don't always have this mentality. What's wrong with being #5 and making a small profit while your employees have good jobs and your executives have handsome salaries? Maybe the shareholders won't like it as much, but who cares; if you're a large enough company, you shouldn't need outside investment anyway.
Also, these other companies could be taking the long-term view: it's better for them to hang around and outlast the others, and wait for them to make a misstep, or for people to get sick of their high prices.
Re: (Score:2)
It is a different mentality than US companies. If you have a company that is near the bottom of the charts... but you are making some type of profit... that is just fine.
There is always the fact that the big names can topple over. Sony used to be #1 when it came to MP3 players, but after the iPod, the market pretty much got split up between Apple and a number of no-name WMA players.
The US market has this issue about "growth". A company that has been turning a steady profit for 20 years is valued less tha
Re:Market share != $$ (Score:4, Interesting)
This reminds me of a reported conversation [forbes.com] between Clayton Christensen (Innovator's Dilemma) and Morris Chang (of TSMC):
“You Americans measure profitability by a ratio. There’s a problem with that. No banks accept deposits denominated in ratios. The way we measure profitability is in ‘tons of money’. You use the return on assets ratio if cash is scarce. But if there is actually a lot of cash, then that is causing you to economize on something that is abundant.”
So, Samsung's 15% of worldwide profits is still around $6 billion, and Xiaomi's 1% is still $500 million. This is only a problem for MBAs and shareholders but not for the longevity of the a company's operations.
Re: (Score:2)
Maybe because some money is better than no money. Foreign companies likely don't think the way US companies do: these days in the US, if a large company can't be #1 or #2, with an insanely-huge profit margin, they just throw in the towel and go chase after something else (usually failing, whereas they would have made a lot more money just sticking in there and making lower profits as #3, #4, or #5). In other countries, they don't always have this mentality. What's wrong with being #5 and making a small profit while your employees have good jobs and your executives have handsome salaries? Maybe the shareholders won't like it as much, but who cares; if you're a large enough company, you shouldn't need outside investment anyway.
Also, these other companies could be taking the long-term view: it's better for them to hang around and outlast the others, and wait for them to make a misstep, or for people to get sick of their high prices.
I'm not criticizing the idea of being further down the chart than #2. I actually think that's a very healthy thing to have—which is why I think the way things currently operate is a bit skewed. Because when you think about a chart with #1-5 on it, you generally think that maybe #2 is, say, 20% less in profit than #1, and then #3 is around 20% less than #2, and so on. But that isn't what we're seeing with the smartphone market right now: #1 has something like 80-85% of the profit, #2 has 14-19%, #3-5 s
Re: (Score:2)
I dunno, maybe it's a gamble for them and they're hoping to become profitable before too long by building up a brand and reputation. I'm really not sure. Are the numbers correct though: are they really losing money? And in all markets they sell in? I can't imagine the numbers are the same for developing countries, for instance, as they are for the US and western Europe where there's lots of people who can afford iPhones. People in China can't afford those prices.
But as for Apple having 80-85% of the pr
Re: (Score:2)
"What's wrong with being #5 and making a small profit "
What is wrong is that you have assumed that #5 is making a profit. Remember, Apple and Samsung combined make more than 100% of the net profits of the cell phone market.
Re: (Score:2)
They make "more than 100%" of the net profits?
I don't think that's possible.
Re: (Score:2)
it is when you consider that Samsung make components for Apple phones. They sell components and assemblies (eg memory and CPU packages, boards, camera sensors, what-have-you) to Apple: profit for Samsung. Apple put the phones together and sell the hardware on: profit for Apple.
Thank you, come again.
Re: (Score:2)
That's nice and all, but not everyone is lucky like Apple is to find a sizeable market of people willing to spend so much on your products. If it was that easy, every company would do it.
I have a ZTE 9810 (Score:5, Interesting)
So, being on a budget, and buying phones for the whole family (wife + 2 teenage kids), a couple of years ago I got us all new phones. The wife and kids needed the closest thing to a status symbol we could afford, so they got Samsung S3's; I don't care and saved like $100 getting the ZTE 9810. My screen is bigger, the battery lasts longer, and everything works fine on it. The only difference was memory (8GB vs 16), which is a problem because I hardly have anything installed and run out of memory really easily (external card helps, but doesn't fix the problem). But on the whole I like my phone just as much as they like their's because I don't care about brand names.
The S3's all have charging problems, too. The mini USB connectors just have a problem making a good connection.
I had to replace one recently - despite plans to get everyone new phones this Christmas, so I opted for one of the cheapest I could get. My wife, the biggest complainer in the bunch, got a $50 phone as a temporary replacement, and isn't complaining.
Re: (Score:3)
Why, no, the thought hadn't crossed my mind. Thank you so much for setting me straight.
What they learned was I got a cheap phone and bought myself other stuff for that Christmas, and ALL they got were phones - most of which ended up not working as good as mine. If it makes you feel better, this coming Christmas my daughter already asked to get a cheaper phone so she could get something else. Life's little lessons are often learned better from experience than lecturing from a parent.
You get what you pay for (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Is it the same as a Galaxy S6? No. But if I break it, I can buy 5 more and still come out ahead.
Sometimes, you just pay more for higher profit margins.
Re: (Score:2)
I bought one for my wife from Walmart for $30..she just needs a simple phone to make calls and run her Weightwatchers program on. Found out what a neat little phone it is and bought myself one off eBay used for $16... My previous phone was an old HTC G2, still on 2.3.5, and such a pain in the ass to root, and since several apps I wanted to use would'nt work on that old an os, and the ZTE had 4.X, I've switched completely over to the ZTE...
Re: (Score:2)
You get what you pay for......the GPS is lousy, for example.
No, you don't. When you buy your new iPhone or Galaxy Si you're not getting a phone that performs 4-8x better.
Re: (Score:2)
On the other hand, why pay for stuff you don't need?
Low end phones are fine for making and receiving phone calls, playing audio and video, reading in a variety of formats (both local and online), taking photos to document something, alarm clock and scheduling, a simple notepad, serving as a flashlight or a level, as well as a heck of a lot more. Sure, it is possible to do a bit more on higher end phones, but there are definitely diminishing returns.
AT&T cramming; Android pod touch (Score:2)
On the other hand, why pay for stuff you don't need?
Because the carrier requires you to. For a long time, carriers would not activate low-minute pay-as-you-go plans with no data on smartphones. Only dumbphones were eligible for plans with no data. Instead, carriers required customers to have high-minute or unmetered plans including data, even if the subscriber already has a landline at home and plans to be near Wi-Fi whenever doing anything requiring an Internet connection. For example, Sprint's Virgin Mobile wouldn't activate a payLo plan on an Android phon
Re: (Score:2)
unless the subscriber performed some obscure trickery involving buying a SIM online and activating it through the Internet before putting it in the phone.
That is NOT what I said, you're reading too much into what I wrote....again.
You can use a Go Phone without a data plan, with a phone you purchased at a retail store, just as long as you activate that phone online. The information that says that is possible is easily found, and IIRC is in the phone's quick start documentation. You DON"T have to buy a gophone sim card online.
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, I got a ZTE android device on an AT&T pre-paid plan at one point and the thing was basically unusable it was so underpowered.
That device now sits at my bedside and it's sole purpose is as an alarm clock.
Cheap phones not bad (Score:2)
Honestly I've got a "cheaper" phone myself and haven't had any issues. I've got a Samsung Galaxy Core Prime - originally designed for the Indian market but then released over here. I have to buy my phones unsubsidized to keep my unlimited data plan, so for $175 outright/no contract this worked out well.
Compared to most "premium" phones the specs on this one are terrible, but aside from on-paper I have no issues with it.
Re: (Score:2)
You can get used unlocked Nexus 5 phones for around $170 (full HD screen, 16GB storage, 2GB RAM) on Swappa. We have bought 4 phones off the site (all Nexus 5's), my wife tends to break the screens (we still have the broken ones - touch screen still works - in case of a failure, just swap the SIM and suffer for a bit).
It's a great site with good buyer protection (you only risk their $10 fee, I've had to return a phone and it was no problem).
I don't think I'll ever purchase a new phone again, but I don't hav
Re: (Score:2)
Similar "cheap" comments when I did pay as you go (Score:2)
Years ago, I got a used iPhone 3GS and a cheap AT&T GoPhone. Took the SIM card from GoPhone and put it in the iPhone. It worked instantly, no jailbreaking or funny business required aside from an APN change which took seconds. At the time, GoPhones were being marketed towards poor people, old people and drug dealers as far as I can tell. All I knew was that I had a reasonably new phone (the 4 had just come out), I had no contract and my monthly bill was around $20. Compare that to people who were shelli
ZTE Maven specs, not noted in the story summary (Score:3)
Pros
Quad core processor
Fast mobile data support (4G)
Cons
Low pixel density screen (218 ppi)
Too little RAM memory (1024 MB RAM)
Battery is not user replaceable
Low-resolution camera (5 megapixels)
The camera lacks autofocus
GSM phone, works only on AT&T and T-Mobile. Other countries are mostly GSM.
Battery is not user replaceable: Throw away the phone if the battery is defective or at end of life? I would not buy a phone that won't allow a new battery.
If it is possible to carry extra batteries, fully charged, there are circumstances where that is convenient. For example, when hitchhiking through Europe, and staying a week or two in a city, it is possible to get a local SIM so that people you meet have a local number they can call.
Re: (Score:2)
The problem is "how do you keep those extra batteries charged". Which is one of the reasons why non-replaceable batteries started taking over - first, the vast vast vast majority of users don't have extra batteries, and all will
Re: (Score:2)
my first cellphone (a BT-badged CMH400 which was actually a Maxon LX-5) ran on AA batteries. Didn't need to carry spares, just about every newsagent, petrol station and offlicence on the planet carries them.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
because a heavily-cycled battery doesn't last long. Particularly in a smart phone where you might find yourself hunting for a socket at lunchtime, and faster as it ages. Smartphones are power hogs, yet batteries are getting smaller. Feature phones are where you want to be looking if you want the battery to last all day in a phone you're actually making calls on for more than an hour or two per day, because those batteries aren't pumping through a quad core processor. This is where the ZTEs come in, as their
Re: (Score:2)
That joke about the Nokia 3310 lasting two days before it drops 1%? It's almost not a joke. It's a phone and that's pretty much the limit of its functionality, and that's really all you need in a phone. Still got mine, it's in my GO bag and it gets a boost charge ONCE a MONTH.
It's no joke. That thing was beast when it came to battery life, I had one. I flew down to Orlando to visit the mouse and left my charge at home. That week I used the phone like I did at home, place a few calls on it, calculate some tips, look at the date, and play a mean game of snake sitting on the pot. When I set the phone back in its charger I still have two pips on the battery meter. I probably could have went two more days before it died.
Re: (Score:2)
External batteries with USB output are becoming popular. That works with any phones (even some dumb ones), electrical cigarettes and other stuff. This also solves how you're going to charge the spare battery, and it is less likely to be wasted (don't use the spare and it will age and thus eventually go bad)
Now, not being able to replace a dead battery is unacceptable.. But it may be a technical possibility to replace the non-replaceable battery. That would compare to replacing some other component like the
Re: (Score:2)
Let's say I don't value not seeing the pixels much. I have a phone with 160x128 at half the ppi, now that's visible pixels.
Cheap smartphones are not new (Score:2)
I bought a Motorola Flipout in early 2011 for about $200. I'm still using it. Ok, it's Android 2.1 and I don't have many new apps running on it (but the recent google photos works fine !)
But that's not a surprise that they're slowly gaining market share : most media only talk about iPhones and similar Samsung devices, because that's what carriers and retailers only want to show (and usually hide real prices behind a monthly plan).
Cheap smartphones have literally boomed here in France since in 2012 a new
Cut out the middle men (Score:4, Funny)
Is this a huge surprise? (Score:3)
Once smartphones hit, with Apple's AT&T exclusive showing the value of a proper 'flagship' device, and the prospect of getting a customer onto a data plan being very, very, compelling; the enthusiasm of carriers for dumbphones dropped substantially; but they still had exactly the same 'we need an endurable handset as cheap as possible for customers who don't otherwise care' incentive. Since they really want you to walk out with a data plan, they've shifted focus to the low-end Androids and iPhone 5c(if the customer insists), rather than the developing-world-special $20 phones; but they still want to pay as little as possible for those basic shelf-stuffer phones.
Plus, as with computers, the usability of the cheap seats has gotten surprisingly adequate. Still not as good as the ones that cost 2-6 times as much; but it is certainly no longer the case than anything under $200 refutes a loving god if you try to use it.
Re: (Score:2)
... en-worsened firmware flashed onto it ...
en-worsening firmware is a perfectly cromulent thing to do.
what a load of bollocks (Score:2)
Reading past the FUD, the hardware they're talking about is practically the same hardware you'd find in a premium phone: screen, processor, memory and whatever else by SAMSUNG, probably fabricated in Taiwan and assembled in Korea. In fact, a lot of what you'll find in a ZTE F930 is IDENTICAL to the hardware you'll find in a Samsung Galaxy Y (a Mini-3) (source: had both apart while swapping parts to get one good phone!). So while they're panicking over ZTE, they're sending messages on fucking iPhones! Identi
This is why Qualcomm is in trouble (Score:4, Interesting)
On the other end, QC just isn't organized to make cheap chips. They have too much management, too much bloat, too many side products that don't pan out (Digital Cinema, MediaFlo, Mirasol, etc).
What's really sad is upper management, starting with Paul Jacobs I suspect, drove the company into the ground. Now they're laying off 15% of their workforce (minimum, speculation is there will be another wave or two after this month's layoff), while Paul and Steve are raking in 8 figure salaries and bonuses.
Inexpensive... (Score:2)
...Cheap implies poorly made or inferior to the job.
The fact is the technology has gotten so good that people can get a smart phone that does everything they want for 100 dollars.
Now does that mean the 500 dollar smartphone doesn't do more... it does do more. But how much of that "more" is something most people care about?
So yeah. This is what is going on with PCs. People are buying 300 dollar PCs Why? They work just fine for purpose.
This is it! (Score:2)
2015, the year of Windows on the phonetop.
Re: (Score:2)
Has phones with Qualcomm processors in them for under 100 dollars.
With 1 gig of RAM. And Adreno 3xx series GPUs (Maybe 4xx series now.) Plus 5+ megapixel cameras, Gorilla Glass and side loaded SD cards.
Put simply: Compared to some of the 200+ dollar phones, other than screen resolution, nfc, s-pen (or equivalents), and lack of a front camera, they are actually better in most of the ways that count. And at 100 bucks you don't have to worry about smashing them up or dropping them in a toilet unless you don't keep backups of your onboard data.
I payed $160 USD for an octo core with 3 GB RAM and gorilla glass. It has dual sim but I haven't made much use of it yet. High end phones are cheap as long as you don't mind the delay as it ships from China.
Re:ZTE... (Score:4, Insightful)
Don't forget, the top phone brands are all busy neutering their phones by removing all the most useful features, such as an SD card slot and a removable battery. What kind of idiot would pay $600+ for a phone without these basic features (besides an Apple customer)? It's a perfect opportunity for a cheap brand to build a customer base by having these features.
Re: (Score:3)
Calling someone an idiot if they don't want the same things that you do is a bit arrogant, don't you think?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
There are also features like dual-SIM capability which seem to be more common on lower-end models.
Storage-wise, Android phones have languished, and iPhones slow to increase. One's best bet is just to get a low end phone that can handle SDXC and a 128 GB card for $85 or so. Plus, another advantage of a MicroSD card is that backups are easy to do. Fire up Titanium Backup or nandroid, dump /system, /data, and other volumes, pop the card and stash it away.
exFAT requirement for SDXC certification (Score:4, Insightful)
Don't forget, the top phone brands are all busy neutering their phones by removing all the most useful features, such as an SD card slot
The SD Card Association already did that, by requiring SD licensees to license Microsoft's exFAT patent or not be able to use cards bigger than 32 GB.
Re: (Score:2)
If you remove the assumption that X is a basic feature, then maybe you will understand why people will by products without it.
Re: (Score:2)
Well considering how many people are sticking to or buying Galaxy S5 phones and S6 sales are horrible, I'd say that maybe these features are more valued than you and Samsung would like to believe.
Samsung Silent on Disastrous S6 Sales [forbes.com]
- "Has the reduced battery life and removal of expandable storage in the new models proved a bigger negative in customer eyes than was expected?"
Why Samsung Galaxy S6 sales suck [zdnet.com]
- "Samsung took things that S5 owners liked - features such as a removable battery and
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, and that's why I picked up a Galaxy S4. So many people are avoiding the S6 and buying used S5s that the resale value on them is very high, so I got an S4 which seems good enough, and was only $130, though it doesn't have the S5's water resistance as I understand it.
Re:ZTE... (Score:4, Informative)
The swappable battery isn't just for people who burn through their battery in a day and need to swap it. It's also for people whose battery goes bad and they'd like to replace it. With a non-removeable battery, you either need a new phone or have to pay $$$ to have it swapped professionally. With a swappable battery, no problem, just buy a replacement somewhere and pop it in. There's no really good reason not to have it; the Galaxy S5 even manages to be waterproof with a swappable battery.
Would you buy a car where the tires couldn't be changed? It's not like you have to do it often, and some tires can go nearly 100k miles now.
Re: (Score:2)
My phone [phonearena.com] does everything I want it to, it's five years old and is probably due a replacement battery since standby time is down to just shy of 100 hours.
(in case you don't want to click: it's an F930 that cost me £32.99 new on Three PAYG, it's still on Three and since they stopped doing all-you-can-eat data packages on PAYG last month, will probably get topped up by £10 a year now. The phone has an unspecified processor, quad band/HSPA (which means 3G@7Mbps yeah baby! Rare in 2010 for ANY phone)
Re: (Score:2)
I don't care what it does, or how much you make. If you spend more than $200 for a smartphone, you're not only an idiot, but a sucker as well.
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
- Hamlet (1.5.167-8), Hamlet to Horatio
Re: (Score:2)
If you spend more than $200 for a smartphone, you're not only an idiot, but a sucker as well.
Over the course of how long? Even if you buy your phone up front, this $200 budget won't keep your smartphone in service with major U.S. carriers for longer than about four or five months.
Re: (Score:2)
How about $30 (or $16)... Tmobile prepaid ZTE Zinger, 1.3Ghz dualcore, bought new from Walmart, or the one I bought on eBay for $16..... Perfect for what wife and I need a phone for...
Re: (Score:2)
It also says: 512MB RAM; 4GB ROM - 512MB means a lot of apps won't run well (especially multitasking). Again, not a problem if you don't need this, but then why focus so much on the (sic
Re: (Score:2)
Posted earlier about my Nokia 635.. this thing is a brick!
Re: (Score:2)
I just recently got my hands on a Nokia N73, which has a better camera than my ZTE - 3.2MP as opposed 3.0. I'm testing the battery, so far it's done 3 days and hasn't dropped a bar yet.
Re: (Score:2)
Depends... There have been preloaded malware incidents, but the bootloaders of these devices tend to be either not locked, or easily unlocked. After that, it isn't tough to flash a third party ROM, or good ol' CM.
Flashing a good ROM can go a long way into making a low end device quite useful, and for a flagship phone, making it worth the price premium.
Not mine (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
You all modded me flamebait, and not 12 hours later...here's the next story!
http://mobile.slashdot.org/sto... [slashdot.org]
CDD guarantees userland openness (Score:3)
Only devices meeting the CDD (Android's compatibility definition) are eligible to include Google Play Store. One of the CDD requirements is that the user be able to adb install homemade APKs.
Re: (Score:2)
why would I do that, when I have a perfectly serviceable ZTE F930?
Re: (Score:2)
less than that, even. The camera sensors in hte iPhone 5 and the Galaxy 6 are identical, and retail at $4 a unit. They even use the same SMD edge connector.