Apple announces the iPhone XS, XS Max, and colourful XR phones

[dannyboy75]

Good phones, but the prices are getting a little crazy. I'm more than happy with my 7, for a good while yet.

[Hoonigan]

I know no one who thinks £600 is midrange. Midrange in the UK is defined as under £400:

https://www.pocket-lint.com/phones/b...tphones-to-buy

So if mid-range is £400 or less, that means high end is £401+, all the way up to £1099. Where does mid-range end and low-end begin?

Seems like a top-heavy scale.

[Platinum]

For me the scale would be :

Budget < £200
Low end £200 - £400
Mid range £400 - £600
High end £600 - £800
Flagship / Ultra high end / Luxury £800 - ????

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

So if mid-range is £400 or less, that means high end is £401+, all the way up to £1099. Where does mid-range end and low-end begin?

Seems like a top-heavy scale.

It isn't really - that has been accepted midrange for years now - lower end is under £200. Just because Apple and Samsung want to push up prices more and more,to make £400 look like low end territory is not my problem especially when Chinese companies are making phones with ridiculous specs for under £400.

Plus as with most products,high end and luxury products have a much bigger pricing variation,and if you look at "mainstream" markets you would understand why they are more constrained.

Just because Fiat has a Ferrari brand which makes £500000 cars,does not mean that a £40000 Fiat is suddenly a "ultra low end" car. Just because there are £30000 medium format digital cameras,does not make a £3300 D850 "ultra low end". I have listened to £10000 headphones before - just because they exist does not make a £2000 one "low end".

Its the same with graphics cards - companies like JPR and Mercury Research define anything over $250 to $300 as enthusiast class.



These are firms used by both AMD and Nvidia. That is the OFFICIAL definition supported by AMD and Nvidia.

Yet,last time I checked a Titan V cost a few times more than that.

The original iPhones were $499 to $599 devices. So what you are seeing is newer higher end tiers.



So instead of just one "high end" you are seeing the following:
1.)lower high end - iPhone 7
2.)High end - iPhone 8
3.)Lower luxury tier - iPhone Xr
4.)Mid luxury tier - iPhone Xs
5.)Top end luxury tier - iPhone Xs Max

The iPhone X and similar priced phones are now the equivalent of what Titan series graphics cards were for Nvidia.

For me the scale would be :

Budget < £200
Low end £200 - £400
Mid range £400 - £600
High end £600 - £800
Flagship / Ultra high end / Luxury £800 - ????

A massively warped scale. If you think £400 is low end then the marketing has worked wonders and is not supported by cars,hifi or anything else like cameras.

If BMW has a £500000 supercar,it does not make a £30000 to £40000 car suddenly ultra low end.

The average price of a car depending on size varies between £10000 to £24000. That is the mainstream market,not low end just because very expensive cars exist.

[Ballantin]

Technology companies are getting crazy with prices lately. And the worst part is that demand is still strong, no matter what the price is. People just can't resist having the latest smartphone, watch or graphics card.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Oh,also looking at average selling prices is pointless too since it distorts what the market looks like.

I give you a prime example - if you are selling 5000 $200 phones,and 1000 $1000 phones,you come to an average selling price of $333,yet 80% of sales are at $200,ie,that is the mainstream market.

Edit!!

Another site seems to consider £400 and under midrange:

https://www.choose.co.uk/guide/best-...-top-five.html

The Guardian seems to think £250 to £500 for the midrange.

Techadvisor seems to think £200 to under £500.

[Macman]

Apple's drying out on the innovation front. All I saw was a hospital grade heart rate monitor with ECG and other functionality. Yes that's nice to have but that's not what I want a new watch for.

Rather than having new tech that I'd actually want to upgrade my existing model, all I saw was same screen, new colour and higher pricing. I'm out...

Could be handy for those with heart issues or perhaps conditions like Epilepsy?

[Platinum]

The ECG for me was the big thing, very useful to a lot of people, if smartwatches keep adding in more and more health monitoring functionality I can only see it as a good thing.

[LSG501]

funny how the iPhone 5s, released back in 2013, is getting iOS 12, but the oldest Sony (sorry to pick on you Sony) smartphone to get Android 9 Pie is the Xperia XZ Premium which was released just 16 months ago.
https://www.gsmarena.com/sony_xperia...news-33224.php

Well considering that isn't an Android issue but a Sony (and possibly qualcomm, as I believe they only support 'drivers' for 2 years iirc) issue it's kind of a comical reply, especially considering that 5S will likely get a speed nerf for 'battery reasons' lol.

The latest OS is out there for all companies who wish to use it, the manufacturers don't seem interested in upgrading the OS, which to be fair is sometimes down to the mobile phone hardware companies not updating their 'drivers'. It's also a different sales model, companies selling android phones make profit from the phone, google get any sales from the store etc, so unlike Apple they want a turn around on phones, not that having an earlier model of the OS is actually going to hurt, I can do everything I can do on a new nokia 3.1 on my old moto g (original one) albeit a little slower, but then it is at least 5 years old...

[darcotech]

Since when iteration is called revolutionary?


Price-wise, we (as consumers) are guilty for those high prices.
People just go and buy top end phone, even though they gonna use only 5% of its capacity. But they can show off and be "a la mode".

[Smudger]

XS Max is the phone equivalent of Biggie Smalls.

Illogical.

[Hoonigan]

It isn't really - that has been accepted midrange for years now

I don't want to just slam you down, but in that lies the problem. Phone prices increase so much each year that a once accepted pricing structure no longer applies. The brackets change each year.

[dannyboy75]

Well considering that isn't an Android issue but a Sony (and possibly qualcomm, as I believe they only support 'drivers' for 2 years iirc) issue it's kind of a comical reply, especially considering that 5S will likely get a speed nerf for 'battery reasons' lol.

The latest OS is out there for all companies who wish to use it, the manufacturers don't seem interested in upgrading the OS, which to be fair is sometimes down to the mobile phone hardware companies not updating their 'drivers'. It's also a different sales model, companies selling android phones make profit from the phone, google get any sales from the store etc, so unlike Apple they want a turn around on phones, not that having an earlier model of the OS is actually going to hurt, I can do everything I can do on a new nokia 3.1 on my old moto g (original one) albeit a little slower, but then it is at least 5 years old...

The whole OS update thing on Android is a bit of a mess though, isn't it?

According to Google's own data from the link below, less than 15% of handsets have been upgraded to Oreo as @ 31/8/18 (i.e. a year after it was released). That's a joke.

https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile...ribution-news/

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I don't want to just slam you down, but in that lies the problem. Phone prices increase so much each year that a once accepted pricing structure no longer applies. The brackets change each year.

It isn't a problem - your viewpoint is. Cars,hifi, cameras all have expensive top end stuff.

So just because some companies are arbitrarily trying to jack up prices means not much at all unless you live in some communist state where you only have one phone to choose from.

Does a Chiron have an effect on the price of your Golf??

Just because there are higher tier products there is no reason(outside trying to milk consumers) for the pricing to have to increase for mainstream/midrange and low end/budget products.

Leica makes luxury cameras,Phase One makes expensive digital backs and so on,yet this really has no impact on someone buying a D3500.

Just because Fiat has cars costing £100s of 1000s under its Ferrari brand means nothing to the average car buyer.

The average car price is a fraction of that.

People should know better not to blindly accept companies tacking on more levels. Companies will always try that tactic and why wouldn't they??

The fact is trying to say a £400 phone is low end is people loosing a bit of perspective.

Plus midrange and low end markets are more price sensitive which anyone would realise since they are mass market. Applies to everything.

After all people here moaned just because Marmite went up a few pence. Also using absurd logic if the cheapest iPhone became £1000,a low end phone is now £999 and under??

Really??

Plus you are totally seemed to ignoring the revolution which is happening at the cheaper end of the market too.

Both Zak33 and MLyons on here have made comments on such phones and me too. Their rise has been monumental.

Anyway,I had enough about argueing about price levels. You can either agree with the assessment or not.

[rob4001]

Well my view is I don't like android last iphone I had was 3gs then went to android had 2 sony and 2 nexus devices both nexus devices boot looped I went with nexus due frequent update. Then google decided they were going high end and pixles cost north of $600 so if I'm going to pay that much I'll just go with apple.

I wanted out of google eco system i use duckduckgo. google as an advertising company collect way more data than I feel comfortable with. Apple at least at the moment appear to be slightly less evil on that front.

[Zhaoman]

Crazy prices and almost no innovation to speak of. I agree with CAT here in that anything above £400 is expensive for a phone imo especially when you can get flagship specs for around that price.