Eli5: how did we get to the point where laptops and phones are in the same price range ?
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There’s a lot of comments in this thread trying to justify their phone price – saying it’s a high end computer in a small package.
All the data comparing CPU’s point to this being false. While profit margins (consumer cost/production cost) are down in recent years by 5-10%, one main reason phones are so expensive is because they can. They can charge that much and people will buy it.
Take expandable storage. Every phone 10 years ago had a microSD card slot. Can you name one flagship today that has a slot?
Take removable batteries. Most phones 10 years ago had removable batteries that the user could replace if the old was was starting to die out. Can you name three flagships that have removable batteries?
The true answer is that phones went the way of apple. Limited functionality, good product, very expensive price.
This coupled with a number of midrange phones makers exiting the market (LG) makes the current market skew high-end.
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