Article about mobile flagship fatigue

[gMaesterUK]

A story from one of my tech sites about the sway away from expensive flagship phones, to cheaper mid-range offerings.
Smartphones merge into homogeneous mass as 'flagship fatigue' bites ? The Register

People are turning away from pricey "flagship" smartphones sold on complicated expensive contracts, according to industry figures.

?Flagship fatigue means customers are less keen on paying for ?45 a month contracts because they ?must have? the newest handsets,?

Android got a special mention:

We've described the Great Smartphone Massacre before - counting the cost to the Android pack, which lost billions last year as punters became increasingly cost savvy and makers struggled to make new generations of phones noticeably different from the last.

Interesting read, yes mainly about the UK market, but I could see this being a bigger issue for other "western" markets.
Maybe MS need to look at the pricing structure and make their high-end phones cheaper (more mid-range price).

What's your thoughts?

G.

 

[N_LaRUE]

Considering that the iPhone 6/6+ sold like mad and that some Android phones have done well this might not be a true reflection of things.

MS has issues with carriers wanting special phones and making a mess out of their models and confusing people.

Saying that, MS should price their phones aggressively and do their utmost to get carriers to carry the models as is instead of customized.

I hate carriers.

 

[UncleGrandpa]

Flagships are really only important in the USA, and even then companies like Samsung are dying a slow death of relying on flagships to survive (they were thriving before the new larger iPhones were introduced). The mid to lower end markets are the only place non Apple phones can survive long term at this point in time.

 

[Mike Majeski]

The evolution of flagships has grown stagnant, and so in the meantime the mid-range and lower-end phones are starting to get a lot of the same functions that were reserved for top-end phones years ago (bigger screens, personal assistants, better processors). Look at the iPhone 6 / 6+ - basically has the same stuff as the 5S, just a bigger package (something Android has had for years).

Apple kind of forces you to upgrade to their latest and greatest (a year from now you won't be able to walk into the Apple store and buy an iPhone 5C) but on Android and Windows you have that choice.

 

[SamJHannan]

Flagships are really only important in the USA, and even then companies like Samsung are dying a slow death of relying on flagships to survive (they were thriving before the new larger iPhones were introduced). The mid to lower end markets are the only place non Apple phones can survive long term at this point in time.

Surely the UK and Western Europe should be included too.

 

[N_LaRUE]

Flagships are really only important in the USA, and even then companies like Samsung are dying a slow death of relying on flagships to survive (they were thriving before the new larger iPhones were introduced). The mid to lower end markets are the only place non Apple phones can survive long term at this point in time.

I'll have to disagree with this. Flagships are important to those who want them regardless where they live.

Samsung is not dying a slow death. They, like everyone is working in the overstated market. They're rethinking their business model as any smart business should do, including MS.

I see a lot of flagship androids with Apple being the more dominate but not by much.

I live in the UK near London. If WP would have had a decent flagship I never would have switched to Android.

I still own my WP by the way.