Gear

iPhone Effect Boosting Smartphone Prices?

Besides curing cancer and allowing ordinary mortals to walk on water, the Miraclephone has also proved that otherwise sensible folk will pay a lot of money for a tricked-out phone. This has not been lost on rivals, and the $500-$600 range has become the new aspiration for anyone in the smartphone market, according to analysts […]

Iphoneparallelsa
Besides curing cancer and allowing ordinary mortals to walk on water, the Miraclephone has also proved that otherwise sensible folk will pay a lot of money for a tricked-out phone. This has not been lost on rivals, and the $500-$600 range has become the new aspiration for anyone in the smartphone market, according to analysts and other industry figures. Says Richard Windsor, an analyst with Nomura Securities:

Apple raised everyone's expectations about what a smartphone needs to look like...Everyone else is going to have to keep up, and that is going to keep costs trickling upwards.

The iPhone Legacy: Pricier Smartphones? [BusinessWeek]