[Opinion] Is There A Good Time To Buy Android Phones?

[BenLand150]

This topic was inspired by Jon Rettinger over at Techno Buffalo for his latest video, "It's Never A Good Time to Buy an Android Phone".

First off, if it's not obvious by now, I'm a complete and utter Android fan. I don't believe I could ever own an iDevice unless it was more open sourced. Jailbreaking does not cut it.

I assume most people clicking this thread are Android fans and/or loyalists that would agree with me on my statement above. That being said, is there any common agreement that manufacturers really need to slow down on making phones? Phones come out so fast now that when a new device comes out, the next month, week, or even the next day, it could be old news. Being a fan of Android means you are probably going to come across some phone envy at point or another. The sad thing is, you can get this sometimes with almost the same exact phone!

Motorola just released the DROID RAZR barely even 2 and 1/2 months ago. And guess whats coming out now? The RAZR MAXX. Why? Why could they not have just made a nice slim phone with the 3300ma battery right from the get-go? Why do this to consumers that JUST bought the phone? The Droid RAZR is now just $199 leaving people that just bought the phone almost wasting $100 bucks on what's now yesterdays old RAZR. Unless you feel that buying a purple phone is cooler to show off then having a phone that will last 24hrs. Before this, we got the "mighty" Bionic in September that everyone wanted and that we've been waiting for since January of 2011 that seemed to come with quite a hefty amount of bugs, that gets topped just TWO months later again, now a forgotten phone by most people. And let's not forget about the Droid 3 that is now 49.99 at Verizon just 6months shy of it's release. For some reason, they couldn't wait to just made the Droid 3 come with 4G instead.

Motorola isn't the only manufacturer doing this. Samsung as well. We have the Galaxy S II out in the USA now, and shortly after, the same phone but with LTE on AT&T. Oh, and the Skyrocket they have.. now coming out with the Skyrocket HD. LTE is a big update.. but why not just have all this stuff right off? Why release the phone one month, and 3months later release the phone with slight upgrades?

Android phones come out left and right. What Apple does do right, is they release one phone, and the 6months to a year later will release another phone with a lot more new features OS wise and spec wise - even the iPhone 4 & 4s. Despite the 4s supposedly getting released as a letdown, look how well it sold. iPhone users know that they get to cherish their beloved phones up to a year before another product comes out. Android users? We have leaks.. but it's all up in the air from there.

Us Galaxy Nexus users got the phone because we know it's going to be supported in our 2year contracts by Samsung and with the already amazing Dev community here, on Rootzwiki, XDA, and so on. But, not everyone like the majority of us on these forums are "nerdy" or "geeky". Some casual phone users aren't gonna care that another phone will be out in 2months. Others.. definitely do. We have this.. and supposedly in May the Galaxy S3 is coming out that spec wise at least, pretty much kills this phone. We've heard rumors about this before the Nexus was even out so we know what we were getting into, but in the back of your head.. you may wish you would have waited. At the same time though, in another 3-6months the "Galaxy Nexus 2" or the "Galaxy S3 Super SkyRocket 4D" with a 24mp camera may be out and we fell left out once again.

So the questions comes, should phone manufactures slow down? Or do you even care?

 

[prowler85]

I tend to agree with you that it is crazy, especially the Razr to Razr Maxx scenario. My wife got a Razr, and the battery is a problem. If I'd known the Maxx was coming out we would have waited. I think it's a lot like the PC industry was for a long time - incremental upgrades sell more than periodic upgrades (unless you're Apple). All of the phones coming out from different manufacturers I truly understand, given the open source OS, and it's to be expected. But when the same company is coming out with a new phone every 3 months, that is a bit difficult to take. And yeah, I got a Bionic because I wanted 4g and the TB had issues, and overall it was a good phone, and no big deal as my son ended up with it. But 2 months later they come out with the Razr.....really? Then 2 months later the Razr Maxx? It is a bit much.

Though I don't think the 4S was that much of an upgrade over the 4 really, though of course all of the fanboys had to get one. And Apple knows that. Which I'm ok with, as I also would never own an iDevice, but I do own their stock. :icon_ lala:

 

[CJM]

I think to the people looking to buy phones & are not apart of forums like this, it can be confusing. But just like anything else that you're going to be spending your hard earned money on, you should shop around & do your research. Personally, I don't care if they speed up or slow down production.

 

[Jungle King 76]

Since you are asking opinions.... here goes.

Personally, I have no issues with how fast phones come out. The manufacturers are going to constantly be working in the next best thing but as a consumer, it is our fault because for some reason we just gotta have the best device. Not all of us but there are enough out there that will buy off contact just to get the next big thing.

The thing is, we don't act like this with any other product. Granted phones change so quickly and prices are dropping almost right away to make room for the next phone but again.... this is our fault.

We allow these manufacturers to set the price so high because they are an example of an oligopoly in the economy. Basically the select few phone manufacturers control the market and since the iPhone change first and people we're paying over $200, why on earth would moto, Samsung, etc., lower their price? Obviously the initial selling price is highly inflated since we consistently see the prices drop by $100 within the first couple of months. As long as people are willing to pay the price for what's new, the companies are gonna push them out.

I absolutely love my RAZR and am not concerned about any phone coming out because I bought this phone with the understanding I would have it at least s year if not two.


Sent from my DROID RAZR using DroidForums

 

[BenLand150]

I think to the people looking to buy phones & are not apart of forums like this, it can be confusing. But just like anything else that you're going to be spending your hard earned money on, you should shop around & do your research. Personally, I don't care if they speed up or slow down production.

Thing is, a lot people don't do that. If something new comes out, they want it. When they buy something and something comes out shortly after, the device they have feels like old news.

I don't mind new phones coming out, but I think they should at least make more worthy upgrades. Make a phone that can come out and make everyone want that phone. So then we have a few phones vs iPhone. Not 60phones that you only see a few people with. Variety is good, but this is almost too much. iPhone has that ONE popular phone. We have a lot of phones, but not one phone that everyone really wants. We should have one big phone from each company to try and literally compete with the iPhone and go from there.

I love my Nexus, and I love the fact that it's almost unique because like.. no one has it. But it'd be nice to have awesome marketing towards this phone to where I have a few friends with the same phone to do some nice NFC stuff with. But newer phones with NFC will eliminate that I suppose.

Since you are asking opinions.... here goes.

Personally, I have no issues with how fast phones come out. The manufacturers are going to constantly be working in the next best thing but as a consumer, it is our fault because for some reason we just gotta have the best device. Not all of us but there are enough out there that will buy off contact just to get the next big thing.

The thing is, we don't act like this with any other product. Granted phones change so quickly and prices are dropping almost right away to make room for the next phone but again.... this is our fault.

We allow these manufacturers to set the price so high because they are an example of an oligopoly in the economy. Basically the select few phone manufacturers control the market and since the iPhone change first and people we're paying over $200, why on earth would moto, Samsung, etc., lower their price? Obviously the initial selling price is highly inflated since we consistently see the prices drop by $100 within the first couple of months. As long as people are willing to pay the price for what's new, the companies are gonna push them out.

I absolutely love my RAZR and am not concerned about any phone coming out because I bought this phone with the understanding I would have it at least s year if not two.


Sent from my DROID RAZR using DroidForums

I agree with a lot of your points. And I don't believe phones should have to be lowered in price either. And coming out with new phones is smart considering people think they have to have the latest and greatest. But it's the almost worthless new phones I don't agree with. The Droid Razr should have either just came with the 3300ma battery or just stayed as is. Not make a new phone JUST for an upgrade in battery.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using DroidForums

 

[debdroid1a]

I'm going to X-post (sorry mods) but it's basically the same answer I would give here (and maybe worse since my day job is done and I"m fried). This was posted in the thread Droid 4 and the future of QWERTY . I'm going to add a few things I didn't think about and apply here more.


The only problem is they can't wait several months before releasing a new phone. Even if the D3 had been out a year, someone would have bought it a month before the D4 release and without research never had known it was coming. So they may have buyers remourse anyway. And if it's time to upgrade the Verion rep would probably ster them to "the next big thing" not a year old phone (unless it's the iphone which the price doesn't drop until a new one is out and if a person wants and iphone, that's the only choice they have).

And if, say Moto didn't have a keyboard phone out on the market so people wouldn't have buyers remorse, people would buy the Stratosphere if they were looking for an Android keyboard phone at Verizon, so then Moto would have lost money.

So Moto is going to get backlash if they don't wait or wait for a release. Same as other manufacturers. And I think earning money is more important to a business then letting buyers get some other phone and lose business. Every sales person does this. They try to keep the customers they have (admitedly Moto hasn't done very well with no updates on phones or late updates) and get new customers.

I think droping the price is the best thing for Moto or other manufacturers to do. A free Droid 3, or even a $49 D3, is better then a $200 phone and then a month later the better one comes out. Now if you have buyers remourse because you got a free phone, then that's something you have to deal with.

I bought a 7" tablet in July last year. Three months later a better Android tablet, Amazon fire came out. Was I mad? No. I wasn't happy about a better tablet coming out, but I was happy with mine. It did what I needed it to. I still have it and haven't even looked at buying another tablet (although I like to see what's out there).

Most regular customers stick with their phone for the 2 year agreement (unless for some reason they have to drop it). So having new phones out isn't a problem for them too much, I'd think. I still know peole with basic/dumb phones and they have no plans to upgrade (some because of the data plan and some because they're happy with their phone). And when these customers are ready for an Android phone they do want the latest and greatest. That's one reason why iphone users went from a 4 to a 4S, even though it wasn't much of an upgrade in specs.

 

[Liderc]

Should they slow down? Yes.

I would say they'd probably benefit financially from slowing down.

If they focused on including all the features that they put in 3 different phones all into 1, then they'd have a solid device that everyone would buy like the Iphone.

Obviously they feel this "Spit out as many phones as we can" method is working, or they wouldn't continue doing it, but personally I think they're wasting loads of money and their customers aren't benefiting.

If they took their time they would use less money developing, produce better quality and more feature rich products, and create more customer loyalty.

 

[BenLand150]

Should they slow down? Yes.

I would say they'd probably benefit financially from slowing down.

If they focused on including all the features that they put in 3 different phones all into 1, then they'd have a solid device that everyone would buy like the Iphone.

Obviously they feel this "Spit out as many phones as we can" method is working, or they wouldn't continue doing it, but personally I think they're wasting loads of money and their customers aren't benefiting.

If they took their time they would use less money developing, produce better quality and more feature rich products, and create more customer loyalty.

Exactly my train of thought.

 

[patmw123]

The best time to upgrade your phone is whenever a nexus comes to Verizon :biggrin: Pretty simple IMO....

 

[Jungle King 76]

I agree with a lot of your points. And I don't believe phones should have to be lowered in price either. And coming out with new phones is smart considering people think they have to have the latest and greatest. But it's the almost worthless new phones I don't agree with. The Droid Razr should have either just came with the 3300ma battery or just stayed as is. Not make a new phone JUST for an upgrade in battery.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using DroidForums

Strictly from a marketing standpoint moto releasing these two was actually a brilliant move. The first RAZR was the world thinnest phone.... wouldn't have been with the big battery. Now the RAZR Maxx is the world longest lasting smart phone. So, it may be frustrating to some but moto was smart to do it that way.


Sent from my DROID RAZR using DroidForums

 

[Liderc]

Strictly from a marketing standpoint moto releasing these two was actually a brilliant move. The first RAZR was the world thinnest phone.... wouldn't have been with the big battery. Now the RAZR Maxx is the world longest lasting smart phone. So, it may be frustrating to some but moto was smart to do it that way.


Sent from my DROID RAZR using DroidForums

I don't see how it's a good thing. They could have still have had the thinnest phone at the time and had a battery that demolished all other phone batteries.

Either way Motorola hurt it's customer loyalty and will have to manufacture and advertise two phones which are essentially the same within 3 months.

 

[GalaxyFlatulence]

yeah i think they should slow down so they can concentrate on releasing less buggy/more functional devices, rather than marketing half assed ones faster than stephen king writes a book. :icon_eek:

 

[dezymond]

Yes there seems to be a new Android phone coming out every 2 or 3 months now huh?

The rapid release of newer phones isn't a good thing imo. Take the D3 and D4 for example, the D3 is nowhere near the life cycle of the OG droid and D2, and yet we hear of the D4 coming out as soon as next month (I haven't read if it's confirmed or not, so I might be behind). I personally think a year should go by before there is an upgraded version in the lineup, but I'm not running the business. I'm all for choices, but lately it's been quite overwhelming if you ask me. I went with the Nexus personally, but I can't say I would be happy to hear of the "Nexus 2" coming out in May.

 

[BenLand150]

Yes there seems to be a new Android phone coming out every 2 or 3 months now huh?

The rapid release of newer phones isn't a good thing imo. Take the D3 and D4 for example, the D3 is nowhere near the life cycle of the OG droid and D2, and yet we hear of the D4 coming out as soon as next month (I haven't read if it's confirmed or not, so I might be behind). I personally think a year should go by before there is an upgraded version in the lineup, but I'm not running the business. I'm all for choices, but lately it's been quite overwhelming if you ask me. I went with the Nexus personally, but I can't say I would be happy to hear of the "Nexus 2" coming out in May.

I hear ya. 1year would be perfectly ideal. Of I stayed with my DROID 3, I would definitely be pretty mad knowing the 4 is already coming out. And lol if the Nexus 2 did that.. Yeah I'd be pretty mad.


Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using DroidForums

 

[wolstonc]

Motorola alone has released 6 or so phones in the last 7 months on just Verizon (d3, dx2, bionic, razor, razor Max, d4). Add in the other manufacturers, and androids on rival carriers and it probably averages out to about 1 every week. The iPhone is once a year. If it ever had the power of an android phone, it'd be hard to justify getting an android phone that'd be outdated next week.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using DroidForums