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Posts: 207 | Thanked: 552 times | Joined on Jul 2011
#434
Originally Posted by volt View Post
Maybe you don't see it, but remember that we're still talking about a price advantage, and sales in markets where the even cheapest phones are considered very expensive.

In the west, budget phones have no appeal, I'll grant you that. But even in developing countries, most people despite the growing middle classes are still very poor.

There are phones that cost £30 without a contract. There won't be an android alternative to that for many winters yet.
The new Ashas are not going to be £30, they are going to be around £65 before taxes, that makes them at least £80 in the UK.

My daughter just bought a new Galaxy Europa for £40 from 3 and she paid them another £15 to get an unlock code.

I think you'll actually find budget smartphones are a significant percentage of sales in the west, according to Kantar Worldpanel most growth in European sales of WPx devices is down to the NOKIA 610 not the higher end devices.

When I Iook around my friends, family and work colleagues the ones that aren't really interested in smartphones have devices such as the Galaxy Europa, Galaxy Ace, Desire C, etc...