Has the mobile phone industry peaked?

With all the technology on phones these days i wish they could develop a battery that could handle it all for more than a few hours.

My phone is a couple years old so the battery isnt what it used to be, due an upgrade shortly thankfully.
 
Alcatraz Loyal said:
I've been on sim only since about 2013 with my Samsung S3. Currently have a oneplus 2 since January 2016, with unlimited mins, texts and 20GB of data for £40 p/m on Vodafone. I can upgrade now and get the same sim only tariff for £20, 25GB for £25 or 40GB for £30. I use the data for streaming and tethering as well as browsing.

Problem is once you're used to having that amount of data it's very difficult to cut way back in order to get a phone upgrade for one of the new phones coming out, particularly if you're gonna pay even more than at present.

The Note 8 tariffs are starting at around £55p/m on Vodafone (I don't have a choice with networks, unfortunately, due to signal issues where I live - though, frustratingly, if I lived a hundred yards down the road I'd be getting a 4G signal on EE as my mate does, but no signal at all on their network in my house) and the only other choice is to buy the handset sim free, but the Note 8 (the one I really want) is about 870 quid which I could never and would never justify paying for a phone and this iPhone 8 about to be announced they are talking about a grand for that.

No wonder more and more people are sticking to their old phones and switching to sim only. I'm leaning towards buying an S7 or S7 edge outright then wiping this OP2 and trying to sell it to recoup some of the cost of its replacement.
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cex, mate. Use the website to track the price of the note 8. Within a month of the s8 coming out, their price was down by over £100. Even cheaper if you're not needing an unlocked phone.

They grade the condition of their phones as A, B and C. A is for untouched phones whilst B is for missing headphones or slight scuffs, C phones are pretty badly damaged. They do a 2 year warranty as well and you'll be able to check online to see how much they'll give you in cash or trade in value for your current phone. I've used them countless times and had no issues.
 
i am due a new deal and was going to go sim only but the battery life on my iphone 6 is now appalling, might need to just bite the bullet
 
No it's like saying computers have peaked technology is always advancing.
Eventually phones will be fold up screens, battery will last a week 8k rez and so on.
 
Yes. Nothing is groundbreaking any more.

People will always buy phones, but not spent stupid money for new models that don't do much more than their previous phone.
 
Battery life and a stronger glass are the most important things for me that needs to catch up now.

Had my s7 edge for 18 months so far and its almost as good as new but I dropped it last summer when it was only a few months old and it has a very slight hairline crack. Quoted £170 to £200 to get it fixed, furk that!

I've never used a protective cover and never needed one before, plus I thought it would look shit on this model. Too late now!

My old Htc m8 was much more durable and the music sounded a bit better with the dual speakers but the internet slowed right down to a crawl about 18 months to the two year mark.

Was considering getting a dual sim lenovo p2 purely for the masssive battery life which would save a lot of hassle when I'm in Asia but they've stopped selling them here now...bastards!

So basically what I need is a sturdier s7 with dual speakers and sims, with a p2 battery that lasts forever! How much would that cost?
 
Upgrade my phone after every contract but I'm starting to come round to the idea of keeping it an extra year on sim only. Once I get a new phone I always find it a pain to back everything up and load up the new one and with iOS upgrades it's almost like getting a new phone. The only downside too holding onto a phone longer than 2 years is the battery life for me.
 
Boy I work beside is off his nut, pays £85 a month for his phone. Mental.
 
Absolutely.

I've had my iPhone 5S for about four years now and it's still going OK.

I'll upgrade to the latest iphone, whatever that may be, when it's on its last legs and then keep that for a similar length of time.

My days of upgrading just because a contract has ended is over.
I'm £8 a month just now sim only.
 
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TQ3 said:
I have had my iPhone 5s for about 3 years maybe a wee bit longer, it does all I need it to, and is still in decent condition.
No rush to change it.
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Same here TQ3, does what is says on the tin. Sim only for me.
 
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My past 2 contract phone never made it to the end of there 2 years intact.

The HTC M8 battery fried itself 22 months in, and the S6 edge just cracked every time the wind changed. Most fragile phone I have ever had.

Got a Pixel now, been solid so far, hopefully has some longevity to it.
 
The reason I have my phone longer is that the contract term has extended.
My 1st contract was a year then they upped it to 18 months and now it's 2 years. You get an early upgrade usually so it's about 1 month short of 2 years that I will keep the same phone.

The other reason is that the new iPhones (might be different this time) do pretty much the same things but the price goes up so people probably just don't bother.
 
I had the galaxy s4.
Done everything I could possibly want.
When the contract ran out I went to sim only.
Only reason I had to upgrade was it didn't pair with a new car.


I think the industry will peak after 5g is firmly in place.
 
Phones and lap tops ,my old lappy at home I got 4 years ago and it works great and was far from that expensive, same as my phone two years old sony zx something and does everything I need. I am not a kid so maybe don't have the same pressure to upgrade and have the latest phone or lappy etc.
 
Has it peaked? I would say yes.

Will it remain a Billion Dollar Industry? Yes it will. While the advancements won't be as huge as they've been up-to now, people will continue to upgrade and buy newer models, albeit slower than before.
 
The issue now is when you can't update the device. Trying to get the parents in law off the iphone 4's before they die. Before it was easier as everyone was changing each year and the handme downs were coming faster
 
Just got a deal from Vodafone , sim only deal , £20 a month , 40 gig of data , unlimited minutes and unlimited texts. Bought a Lenovo p2 for £170. The battery lasts days.
 
Scooby said:
Following on from the new iphone 8 thread.

There was a bit on the news last week where it showed that the figures for mobile phone sales had decreased significantly in the last year or so. It appears people are maybe holding onto their phones for maybe an extra six months at the end of their contract rather than just automatically upgrade to a new one. More and more people are keeping their phones longer and just getting sim only contracts.

I have a Samsung S7 edge, it is a big upgrade on the last phone I had. The internet is lightning fast at loading, veiwing the display is so clear, it is fantastic. It is also so thin and light. My contract will be up soon but I cannot possibly see the point of spending more hundreds of pounds on something that is just slighly better than the phone I have now.. In fact, most phones made now have ultra fast processors and fantastic displays, even ones on the lower price scale.

I wll be keeping my S7 edge when my contract is up, in fact I will probably keep it for as long as it is running fine.

I cannot see any new phone making huge leaps in the processor or display, and frankly it doesn't matter as they are almost perfect now. The only area for real improvement is the battery, all the rest is just dressing it up a bit.

Will you keep your present phone or keep upgrading at the end of every contract?
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Been talking about this recently. My plan is up in December and I plan on just keeping it and going onto sim only. For most people, me included, you use the phone to text, call, internet and social media. It shouldn't really take the latest phone to do this. The prices always go up as well, some people paying 50 quid plus a month for their phone? Mental
 
interlock said:
The issue now is when you can't update the device. Trying to get the parents in law off the iphone 4's before they die. Before it was easier as everyone was changing each year and the handme downs were coming faster
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I've got some iPhone 7s if you want to upgrade them.
I won 17000 of them on the old board :)
 
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I went sim only last year traded my old iPhone in against the iPhone 6s.
This year sim only deal with o2 8gb £14 or £16 I think.
My son done the deal with Apple £42 a month brand new phone each year with a £15 unlimited data with 3.
As I get older the need to upgrade every 2 years is diminishing greatly.
 
I kept my lasting phone for about 6 months after I the contract expired.
Had to upgrade because it became so slow it was unusable.
I suspect the apps constantly updating an increasing in memory usage is no accident.
 
I've a mate who's a bit of a tech geek. He says we're all being absolutely ripped off. He no longer pays for the latest handset and instead pays £10 per month sim only and buys a handset from China.

You can read up on it here

http://www.techadvisor.co.uk/test-centre/mobile-phone/best-chinese-phones-for-2017-3616945/

Basically you can buy an iPhone or Android equivalent from China for somewhere in the £100-£200 region. The only drawback is the fact there's no support should something go wrong but he upgrades each year so has a few spares kicking about.

I'm doing it when my contract is up.
 
I have an iPhone 6 and have a SIM only contract with Tesco costing £15 a month which suits me. I bought the phone from Apple and didnt see enough in the iPhone 7 to justify upgrading.
 
My contract with my iphone 6 expired last September and I went Sim only for something like £11 a month but things are starting to go wrong with it so will need to do something soon. Will most likely get the new 8 :rolleyes:
 
It has, to a point.

But when you have the likes of Apple ceasing to upgrade software for, say the iPhone 4, and apps being incompatible with old software it is forcing users hands to a degree.

It's all about them outdating decent handsets and making you buy them, rather than you needing them now.
 
SoGo said:
Nope - it hasn't peaked. Phones have stopped changing much, but they still change small thing every release so that they sell more every year. Innovation has always been driven by the screen (b/w to colour to touchscreen to HD to OLED and so on. The latest is curved edges and full screen phone. Next step is flexible and folded screens. People will still buy more of them than they sell today when you look worldwide.

There is also a big change in the industry from just phones to phones and IOT (Internet of things - which is basically other things that can be connected like sensors, machines, etc). This will mean a change from the 4 billion smartphones of today to 50bn connected devices in a few years time.

Apple and Samsung are making good money from phones and will do for a number of years as is google and Facebook. Operators on the other hand have it tougher as they make less margin than the mobile phone makers/internet giants and generally have flatish revenues.
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I agree with your points, what I mean is the mobile phone in its present format is almost perfect and cannot be drastically improved. The displays are as good as you could possibly need, the internet is as fast as you could possibly expect. Even the camera is stunning, taking top quality pictures in an instant that a top end camera would have struggled with only 10 years ago. There is no need to pay £800 - £1,000 to upgrade to a phone that is only slightly better

In countries like the UK, it will get harder and harder to sell the latest phone unless the companies take a new direction with them. One way could be to reduce prices to a much more affordable level whereby more peole could afford them. The other way is to introduce new technology, but this will have to be a huge change in the way the phone looks or operates today. New screens or faster processers will not do it for me, and judging by the replies so far, most people feel the same.

Apple and Samsung sales figures are dropping. They need something new to give their sales a shot in the arm.
 
Clubdeck said:
It has, to a point.

But when you have the likes of Apple ceasing to upgrade software for, say the iPhone 4, and apps being incompatible with old software it is forcing users hands to a degree.

It's all about them outdating decent handsets and making you buy them, rather than you needing them now.
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Yes, you do have to replace your phone as the software becomes dated.

But instead of every two years, it is becoming two and half, or maybe three years., maybe even longer. That is where the market is losing sales.
 
I.M.A.Bear said:
I kept my lasting phone for about 6 months after I the contract expired.
Had to upgrade because it became so slow it was unusable.
I suspect the apps constantly updating an increasing in memory usage is no accident.
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Planned obsolescence mate.

Every company does it so you have to buy a new one of their things.
 
Vodafone actually called me last week to see if I was interested in an upgrade.I'm only 10 months into my contract and have one of their own brand phones.
Clearly they want more than £21 a month out of me
 
Are the prices for the Iphone 7 plus likely to come down a bit when the 8 comes out? Can get a 20% discount through my work for EE. anyone got EE and how do they find them? Ive been Vodafone for years now but prices are too dear now.
 
My contract is due up in March for my S7 Edge, I'll likely hold onto it as sim-only for a couple months before choosing to upgrade, as even for it new a year and a half ago, i'm paying out £52 p/m and the new phones rumoured are closer to £900, so I'd imagine they'll be looking for closer to £60 p/m this time, when come the summer time they'll likely dip down to a more reasonable level.

The monthly cost for a brand-new mobile now is getting eye watering, and when the economy is struggling, it's an easy decision to ditch buying a brand new one and holding on to your older phone as a cost saving.
 
As phones get better they get more expensive and people use them more

S8+ costing me £45 a month for 2 years is a lot, but I'm a heavy user. Do so much on the phone now its more like a laptop. For guys like me it will only get bigger/better. Give it a decade we will have contact lenses paired with the phone to show the screen / augmented reality. I pay for my shopping with the phone, order my drinks at Wetherspoons with the phone, do my supermarket shopping on the phone (amazon prime now). When I get home the phone pairs with the soundbar and spotify on the phone does the music. I pick what I want to watch on netflix on the phone and cast it to the tv.

I can use my phone to turn the downstairs light off if I have forgotten. If I bothered with a smart lock I could lock the damn door!

Give it a few years and we will be able to use our phones to lift money from the cash machine as well. The tech is getting better and better and I for one welcome it
 
Gazman_Airdrie said:
My contract is due up in March for my S7 Edge, I'll likely hold onto it as sim-only for a couple months before choosing to upgrade, as even for it new a year and a half ago, i'm paying out £52 p/m and the new phones rumoured are closer to £900, so I'd imagine they'll be looking for closer to £60 p/m this time, when come the summer time they'll likely dip down to a more reasonable level.

The monthly cost for a brand-new mobile now is getting eye watering, and when the economy is struggling, it's an easy decision to ditch buying a brand new one and holding on to your older phone as a cost saving.
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My lg3 just packed in after 2 years. Bought a Samsung a5 for 330.00 and will use till it dies. Got a deal with 3mobile at a tenner a month. I get all you can use data and enough min and texts for me.
 
I've got a Z5 Compact due for a change at the end of the year - But for the first time i plan on holding onto it and dropping down to SIM only. There are deals for not much more than a tenner with unlimited Calls/Texts and 5GB-8GB of data which is plenty for me.

I like the phone, 2 days life out of a charge and it does what i need it to do. iphones are great but battery life is stinking and has not improved in the real world for several models now
 
As others have said, there is nothing groundbreaking being added to justified doubling/tripling a monthly sim only payment. Will keep my Iphone 6 till it packs in
 
I've got a Sony Xperia. Contract runs out in December. I'll be replacing it then. It's rubbish
 
As with all technology, we are reaching the 'diminishing returns' stage of the most desirable features.

Internet is lightning fast
Phones respond quickly
Screens are incredibly sharp

Which is why we'll now see an influx of phones with new features aimed at convenience
 
Also, you can usually pick up last years flagship for £350 if you look around. Lots of people get upgrades they dont want and flog them on facebook etc. Can pick up a new s7edge on facebook these days for £350
 
Think I'm about £50 per month around 10 months into an iPhone 7 deal.

People talk about how much is spent but for the amount I need it for, both personal and professional and the amount of time I spend looking at it - I want something good quality, fast, attractive etc.

Not really into frivolous / consumer purchases but for the amount of use you get out of something it's a no brainer.

...and I make my business pay for it anyway.

Can understand the logic of the thread though. If you occasionally make calls, text, dip into Facebook, check the odd email and browse FF (although for while there you were needing something hefty to view that :confused:) then any phone of the last 5 years could do that with ease.

the_joker8 said:
Can get a 20% discount through my work for EE. anyone got EE and how do they find them?
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Been with them 5 years now and by far the best network I've used, but it'll depend where you live no doubt. Always answer quickly when I call support and you always get UK call centres.
 
weevlad said:
As phones get better they get more expensive and people use them more

S8+ costing me £45 a month for 2 years is a lot, but I'm a heavy user. Do so much on the phone now its more like a laptop. For guys like me it will only get bigger/better. Give it a decade we will have contact lenses paired with the phone to show the screen / augmented reality. I pay for my shopping with the phone, order my drinks at Wetherspoons with the phone, do my supermarket shopping on the phone (amazon prime now). When I get home the phone pairs with the soundbar and spotify on the phone does the music. I pick what I want to watch on netflix on the phone and cast it to the tv.

I can use my phone to turn the downstairs light off if I have forgotten. If I bothered with a smart lock I could lock the damn door!

Give it a few years and we will be able to use our phones to lift money from the cash machine as well. The tech is getting better and better and I for one welcome it
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You had me until this comment - Why would you want to lift anything from a cash machine - cash will be gone sooner than we think. I can already pay for things with my phone as well (Samsung Pay works and is faster than fishing out my wallet, getting out the cash and then have the hassle of getting small change back).
 
SoGo said:
You had me until this comment - Why would you want to lift anything from a cash machine - cash will be gone sooner than we think. I can already pay for things with my phone as well (Samsung Pay works and is faster than fishing out my wallet, getting out the cash and then have the hassle of getting small change back).
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Cash will always be needed in some places

The guy who cleans my windows doesn't take contactless

Not to mention the Black Cab drivers who's card machine is "broken" again

But yes I agree, the sooner we can ditch cash the better. The kiosk at the game would be a good start and might help the queues
 
Apple are pricing their products out of the reach of the general public, I'm happy with what I've got for the past year and won't be paying any more of a monthly payment, SIM only deal for me next
 
I went sim only on a rolling monthly contract with three. I was about 17 quid a month. I then went to cancel and go with Bt where the two kept on reducing how much I would need to pay. Now with three I am 9 quid for 3 or 4 Gb plus unlimited calls and texts. they recently have had issues in my area so I complained and got 5 quid compensation and a month free. they still hadn't fixed it 3 weeks later so yesterday I complained again and asked for 6 months free or I would leave. They gave me three months free.
It's definitely cheaper to go sim only :)
 
I would say that it is more of a crossroads, well at least 2 crossroads.

The mobile networks are up against the ever growing availability of wi-fi. Whilst there are significant advantages with 4G it becomes difficult when you throw the word FREE in front of Wi-Fi.

Handsets face that challenge of where to go in terms of size and, probably the major one in, battery life. Battery life is improving but there are also additional features / usage behaviours which cancel out any improvements.

I think what we are seeing at the moment is a case of the Networks and the handset manufacturers drifting apart. the networks only really make money from minutes and data, the margin in an iPhone for example is minimal, so when it gets competitive then the only thing they can do is reduce that margin or increase the bundle. By enhancing SIM only deals they detach themselves from the £800 handset cost.
 
Slybacon said:
I went sim only on a rolling monthly contract with three. I was about 17 quid a month. I then went to cancel and go with Bt where the two kept on reducing how much I would need to pay. Now with three I am 9 quid for 3 or 4 Gb plus unlimited calls and texts. they recently have had issues in my area so I complained and got 5 quid compensation and a month free. they still hadn't fixed it 3 weeks later so yesterday I complained again and asked for 6 months free or I would leave. They gave me three months free.
It's definitely cheaper to go sim only :)
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It's not cheaper it is just a case of splitting the minutes and data from the ever increasing cost of the handset. It does though, as you say, give you better freedom to hunt for / change or bargain for the best package of minutes and data
 
Currently got an S7 and only change my phone if I lose it. I've had this one since June 2016, the previous one lasted 18 months. :mad:. Currently got a contract with AIS in Thailand for internet and 1,000 mins free calls for under 10 quid a month, only time my monthly bill gets above 50 quid is if I use outwith Thailand. The S7 cost around 600 quid as part of the package.
 
I get 30 gig of data for £0 per month, so I'll not be changing that contract for as long as possible :)
 
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