Has the mobile phone industry peaked?

Scooby

Scooby

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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?
 
Maybe because instead of paying £100-£200 for the latest model years back it's now closer to a grand.
 
I haven't had a phone on contract for about 3 years - have a sim only deal and trade iPhones when they get a bit older.

Example - had a 5s on contract which I had paid off. Held onto it for a bit then and when iPhone SE was a year old was a year old I sent the 5S away for around £100 and bought a good used SE on eBay for £230. Had that for over a year now and won't upgrade again until the iPhone 7 is another year or so older.

Cant justify £50+ a month for the newest iPhone. The 8 (or the iPhone X as I have seen rumoured) is likely to be £1k. Too much money for people now, we've been milked enough and the credit is running out.
 
I've just bought an IPhone SE to replace my utterly battered IPhone 5 , the extra money that a IPhone 7 would have cost wasn't justified by the marginal improvements in spec

I bought it outright and took a sim only deal , I reckon I will save about £200 over the next 2 years compared to a contract
 
I'm getting fed up of the "cancellation dance" every time my contract is coming to an end. I ask for an upgrade, they quote me a stupid price, I say no thanks, I'm cancelling and moving, they come back with a better deal 2 or 3 times before I agree to stay (Vodafone) - and I get the upgrade for a decent monthly cost.

The last twice, I've phoned them near the end and just said "can we just cut to the bit where you give me a decent price, save us all the time and effort" - but "George" or "Nigel" from Mumbai doesn't really get the point.

Same as the OP - I'm happy enough with my iPhone 6s, so I reckon I'll do at least another year Sim-only
 
My contract is due up in May 18,iphone 6s
Will be keeping it and getting a sim only deal after that
It does all I need it for and don't see the point of committing to another 24 month deal
 
Yea I agree, phone contracts are becoming more and more expensive and the phones don't drastically change that much model to model so people are happier to skip a model and hold on, or buy a SIM only and keep their phone till it literally melts.
 
Tenner a month sim only deal, unlimited calls, text and 5gb of data. I'm a bit of a geek but still using my s6 edge, the prices of phones are getting stupid these days. Reckon I'll get a while out of this yet tbh.
 
For,most people,it is a phone and the functionality increases are negligible. I kept my iphone5 for 18 months after my contract on a sim only deal only upgraded to the 7 because the GF broke hers and needed a new one.
 
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.
 
I put my phone through my company so it pays to constantly have a new phone.

Got an S7 Edge at the moment and it's the 1st phone I've had that's not been Apple for many years. Best phone I've ever owned.
 
Yes. The wonder features such as touch screens , quality cameras and inernet connected apps are now considered standard . People realise new models are now barely better than what they had before, oh and they cost a lot
 
I've had sim only for around 5-6 years and always use my phone till it dies on me. Had an s3 for years but few weeks ago I decided to upgrade my phone and the annoying thing is I've cracked the screen already. Feckin fortune to repair.
 
Fook me just taken out 24 month contract on samsung 3, and some on here are on about an 8. Old bassa, need some advice.
 
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.
Click to expand...

I'm the same mate phone does everything I need it to do so no pint upgrading until this one packs in or I smash it when drunk again
 
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Have a 6s and due an upgrade in November.
Was just thinking the other day I'd hang on to it. Interesting to hear so many are thinking on the same lines.
Could be trouble for the big manufacturers. You never know,prices may come down if there is a lack of uptake of new models.
 
Hanging on to phones hasn't been somethingnthat I've done, but I have an S6 Edge now which runs absolutely fine. Due for a renewal at the end of the year but I'll look at keeping it for another year or so if I can half my bill for that time.
 
A few years ago phones weren't worth having once they were eighteen months old so you were forced to upgrade after two years. These days phoned last much longer so no need to upgrade. Difficult part is remembering to switch to sim only at end of contract
 
The phone I have now is the dearest I've bought 145 quid Blackview BV7000 Pro.
Wanted something that looked a bit different from the Samsung/Iphone clones.
 
I would like the S7, but I don't want to be paying a few hundred for the handset and no contract deals will come close to the SIM only deal I have.

Got one of the lower range Huawei phones so that will do until that packs in
 
I am very happy with my Samsung S7 and don't see any need to upgrade it at the end of my contract unless one of my family needs a new handset due to breaking theirs.
 
I've got about 5-6 months left on this contract and while I like the look of the iPhone 8 I've got a 64gb iPhone 6S that is doing a job fine. I'm thinking about keeping this or if I do go for the 8 I'll be saving up to buy it outright and going on a sim only plan. I can see the tariffs for the 8 being at least £50 a month.
 
They were upgraded significantly on years gone by now they are just a much of a muchness so no need to upgrade regularly.
 
I suppose that people have woken up to the fact that there is such little variance between the different versions that it's hardly worth the cost. I'm a self confessed apple geek and even I was majority pissed off at the minimal difference between the 6 and the 7.
Moving forward, unless they come up with a phone that has a completely unheard of new function, they've now reached the point that all phones are hard to distinguish between.
 
Downgraded from an iPhone7 to an iPhone 5 (my favourite iPhone).

Have more than I need, including Sky Sports and BT Sport (through my Virgin app).

£25 p/m.
 
I've got a drawer full of old cell phones. Early Nokias, Motorola fliphone and 4 Samsung. I'll be hanging on to my S7 until it dies this time as it does everything I want and probably a lot more than I know of
 
Upgraded from iphone 6s to iphone 7 and the differance in spec was minimal. Seems like they're bringing out new phones for the sake of it now rather than for major improvement sake.
Defo looking at sim only at contract end, dont need anything better
 
aghalee_hero said:
Tenner a month sim only deal, unlimited calls, text and 5gb of data. I'm a bit of a geek but still using my s6 edge, the prices of phones are getting stupid these days. Reckon I'll get a while out of this yet tbh.
Click to expand...
Who is your sim with mate? My contract is up in November and I'm going to go Sim only.
 
I've got an iPhone 6 which I bought 2 years ago and a sim only. Nothing that apple has released since then has wanted me to change my phone.

Really what can phone manufacturers do instead of yearly small improvements?
 
I've been SIM only for ages and use a battered old iphone 4S, I do a lot of mountain biking and Snowboarding so they take a bit of a battering which is why I don't use the latest tech, But the 4s is nearing the end of its life and I'll buy a 6s once the 8 comes out as the price should drop and I can afford to buy one instead of a contract and I only use it for calling, messaging, photos and FB anyway
 
Had a contact for years and played the upgrade game as well, got fed up being tied in paying 50 odd quid every month just for the new device.

I went sim only pay monthly in 2015 for 13 quid a month and save a fortune over the year.
 
im still rocking the galaxy s5 on sim only since the contract ran out. and still see no need to change it. does what I need it to until it goes tits up
 
I've has a sim only contract for years, but then I wouldn't want to upgrade my nokia 6280.

Phone and text only loyal.
 
I have an S5 on sim only with unlimited data, 30gb tethering a month and enough minutes and texts to do me: this is £20 a month and for a similar plan with a new phone Three want about £60.
 
I've never minded paying a bit more for my phone as it's one thing I carry everywhere that covers so many uses. Check the Internet when I wake up, listen to music as I get ready and while I drive. Emails, calendar and note taking as well as quick fact checking at work. camera for pictures with the family, watch YouTube videos as I make dinner, stream Netflix from it to watch on tv with the missus and alarm clock for the next morning. Could do it all with a budget phone but I don't mind paying a bit more to ensure it's a smoother experience.

Saying that, £500 - 650 would be my limit. this year has seen phones get way too expensive. If I'm recommending phones to friends and family, I'll suggest picking up last year's model second hand. It'll be easily half the price of the latest phone and accessories will be much cheaper.

Companies will need to start pushing more boundaries to convince new buyers. Samsung tried this with their infinity displays so it'll be interesting to see how they try top them next year. will be hard to radically change their designs.
 
Bought a 6s+ 2 years ago from the Apple shop then bought a sim only package at £15 a month from Vodafone,waiting to see their next offering be it the 8 or X before deciding what to do.Either stick with it or sell and buy the new one.
 
I would have kept my s6 edge but some grey spots (quite large) appeared on the screen after it went out of warranty and it would have cost too much to fix. They annoyed me that much I ended up hating it. Got a Sony xz premium and absolutely love it, it's the best I've had by a country mile.

Almost guaranteed I'll find a reason to upgrade when the contract is up though.
 
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.
 
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?
Click to expand...

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.
 
I agree. There is a defo shift in people renewing year on year to switching to sim only for an extra year, two or three. For apple and sumsung this will reduce sales but for networks it pretty much BAU. They dont make much from handsets anyway. When you are looking close the price of a good laptop for something you carry in your pocket on a daily basis it had to peak eventually.
 
iPhone 6 and sim only for me , can't see any reason to upgrade and can see me having this phone for the next few years
 
I think we're reaching a point where there's not a great deal more that phones can do, or that we can imagine them doing.

If you go back 15-20 years when folk had Nokia 3310s, people would think "wouldn't it be great if this had a colour screen?", or if you could make video calls to people, or browse the internet lightning quick, or watch TV shows on your phone. Those were the things people wanted, it just took a few years for the technology to deliver it, which it did several years later in the form of smartphones and wi-fi internet.

But what do we want the phones of the 2020s and 2030s to do that can't already be done? I'm struggling to think.

An iPhone battery that would last about a week between charges would be nice!
 
aghalee_hero said:
Tenner a month sim only deal, unlimited calls, text and 5gb of data. I'm a bit of a geek but still using my s6 edge, the prices of phones are getting stupid these days. Reckon I'll get a while out of this yet tbh.
Click to expand...
What network is that deal with?

Just saw your reply above.
Don't get EE signal at home
 
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