Flagship phones are premium phones that identify the brand of the company selling it. They are usually built with best-in-class hardware and software. They are also the costliest phones in the market just because they have cutting edge hardware and software which gives them unique features.
Some of the leading brands in the Indian mobile space are Apple, Samsung, Google, and One Plus. Apple uses the iOS operating system and the rest of the brands use Android. Android is widely used for many reasons by the consumers but hardware manufacturers can easily scale up and quickly provide an Apple iOS eco-system like experience. Android also found use in the open-source world providing alternate ROMs for devices and customization. Apps could be delivered through the official Google Play store or alternate app stores like Samsung App store or Amazons app store.- Since it is open, anyone can publish apps with a one-time payment and create adware and malware that can be installed by anybody. Google however routinely bans such apps and publishes security fixes.
The biggest selling point of Android is the price. There is an Android phone at every price point. From an extremely low-end phone which costs a few thousand to phones which costs more than a lakh. There is a market for every price point.
Apple’s iOS on the other hand is developed by Apple as a closed project and the OS works only on Apple hardware. The ecosystem consists of the App store through which apps are delivered. Since everything goes through the Apple review, it is a little bit more secure about adware and malware.
Most of the premium flagship phones would be very close to each other when we speak of performance and hardware. Many though offering different services. Apple offers a consistent experience and provides premium subscription features such as iCloud. Google on the pixel phones offers full resolution/high-quality storage for free while Samsung has a host of services from its own app store to security services.
What is the real cost of ownership of such a premium phone?
- It is the initial cost one pays for the phone and its services.
- How long the phone stays new. In other words, how many updates the phone will get.
- How much will the resale value be after the support ends
All of this by the number of years a mobile phone will be officially supported. After this time the resale value of a phone falls drastically to one third the original price or lesser.
- Apple supports their software the longest. They provide updates for more than 5 years. This means the phone is bound to get at least 5 to 6 new releases and security updates.
- Google and Samsung provide 3 years of support, which means after 3 years new builds and security updates will stop.
- One Plus provides 2 years of support and updates.
From the table, clearly owning an Apple iPhone is better than the rest. The yearly costs are lower than Android phones! We often tend to look at Android phones and think of them to be cheaper. What we are really comparing are cheaper Android phones to iPhone. Hence, it is also more likely that getting a sub-Rs. 30000 phone is a much better value for money than the premium phones at the moment. This is also the reason why all of the 3 companies (including Apple) operate in the sub-30k market too.
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