Why would anybody buy a high-end smartphone anymore?

A recent NPD report reveals that less than 10% of Americans buy high-end smartphones: brands’ flagship models that typically cost more than $1,000. Everybody else buys cheaper models that have progressively improved and now present a truly competitive option.

The leading consumer electronics brands worldwide are locked in a fight to position their terminals, with the latest data showing a market divided up between Samsung (21%), Huawei (18%) and Apple (12%), Oppo (9%), with Xiaomi and Vivo both at 8%. But the reality is that the struggle is less about market share as the margin: all smartphones now perform the same tasks, whether surfing the net, consulting mail or social networks, taking photographs, consulting a map or using apps, all of which means a high-end phone is simply a status symbol. The result is that the most important market is the middle or even low range models, but that offer relatively low margins.

These days, smartphones all look and perform alike and it’s difficult to pick one over another except on aesthetic or design issues. Brand loyalties apart, the market has become commoditized, and in addition to fewer users opting for the top range, we’re holding on to our terminals for longer.

In such an environment, Apple’s shifts toward services makes sense, but what it really says is that there is less money to be made selling smartphones. Introducing a rental service for terminals that are renewed when new models come out could be the way forward. Each new iPhone model still has a certain impact on sales, but Apple’s market share has remained relatively constant for quite some time and sales are slowing down: not even the most unconditional fans buy the latest models. Those lines outside stores are a thing of the past. Today, the best word to describe the smartphone market, as with personal computers, is boring.

(En español, aquí)