What's The Real Cost of a SmartPhone?
By @edent
· cost mobile phones tariff · 3 comments · 700 words · read ~362 times.
There's been a little bit of confusion in the blogosphere recently about the true cost of smartphones. Ewan Spence points out that the iPhone actually costs $2,000. An instant response by Bill Palmer points out that Nokia's Windows 8 smartphones cost $2,500.
The US and European markets are radically different in how they operate and advertise. The US tends to advertise phones as being "Only $10 upfront!" whereas the UK tends to advertise as "Only £20 per month!"
With a range of subsidies, price plans, discounts which only last a few months, and multi-year contracts, it can be very confusing to try and work out the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).
So, here's the way I look at it.
I recently bought the Samsung Galaxy Note II. I think it's the first phone I've purchased with my own money since starting in the mobile industry - so I was fairly keen to work this out correctly.
I'll be looking at O2 (I work for Telefonica, these thoughts are my own, etc) although other telcos offer the same basic pricing strategy. This just looks at the cost for hardware and a contract. It doesn't take into account that companies also make some money selling apps and music tied to their phones.
With the Galaxy Note II the costs (today) are (for unlimited calls & texts + 1GB data)
£245 for the phone + £26 per month for 24 months = £874 TCO
Or, if you'd rather have a lower upfront cost £129.99 + £31*24 = £874
As you can see, the TCO is exactly the same. You save on the initial cost, but pay extra every month. Depending on your finances one may be preferable to the other.
Make the upfront cost cheaper still. £100 + £36*24 = £964
Bang! That's where the first hit comes. Save £30 up front, pay an extra £90 overall!
Want the phone for free? £Free + £41*24 = £984.
A "free" phone ends up costing you £110 more.
For an 18 month contract, the price jumps again. £199.99 + £5618 = £1,208 £Free + £7218 = £1,296
Gulp! That's pretty much $2,000 for a top of the line Android phone. Telcos want you to stay with them - a short contract bumps the price considerably. If you carried on paying the monthly amount for a further 6 months and decided to keep the same phone - you'd end up paying double the cost of taking out a 24 month contract with an upfront phone cost.
Ok, but do those pricing schemes mean that you are paying over the odds?
The handset only price from O2 is £480 (it's cheaper from third party websites). The SIM only price is £20 per month (for 12 months) for the same tariff (unlimited calls & texts + 1GB data).
£480 + £20*12 = £720
That's a considerable saving over taking out a contract! And you're only tied in for a year. Then you can change tariff or phone.
Of course, we need to compare over the same time period. £480 + £20*24 = £960
There, it seems, it's slightly more expensive over two years - about £3.60 per month to get the flexibility of changing both phone and contract. Of course, if you don't need billions of minutes and texts, you can drop the costs considerably.
A 300 minute plan (because who talks on their phone anymore?!) with unlimited texts and 100MB or 500MB of data will cost £13.50 or £16.50. £480 + £13.5024 = £804 £480 + £16.5024 = £876
If you need a top line calls/text/data package, it just about makes financial sense to take out a contract. If you favour flexibility, or want to save money, it's usually as cheap to buy the phone and contract separately.
The price range for a top end phone on an top end contract over 24 months is £874 to £1,296 ($1,400 - $2,100). You can end up paying £422 extra ($680) for exactly the same phone and contract.
That's roughly a staggering 40% APR! If you were to borrow the £874 at the start of the contract, you'd have to find a really dodgy loan company to give you rates that high. Short term low value loans at the moment range from 5% to 10% at most reputable financial institutions.
If you don't use all your minutes and data allowance, the worst case scenario premium is £492 (that's £1296 - £804). An "interest rate" of 50% per year.
The "real" cost of a smartphone depends entirely on how financially astute you are - and if you can afford the upfront cost. If not, prepare to pay the price.
This assumes that the provider pays the same amount for the phone as you would if you purchased the phone then looked for a network. But because the provider can purchase in bulk and will have a break even point, so what is the true cost of the phone from the provider?. For example provider X sees a phone retailing for £400, but goes to the supplier and ask for a discount for bulk. and provides the you with the phone at £25 pm. over 24 months You do the calculations mmm. phone cost £16.67 pm and looks at the pay as you go costs, say average 100 minutes at £0.4per minute per month (£40 in call charges) then say 200 text at £0.12 pm (£24 in texting) then 500mb of dater at £1/mb (£5). So for £25 pm you get a phone for £16.67 + £69 in calls etc.= £75.67 pm.
But say I purchase the phone completely then go for a rolling unlimited contract of £15pm so £16.67 + £15 = £31.67
So with these figures how much does the provider actually pay for the contract phone?
I cannot find out this figure, because it is a trade secret.
OK, about the phone, assume that I am aprovider and do a deal and can get the phone for manufactured cost plus 10%. So the cost for manufacture is in the area of £200 + £40 = £240 or £10 pm. Now I then look at people who want to just use my network without purchasing a phone from me. I look at my trends I say as before 100 minutes talk, 200 text, 500mb (pm), this being my second variable, that I need to make profit on, so I need to set this attractive to the customer. so I force my standard tariffs high. This then makes my rolling contracts attractive, yet profitable.
I also have my profit margins, so 5%, it means my true cost of the rolling contract must be "minimum" of 105% to make the profit or my profit of £0.71 (my 5%) - £14.29.
with the above assumption let's now look at the contract phone. As previous cost of phone £10, my cost for calls etc. £15 = £25.
Furthermore. let's try to put this back into the real world, I need to make money on the contract phone as well the call /data charges, so on a £25 pm contract phone I need to purchase that phone cheaply. it then must follow that it must be purchased for less than £10.
Now let's try to put this in to some form of understandable context. The actual cost of the £25 contract phone is less than £10pm or 40% of the contract price. So a £34 pm phone would cost £13.6.
You must look at these figures as a outline understanding, because as the contract cost goes up so does the actual cost of the phone.
Andrew McGlashan says:
And what about the real cost of maintaining it? Every device you own and maintain takes considerable time to do so during it's lifetime.
Another example, you buy a PC, it has a low cost these days. Then you need to maintain it and install updates indefinitely; so long as you want to extend it's life (hopefully, the useful life).