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back to article Want a twenty-buck smartphone? Go to China, says ARM exec

According to ARM, smartphone price differentials are spreading rapidly, with the low-end approaching a floor of around twenty bucks thanks to downward pressure coming from – where else? – China. "What you're seeing is this tremendous spread of the actual price of smartphones now, fundamentally from $700 – and actually above, …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Interesting thoughts

    So I will be happy with a middle range $50-60 smartphone.Can it be made availabe in the UK ? WIth dual sim options, which is all the rage in Asia? If they allowed dual sim, how will they be able to get monies from the sale of extra Sim/handsets contracts?

    ( you guessed it - the big boys will not allow this distribution, since it is already cartelised with everyone in the chain getting their pound of flesh) )

    Is Apple at $700, 12 times the chinese phone ? (Fanbois need not answer that)

    Just proves how much of a rip off these companies have become. ( That includes Samsung as well).

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    1. Mage Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: Interesting thoughts

      But Apple *IS* a Chinese phone. With USA marketing and OS.

      7 1
    2. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Interesting thoughts

      Depending what you call a middle range. There are several mailorder Chinese companies which sell stuff to Europe. Check out DX, FOCALPRICE , TINYDEAL. You can get entry level Android phones for under 40US$, for around 60 you get a dual core with GPS, dual camera, shipping included. They sell "stupid" phones too, and it seems that the prices on the low end not much different. Soon there will not be a point buying regular old fashioned phones. I have used these companies and never had any problem with them.

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  2. John Savard

    Amazing?

    I have hoped that an Android tablet might come down to the $20 range, but because a telephone requires extra radio circuitry - and you need to subscribe to a cell phone service anyways to use it as more than an excessively small tablet - I hadn't hoped for this to happen. But I should not have overestimated the fact that cell phones are a very popular product category.

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    1. frank ly
      Reply Icon

      Re: Amazing?

      An Android tablet only needs the WiFi to be fully connected since you can tether it to your Android phone.

      1 0
  3. Mikel

    Amazing extension of Internet access

    It will be amazing to see another billion people come online in the next few years.

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Amazing extension of Internet access

      "It will be amazing to see another billion people come online in the next few years."

      Indeed, Web designers please note, and "think global" accordingly.

      These new to the net people will be

      . using small screens

      . using lowish resolution screens

      . not using Flash

      . not appreciative of being unable to access your largescreen/Flash/IE-centric content

      1 0
      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Amazing extension of Internet access

        Don't worry, most of them have already decided that those of us with dual, side-by-side 1920x900 screens don't really expect to be able to use it.

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  4. Christian Berger

    I'd be perfectly happy...

    ...with a palmtop like device with 512 Mb of RAM. Just so I can have a tiny laptop I can carry around with me in my pocket.

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    1. Suburban Inmate
      Reply Icon

      Re: I'd be perfectly happy...

      Indeed, ISTR running Unreal on a mere 64MB of RAM.

      Frankly I'm surprised the smartphone isn't the core of the modern digital life, with a tablet style dock for bigger screen stuff, additional keyboard serious typing on the move, and a fully featured dock at home featuring NAS, lots of connectivity, maybe some enhanced grunt for games (i.e. have them launched from the phone's OS and the home screens you've tweaked to your liking, but the heavy lifting delegated to the desktop hardware) with full desktop K/V/M.

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  5. Zola

    Nokia

    While The Reg doesn't expect to see Samsung, Nokia, or any of China's top brands compete in the ultra low-end market,

    I thought competing at the very low end was in fact the last big idea that came out of Nokia before being consumed by Microsoft.

    However maybe the "low end" just shifted down a notch or two (at least in terms of ASP) and Nokiasoft with their sub-$100 AOSP Franken-platform phones will as usual be caught with their pants around their ankles.

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  6. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Happy

    Never happen with an Intel processor

    You couldn't even buy it

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