RetroFed
Should you still buy your next smartphone — or subscribe to it instead? Apple, Samsung … are betting that leasing, subscriptions, and guaranteed buyback programs can make upgrading more attractive.
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eicker
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Subscriptions were supposed to replace cable, then software, then heated seats, now phones. Funny how every innovation somehow ends with paying forever. If your business model needs me renting hardware I already carry everywhere, maybe the product isn’t improving fast enough to justify buying it?
The way I read that title: Apple and Samsung stopped innovating, now sales aren’t growing, so it’s time for enshittification.
I buy one smartphone per decade. Why would I want to lease it instead?
Think of the recurring opportunity for emails about price increases and downstream shareholder value!
With smartphones current prices and componants becoming more expensive they are realizing not a lot of people will buy a smartphone costing more than 1500 dollars. Especially when hardware is now good enough and people are starting to try to keep their phone as long as possible.
Making you rent your phone allow to hide how much it’s going to cost you and ensure them a steady cash income.
This!
If you cannot control the software on the device — including the OS — then you never bought it. You paid for it, but you did not buy it and therefore do not own it.
The only thing prompting phone replacement for me was battery life. And nearly all phones have shit ability to replace batteries (for now - EU rules incoming).
I bought a Fairphone 6 with /e/OS. I’ve left Big Tech behind. And I have a phone where I can easily replace the components. I don’t want to swap devices for 4-5 years, which makes ownership far more cost effective than leasing.
Also – with leasing, what happens when the renter is done with it? E waste, just like we have today.
Biggest issue is software support. You really do not want to run your banking app on an older, unpatched Android version
Oneplus 13 has two day battery life for me. Best phone I’ve ever owned. But I heard they are not going to release oneplus phones in Europe anymore so that sucks a lot. I dont want anything else.
No they just sell the devices to the secondary market
No, and also fuck off with that.
Maybe we just need more affordable phones.
There were lots of affordable phones before the AI companies bought up all of the RAM and flash.
I wrote this comment on a $150 phone which for all the purposes that I use it for, performs exactly as well as an $800 iPhone.
I bought my Samsung for $240 CAD, brand new, not refurbished.
I can’t tell the difference from an expensive phone. Less camera lens? I don’t understand why other phones are $1000 to $2000. Processor speed? On a phone? I’m not running games on this thing except online chess. It plays YouTube without ads. It makes calls and sends texts.
I just don’t get it.
Past $800, you’re not getting a better processor. The base iPhone and Galaxy offer the same chip as the Pro Max and Ultra, respectively, in most generations.
You’re only getting more cameras or screen. The $2000 ones fold.
Don’t kid yourselves, the majority of people will eat this shit up
That’s exactly what I thought. I know so many people that just want the newest release just because “status”. Most of those people I know can’t actually afford it, they just prioritise it over other things.
And most of them are tech illiterate and don’t use 80% of the phone’s abilities.
They will love this.
Even without the FOMO, some people just want a working device.
It’s why leasing cars is attractive to some. They don’t care about the specs, they want one that works “well” and looks nice and are willing to give up nebulous “ownership"of a device that they don’t know or care how it works, that they can’t repair, so they can stop thinking about their choice and just always have a one available.
I don’t get that status thing, every phone looks the same to me. A black rectangle with screen in a generic case. Woo..
Yup, they already buy their phone on a payment plan for double the price, and get locked into a carrier at inflated rates. Eventually though, they could actually own their phone.
But they’ll just see a lower monthly price tag, and trade in the ability to eventually own the phone.
Not beating the WEF’s “you will own nothing and you’ll be happy” conspiracy aren’t they
Well one part of that is true at least.
No, I get a new device because I’ve broken the last one. The ones I give back, you can’t sell on the secondary market which is their intent.
All companies see there are more profits to be made if you let consumers pay your company monthly instead of once, while you do not let them own anything. It is disgusting.
Did you pay your rent yesterday?
Yeah, because these companies buy up all houses while there’s a housing shortage, so I can’t afford buying one myself as the market is fucked. So I’m forced into subscription.
I will not rent critical items.
There has been a large push to enter a subscription for eyeglasses, the large firms here keep pushing and pushing to rent glasses.
Fuck no, I refuse to have my eyesight be dependent on having to keep paying.
Same for music, I buy all my music through iTunes, I have never used Spotify, I refuse to be put in a situation where I am in financial trouble and I loose access to my music.
This is the same crap, I need a phone to be an active member of modern society, I will not rent that access.
Wait, sorry, a subscription for GLASSES!? They’re like $150 here if you want the name-brand ones, or covered by insurance if you don’t. Insurance is basic btw, $80 a month for a family of 4 for ‘basic extras’. I don’t know which country you live in, but I can take a wild guess.
In America you can have whatever the top tier of vision insurance is available to you and it’s basically a $100 off coupon for frames. I’ve never not spent $300-$400 for glasses.
Yeah, both our largest optician chains, Synsam and Synoptik, as well as others, are pushing subscriptions, hard.
Now, I am fortunate enough that I can afford to buy name brand glasses with the best lenses on the market, two pairs (one normal, one sunnies) cost me about €1500, but there are far cheaper alternatives.
Initially I used to only buy new phones when my phone became too slow - roughly every 6-7 years. Now I get refurbished or get it from someone else for free and replace the battery. My current phone is from 2018 and still works well. Why would I replace it?
You should buy it. Every time. Fuck subscriptions.
An important thing to note here is that this isn’t anything new. This is what a significant amount of people have already been doing for years through their carrier. I don’t have any statistics on hand for this, but I personally don’t know a single person who has bought their phone outright. Everyone just leases their phone through their carrier around here, and upgrades as soon as they’re allowed. Hearing people complain about their cellphone plan cost increasing or poor cell service but being unable to switch carriers until their phone is paid off is a common thing to hear, as carriers have been using their phone leasing programs as a substitute for plan contracts for awhile now.
Leasing your phone through your carrier with the ability to buy or turn it in at the end of the term has been the name of the game for a very long time. What Apple and Samsung are doing is just trying to entice you into going direct through them instead of your carrier which is actually a good thing.
If you’ve been buying your phone outright then you shouldn’t use a program like this, but if you’ve been leasing your phone through your carrier I’d actually recommend switching to just doing the same thing directly through the manufacturer since it frees you up to switch carriers whenever you want.
I buy my phone’s on either back market or swappa. Paid half of the price for a perfectly good phone. That are guaranteed to work too
I should have kept reading before posting. You basically said the same thing I did only better. 😂
Or, maybe their CEOs can stick them in their asses.
No. The only innovations these days are AI. If you don’t care about that, you’ll be fine with whatever.
My iPhone is pretty current from 2024, but my Android phone from 2019 isn’t much slower or less capable. It has less storage, but it has a memory card slot. There isn’t much it can’t do that the newer iPhone can, except for generate AI slop on device.
If you need AI, they’re gonna make you pay to play. If you don’t… just chill.
Serious question: How is subsiding a phone over three years and then trading it in at the end of those three years to get another phone any different from leasing ?
Yes
Well Apple and Samsung can kiss my hairy hoop.
I’m sure carriers still do payment plans
they do, but its seperate from the phone company itself charging a subscription.
Let’s be honest here: A smartphone costs the same to develop, produce and so on, regardless of if you simply buy it or rent it. The companies need their profit, so they will not start renting you a phone when it is more profitable to sell it to you. It should make you suspicious that they want you to rent, because that kind of tells you that they will make more profit from renting than selling. That means that you will pay more for your phone in the long run without owning it.
The reason this is happening is because the cost of DRAM is ballooning the prices of all electronics and they are fully aware that people can’t pay the new higher prices even if they wanted to. Lower monthly payments is the difference between whether a lot of people buy an Apple or Samsung device at all.
I wouldn’t call this move nefarious on its own, but it is a dystopian side affect of the real problem which is DRAM price gauging.
Honest question, what the fuck happens with phones that companies buy back? Is it for recycling? I can’t imagine that makes them any money, so is the bet just that its worth it for then to subsidize the cost of the new phone to keep you buying new ones more often? That doesnt feel like it adequately explains the practice
Apple is known for reselling and recycling.
Instead of innovating to create a better phone each year that users want, they seem more interested in just changing the business model. I used to be a person that would upgrade my phone every year or so, now I only start looking when my phone is within 1 year of end of life.
I want an essential phone. Not too basic and not too “smart”.
This is basically how my company gives us our phones. And i think it’s now our less standard
How about you guys kiss the pimpliest part of my ass instead?