According to a recent survey done by Retrevo on over 500 Americans 62% of smarpthone owners feel that their handset is obsolete. To be more exact, they answered “yes” to “Do you feel your current smartphone is out of date or will be before your contract is up?”. This doesn’t really surprise us since we write about the latest gadgets on a daily basis, but Retrevo has some hard numbers. In March 2010 a top of the line smartphone had a 5 megapixel camera and single core processor. Contrast that to today where top of the line gets you an 8 megapixel camera, dual core processor, and in some cases even 4G connectivity. What if consumers were offered 1 year contracts, would they bite? A full 66% said they wouldn’t get a 1 year contract if it meant paying more for the device up front, which is discouraging, but then 19% said they have no problem paying up to $100 more than what they did for their current smartphone, and 4% even said they’d be comfortable paying $200 more.
It goes without saying that the European and Asian model of buying your mobile phone unsubsidized isn’t going to fly over in FreedomLand, which is a damn shame since people spend more time poking and prodding at the piece of glass in their pocket than they do mousing around their PC, yet they’ve got no problem dropping over $1,000 on a PC in one payment. If we could change something about the current system it would be to eliminate the monopoly that operators have on giving customers a loan, because that’s all they’re really doing, making you pay off a device over a period of 24 months, like you would a house, car, or tuition. You can shop around at several banks to find the best rate for a loan, so why is it that the only person willing to help you put that $600+ smartphone in your pocket is the person who most looks forward to nickel and dime-ing you to death every month?
[Via: GigaOM]