Posted on Wednesday, February 04 2015 @ 15:15 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck
Forbes
writes the average pricing of Apple's iPhones has increased to $687, whereas the average price of an Android phone has dropped to $254. The averages are shifting further apart due to the popularity of the iPhone 6 on the one end and low-cost Android phones on the other end.
The average iPhone cost went from an estimated $600 in Q1 2014 to $687 in Q4 2014. The average price of Android devices dropped from $300-$350 in Q1 2014 to $254 in Q4 2014. The averages likely shifted due to the introduction of the higher-priced iPhone 6 Plus and the growing popularity of lower-cost Android smartphones. The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus costs between $649 and $949 off-contract, while many Android smartphones cost lower than $250 off-contract. Even Motorola is selling Android smartphones at lower costs like the Moto G for $179.99.
The shift in the average prices of iPhones and Android devices seemed to have a negative effect on Samsung. Samsung, the largest Android device manufacturer, announced their quarterly financials last week — which revealed a 64.2% profit drop. Apple AAPL -0.05% shipped 74.5 million iPhones for the fourth quarter, a 90% increase from the previous quarter. This figure enabled the iPhone-maker to break a record profit of $18 billion – the most profitable quarter ever reported by any company. Unfortunately, Android-based smartphone shipments dropped 5% to a total of 205.56 million units during the same quarter.
