Much Ado About Nothing on Smartphone Pricing (Premium)

With flagship smartphone pricing finally hitting the $1000 threshold, there's been a lot of hand-wringing. But these prices are sustainable. More important, they're not really all that different from the situation a year ago.

And this is coming from the guy who routinely complains about high prices. But as is the case in, say, the automobile market where you can buy a perfectly good VW for thousands less than an Audi that utilizes many of the same parts and components, the smartphone market has quickly evolved to accommodate luxury products too.

(I've only purchased one new car in my life, a 2000 VW New Beetle, which set me back $18,000 at the time. I owned that vehicle for about 15 years, but my wife and I have since purchased three-year-old former leases. This seems like a good comprise between "new" and "expensive.")

Point being, you may aspire to an iPhone X, which has a starting price of $999. But most will simply choose an iPhone, or other smartphone, that is more affordable. An iPhone 8, by comparison, starts at just $699, and includes almost all of the iPhone X's important features. The year-old iPhone 7 is an even better value, with a starting price of just $549.

Regardless, all of this hand-wringing over the $1000 threshold is silly.

First of all, there are great values to be had. The OnePlus 5T is an obvious example, with its $500 price tag. But even the Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+, both amazing phones, can often be had for well under $800. In fact, there were basically half-price or two-for-one deals over the Black Friday period. You don't need to pony up $1000 for a nice phone.

But let's say you wanted to. For some reason. A year ago, when Apple announced the iPhone 7, the 256 GB version of the iPhone 7 Plus cost $950. That's basically $1000. Meaning that we've been heading in this direction for a while now. (The 256 GB version of the iPhone 8 Plus, this year, is also $950.)

Anyway, don't worry about the Chicken Littles. Just buy the phone you want and can afford.