The Lumia 1030/McLaren

Flagships are expensive. That’s a given. If you want classy hardware, you’ll have to pay a classy price. But a lot of people don’t really need the internal power that comes with a lot of phones these days; they just want a nice looking phone. Back in the beginning of this year, I was shopping for a new Lumia. I was eyeing the 830, but that thing was way too expensive at around $400. So I ended up eventually buying the 640 XL instead. While having about the same specs inside each, the 830 looks much more premium. Looking back, I would rather have an 830. Then Microsoft stopped production of the device, and everything got messed up. And here’s where the problem is. Apple sells their phones by coming out with 1 or 2 a year and pricing those the highest, while bumping down last year’s model about $100. This creates an efficient, predictable pricing system that allows Apple to have a presence in the mid-range market.

Apple’s current iPhone lineup, with a simple pricing scheme.

Microsoft/Nokia (and a LOT of other phone makers), on the other hand, tend to release a flagship and quickly stop selling the previous model (or in the case of this round, stop selling their previous flagship before the next one’s release). And this is a real shame. Look back a couple years to the Lumia 925.

That phone is still a really nice device. Premium design, fantastic camera, decent battery life, the whole shebang. And the Snapdragon S4 Plus, while not being super great, is decent and gets the job done well. It’s better than the Snapdragon 400, at least. And the best part is, while it originally retailed for over $500, you can pick it up on eBay for about $70 now. I’m seriously tempted to get one. Microsoft last year *tried* to cater to this mid-range premium market with the Lumia 830, but again, the price was too high, and rather than having a last-gen *high-end* processor like the Snapdragon S4, it featured a squarely mid-range 400.

But frankly the best (and most cost-effective) way to treat this market simply is to continue selling last-gen flagships for a reduced price. It allows for design and production costs to be cheaper, as *no* extra money is put into design and production can continue with the same device rather than having to switch to a new one and workers having to re-learn the process. It also ensures that the design is spot-on. The phones would then feel like serious thought was put into them, rather than just a design meant for a mid-range phone.

Microsoft’s phone sales would make so much more since if their pricing was set up consistently. For example, if they were still producing old flagships, they could sell the Lumia 950 XL at $650, the 950 at $550, the 930 at $400, and the Lumia 925 at $250. This consistent system of pricing would allow Microsoft to go forward with their plan of consolidating their phone lines into 3, say, the 500, 700, and 900 series, and still cover every type of phone buyer with older models. Overlap of different lines, i.e. the 830 and 925, the 735 and the 820, the 640 and older 700s, and the 435 somewhat with the older 500s and 600s, currently causes a plethora of confusion with buyers and would no longer be a large issue.

I think that the smartphone market will continue to gravitate towards much more premium devices, whether they’re iPhones or premium mid-range devices. Microsoft needs to realize this and step up their game, and shift their pricing model around to something like I’m suggesting. If Microsoft still sold the Lumia 925, then I would probably buy one. Obviously since production has already stopped on older flagships, this pricing scheme couldn’t currently be implemented. But going forward, I seriously hope that this is the way Microsoft goes, as it could simplify their phone lineup and offer us more compelling, premium hardware, even when paying a mid-range price for it.