Huawei's Mate 8 6-inch Phablet Coming To North America, We Go Hands On

[alex davies]

Today at CES, Huawei marked the global launch of the 6-inch Mate 8 phablet (which Huawei is optimistically dubbing the “ultimate high-end smartphone”), including North America.

Huawei's Mate 8 6-inch Phablet Coming To North America, We Go Hands On : Read more

 

[InvalidError]

I wonder for how much longer the ultra-high-end phone market will survive with Asus starting to aggressively push many of the same high-end specs in the $200-350 range. I hope more manufacturer will follow.

I almost bought a 551KL but passed when I found out it only had single-band N since 2.4GHz is too crowded in my neighborhood for reliable VoIP.

 

[hitman400]

I wonder for how much longer the ultra-high-end phone market will survive with Asus starting to aggressively push many of the same high-end specs in the $200-350 range. I hope more manufacturer will follow.

I almost bought a 551KL but passed when I found out it only had single-band N since 2.4GHz is too crowded in my neighborhood for reliable VoIP.

High end spends =/= high end phones. High end phones encompass specs, one of many things.

 

[targetdrone]

There was a time when Google was selling $600 specs for $300, now look at the cost of a Nexus. I don't think Asus will be able to keep it up for long.

 

[InvalidError]

There was a time when Google was selling $600 specs for $300, now look at the cost of a Nexus. I don't think Asus will be able to keep it up for long.

Why wouldn't they be able to keep them up? A $80 Android phone already has all the fundamental components of a $700 phone. The BoM difference between that and a $200 551KL is likely less than $70 ($20 for the RAM, $10 for the display, $10 for the SoC, $10 for the cameras, $20 for miscellaneous other stuff), which means Asus is pocketing around $50 extra per sale there. From there to uber-high-end phones, it is only another $70-100 on the BoM or so, mostly to beef up the specs of individual components, a 300-500% incremental markup. Asus can keep it up for however long as they want to grow their market share since they are making a fairly decent profit on each sale as it is.

The only reason Google ended up charging $600 for their new phones and tablet is because they decided to re-purpose the Nexus brand from its original value-oriented and developer-friendly Android launch platform brand to a premium consumer brand priced to match its intended competitors.

 

[kenjitamura]

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