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Sell the sizzle, not the sausage

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Smartphone launch season is on…and nobody cares.

 

Or – to put it better – the smartphone launch hype has disappeared and is unlikely to return.

 

Speaking with a market analyst last week, it seems most people are now holding on to smartphones for up to five years.  In the past the replacement cycle was annual.

 

Some might argue this is price related – but I’m not sure.  The first iPhone’s starting cost was £499 in 2007, around £800 at today’s prices.  The recently launched iPhone 16 starts at £999, which is  25 percent more – but you are getting a lot more phone for your money. 

 

I suspect three other things are more important.

 

The first is that smartphones are not novel anymore.  When the market first exploded there was plenty of innovation, with different-sized products, vastly different cameras and huge variances in battery life.  Now it’s marginal.  Smartphones are becoming less like a category of their own and more like other consumer technology devices.  We don’t rush out to buy every new TV each time a clearer screen or a thinner bezel is launched, so why bother with a smartphone?

 

The second – and perhaps most important change - is in the reliability of smartphones.  A decade ago, a year-old device would lose battery capability, while cracked/broken screens were hard to replace reliably.  It almost felt like obsolescence was built into the products.  Now phones are much more robust.  It’s harder to justify upgrading to a new phone when nothing is really wrong with the old one.

 

Finally, the mobile industry has been rubbish at giving us compelling reasons to upgrade.  It’s all been about megapixels and faster speeds – not what this means for consumers or how it can make life easier, smarter, and simpler.  Take the current ‘AI built-in’ obsession.  The manufacturers have failed to articulate the real benefits to users that AI adds to a smartphone.

 

Which means there is a huge opportunity for any brand that can break through and talk to people about benefits rather than technology.  I wonder who will take advantage?

 

Talking of smartphones, you might have seen the recent news that several schools are banning the use of smartphones.  This prompted me to write a blog article on my own use of hte smartphone, specifically the apps I use every day.  You can read it here if you fancy.

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