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United Kingdom Businesses Communications

In UK, Consumers Are Now More Aware That They Can Ditch Their Phone Bundles, And Are Increasingly Doing So (theregister.co.uk) 33

Posted by msmash from the changing-dynamics dept.
An anonymous reader shares a report: Consumers are now more aware that they can buy the phone and the network access separately, and are increasingly doing so. "Many were totally unaware of the true value of the plan, and this marks a real change," CCS Insight analyst Kester Mann told us. CCS Insight calls the unbundling "cracking the code." Only 36 per cent of UK SIM-only customers expect to take a traditional bundle-plus-phone deal when their current plan ends, CCS found. Mann noted that this figure is considerably higher than the number of SIM-only customers today, who will upgrade to another SIM-only deal -- indicating strong growth for the SIM-only bit of the market. One in 12 phones in use is a second-hand phone.

And there are a variety of fascinating knock-on effects. For example, almost 10 per cent of UK punters now buy direct through Amazon. Operators, who have traditionally acted as credit companies, will have to make their bundles more flexible and attractive. High-margin manufacturers may have to make more use of the refurbished channel, or make older models available for longer. In fact, all OEMs have to look at refurb and online. Mann told us all of these trends are happening already.
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In UK, Consumers Are Now More Aware That They Can Ditch Their Phone Bundles, And Are Increasingly Doing So More

In UK, Consumers Are Now More Aware That They Can Ditch Their Phone Bundles, And Are Increasingly Doing So

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  • Apple (Score:3)

    by registrations_suck ( 1075251 ) on Friday September 07, 2018 @03:41PM (#57271444)

    Remarkably, Apple's history of premium pricing may count against it. 41 per cent of customers surveyed agreed (ticking somewhat or completely) with the statement that they would never buy an iPhone, compared to 15 per cent who responded the same way for Samsung.

    I found that interesting...considering I bought my first iPhone direct through Apple, with no contract in 2012, sim-free. I've bought my wife's the same way. I bought my next iPhone direct through Apple, with no contract. I bought my wife's the same way. I'll buy my next iPhone direct through Apple, with no contract. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

    I bought our phones up front, full price, no contract, even though I could have gotten them "for free" with a contract, NOT because I wanted to upgrade whenever I want - I use my phone until it breaks, gets dunked in water, dropped one too many times, etc., but because I don't want to be tied to any specific carrier. Now, as it turns out, we have been with Verizon this whole time - but we pay less than we would have with a contract, even considering the cost of the phone.

    It's interesting how peoples' motivations vary.

    • Just as an aside....in a few months, it will be 6 years since I got my first iPhone, and I'm currently on my second one, which I bought only because my first one got soaked. It has some issues, but I will probably use it another year...which will be an average of 3.5 years per phone. I guess I'm not much of an "upgrader".

    • I bought my first iPhone in 2012 cash up front. Mind you, it was also my last iPhone. Ultimately I like the control that a decent and unlocked Android phone offers, as opposed to phones just so darned tied down that copying anything to the file system requires absurd lengths.

    • I found that interesting...considering I bought my first iPhone direct through Apple, with no contract in 2012, sim-free.

      I find *this* interesting as I've never met someone who didn't have their iPhone on a 2yr bundled contract.

  • The value just isn't there. Instead, I have always bought phones one or two years behind the retail cycle, when they start to come off contract and be unlocked. You can have last year's flagship, which is usually still pretty damned good, for pennies on the dollar—under $200 for the phone with just a year of use on it, then a SIM (or before that, phoning in the numbers from the beneath the battery to the carrier) plan for cheap.

    Carriers like TPO and Net10 in the US offer plans with a few gigs of data and unlimited everything else for just $25-$35 a month right now. Extra gigs run $10 a gig or so, refillable anytime, and I rarely end up using it.

    I would not like to be locked into a contract, nor would I like to be limited in when I can upgrade or replace if something goes wrong.

    Of course, this doesn't work so well with Apple phones, which hold their value too well. Which is one of the many reasons I don't use iOS. (The other being because I really don't like the OS experience at all, though I do like some of the apps better than the Android equivalents—but not $1k for a phone better).

    • The value just isn't there.

      Debatable depending on location. I always have and still do have a bundled phone. There are literally penies difference between bundle and no bundle as the local carriers screw users who dare to bring their own devices to the table. That said the benefits are disappearing. Certainly 5 years ago it was still almost necessary to be on some kind of system which upgrades you to state of the art every 2 years. Between the quick advances in software and hardware combined with the horrid update practices of manufa

      • Go prepaid perhaps?

        • No that's just my point. My local plans (I'm not in America) are discounted vs prepaid as an incentive to lock customers into a carrier contract. Prepaid is marginally cheaper if you have a phone you don't want to upgrade, but it is significantly more expensive if I also need to buy a phone.

          This is quite counter intuitive compared to the normal practice of getting product and paying it off by the month, but then you still have to remember they aren't pushing the product, they are pushing service lock in. I

    • The problem with those carrier resellers is they have lower priority on the network. AT&T has level 2 priority for their pre-paid Go Phone plans, and tier 3 priority for Cricket Wireless reseller. If you go to a concert or sporting event, you're basically toast.

  • Been on straight talk, for 5-6 years. FLAT 50 bucks a month, 10GB, unlimited everything else. No this tax, that fee...FLAT rate, perfect!

  • if you pay 79 bucks for 24 months on a free phone (1896) or buy one for 1000 and pay 15 bucks a month, (1360) just do the math.
    Especially since the suckers don't tell you when the 24 months are up and you continue to pay the 79 for months or years.

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