OnePlus Exhibits Consistency in Pricing Flagships: Report

Techarc report also said that Samsung has made the lowest eight per cent average price increase compared to Apple 20 per cent in their respective flagship series of smartphones over the years

As per the latest Techarc report analyzing the flagship smartphones of four popular brands in premium/luxe categories, the prices have increased with every new launch at an average of 12.9 per cent. Samsung’s Galaxy S series witnessed the lowest increase in pricing at eight per cent compared to Apple’s iPhone at 20 per cent price rise with every new addition to the flagship series.

Faisal Kawoosa, founder and chief analyst, Techarc said, “OnePlus has adopted a consistent pricing strategy where it has been increasing the price with every new launch in a regular pattern. Other brands exhibit irregular pricing strategy as portrayed in the Smartphone Flagships Constellation Map.”

Kawoosa added, “This has led the brand achieve growth in revenues as well as profitability with consumers getting better experience at incremental price increase.”

The case of premium brands

Apple launched its iPhone X at a whopping 39 per cent increase in the price compared to previous edition of its smartphones. This was its 2 nd highest increase in the price after iPhone 5, which was launched in 2013 at an increase of 32 per cent over previous edition. While Apple does suffer because of the import duty levied on CBUs (Complete Built Units) by the government to encourage domestic manufacturing, it still does not justify the steep price hike Apple did for the most recent flagship launch.

Comparing this Google’s Pixel, which is also a fully CBU level imported Smartphone has only seen 11.7% increase in price with new edition launches of the series. Incidentally, this is lower than the industry average of 12.9% price rise with new edition of the flagship series.

The ‘Smartphone Flagships Constellation Map’ exhibits the pricing patterns of four popular brands of Samsung, Apple, OnePlus and Google known for their flagship launches. Samsung is the only brand which has also decreased the price with new edition launch of the Galaxy S series. It launched S8 and S9 at the same price of Rs 57,900 in 2017 and 2018 respectively. The recently launched S10 was announced with a three per cent reduced price of Rs 55,900 comparing the previous edition.

Techarc also pegged the ideal price range of upcoming OnePlus 7 starting from Rs 37,000 to Rs 39,500, projected on the basis of previous pricing pattern adopted by the brand. OnePlus has increased average 12.6 per cent price with every new flagship launch.