What to consider when building a budget smartphone?

Lately, smartphones have been increasing in price. The iPhone 11 Pro costs more than £1000 causing people to question whether the price is worth it. Many manufacturers such as Oppo, Samsung, Huawei, One Plus and many others produce budget phones with the less expensive price tag but try to compete with the high-end smartphone. When producing a budget phone there will certainly be some areas where the manufacturers have cut corners to keep costs down.

Marketing

Marketing a smartphone can be a huge cost to cause hype for a product but in order to create some publicity for a product, it often means spending a huge portion of your budget. Some manufactures have relied on the word of mouth to spread publicity. For example initially, when One Plus launched, they primarily relied on the word of mouth to advertise the product. That’s why you may see a lot of tech YouTubers reviewing smartphones before they launch. Of course, if you don’t spend any money on marketing, you won’t be able to get the product in front of potential customers.

Design

Designing a budget smartphone will also affect cost of production. If the design involves a unique feature then the production costs would increase as it will take time implement/produce the unique design feature. However if the design is not distinct, the budget smartphone may look like other smartphones. The design is also important as it will affect how the smartphone is handled and operated. If the smartphone design does not fit well in the hands of the user then the company will not sell enough to make a profit.

Camera

Depending on the type of consumers you are targeting, one area you could cut corners is the quality of camera you install to your budget phone. If you are targeting an audience that is primary photographers, then spending most of your budget on a camera would be ideal. Consequently, that means less money to develop other areas. The other side of the coin is that if you just install a below-par camera then you might cause an area of concern for the consumer you are targeting. Especially with a generation of more image-heavy apps like Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook which relies on a good quality camera.

Software

Software is what drives the smartphone and allows consumers to navigate the smartphone with ease and access the many functions that a budget phone might offer. Overtime apps get more power-hungry and often require an up-to-date operating system to install/update an app. If the manufacturer does not invest in providing updates to the operating system then the longevity of the product will be short. 

Hardware

The actual hardware within the smartphone will allow the ease of opening multiple applications at the same time as running the applications themselves. A small investment in hardware could mean that your smartphone might not last for a long time as the consumer might find the smartphone slow and unresponsive. Big investment in hardware will mean that the smartphone will be quick and will be able to cope with future applications.

Battery

Battery life in a smartphone is so important as we rely on our smartphone every day from looking for directions on Google Maps, paying for products/services or to keep in contact with friends and family. Low investment in this area would mean that the budget smartphone wouldn’t last for an entire day and would require midday charges or you might see your budget smartphone running out of battery midday and you go searching for a wall socket.

Display

We often consume media on the go from viewing images on Instagram or Snapchat to watching funny cat videos on Youtube. A good quality display panel will be vital to ensure that the images are crisp and clear in extremely bright situations when travelling.

Features

Manufacturers often add features such as wireless charging, pop-up camera and fingerprint reader to make the budget phone unique and appealing to customers. Adding features also eats into the budget as features often cost more to integrate.

Summary

When building a budget smartphone, manufacturers have a limited budget to make a smartphone that is cost-effective and makes a profit. Manufacturers will find ways to reduce the cost of manufacturing to keep costs down and profits high. The balance of production cost, usability, and affordability will be difficult for any manufacturer to get right to produce a perfect all-round budget smartphone. Some budget smartphones to consider: Moto G8 Plus, iPhone SE, Xiaomi Mi 9, Oppo A5 and Honor 10 Lite.  

Remember to check about my ‘What makes a great smartphone?’ blog post.

Fun Activity

Here is a fun activity for you to get your head around building a budget smartphone. You have 21 points in total to produce a budget smartphone. You have to allocate the points to each of the following areas that you wish to invest in your budget smartphone:

• Battery

• Display

• Feature

• Design

• Marketing

• Camera

• Software

• Hardware

For example:

• Battery - 3

• Display - 3

• Feature - 1

• Design - 3

• Marketing - 2

• Camera - 3

• Hardware - 3

• Software - 3

The example above shows that the budget smartphone will have a fairly decent camera, software/hardware and battery with an okay display but hardly any features and little investment in marketing means the product will rely on the word of mouth to promote the product. Not much investment in software could mean the user interface might be difficult for consumers and there will be little investment in software updates. Give the activity a go and try to build your best budget smartphone that you would sell.