Based on marketing and media coverage, $1,000 smartphones are must-have, ultra-popular luxuries that everyone is picking up, but the reality is quite different. According to a recent NPD report, barely 10 percent of American smartphone users are buying expensive flagships, such as the iPhone 11 Pro and Samsung Galaxy Note10. One potential reasoning/excuse is that everyone is holding out for 5G models.
…geographic disparity could partially explain why flagship phones get significantly more media coverage than other phones; most media professionals are in cities like that. However, shortage of media coverage on these lower-market phones isn’t that surprising to begin with; there’s not much interesting for press or influencers to say about phones that use two- or three-year-old technologies and work just well enough for most people’s needs but don’t make any waves or innovations.