Liquidity is not at all about smartphones at Android. No matter how much they cost at the start of sales, almost immediately after they appear in retail, they begin to fall in price, reaching a peak already in the first six months from the moment of release. For this reason, many fans Android – even those who are ready to fork out for flagships – prefer to buy new devices, just a little delay and let the prices 'settle'. This is completely logical and justified, because after just a few months, an expensive smartphone starts to cost 20, or even 30% cheaper. The Galaxy S20 Ultra is no exception.
Galaxy S20 Ultra fell 30% in 3 months
Galaxy S20 Ultra is the most modern and advanced Samsung smartphone – as of early June, you can already buy for about 75 thousand rubles. This is 35 thousand rubles cheaper than the official price at which the manufacturer sells the device. Despite the fact that last month, the Russian office of Samsung made some changes to the pricing policy in the local market, increasing the prices of flagship smartphones by an average of 10 thousand rubles, this did not prevent the Galaxy S20 Ultra from continuing to fall in price, albeit in gray retail.
Why gray phones are cheaper
Official price – 110 thousand rubles, gray – 75 thousand rubles
How is it that Samsung's top smartphone lost almost a third of its price in just three months? Everything is very simple. If you look at the pricing in the major retailers that partner with Samsung, you'll see that the Galaxy S20 Ultra costs about the same as it did before. In the best case, you will receive some promotions with gifts or minor discounts of 5-10%. This is due to the fact that, although retailers buy smartphones from Samsung at a purchase price that is lower than the retail price, they are forced to increase it by adding a tax rate and their own margin in order to stay profitable.
In this sense, gray sellers have a little more freedom. Firstly, they buy smartphones in Europe, use the Tax Free service, which allows you to return sales tax, which is 20% in Germany and France. Secondly, the servo carriers are not bound by any obligations with Samsung, which means that they may not take into account its views on pricing issues at all. Despite the fact that in Russia suppliers are officially forbidden to regulate prices, in reality they are still doing it and forcing retailers to keep them at the same level, even if they themselves would like to lower them.
How much should a smartphone cost
There are few who are ready to buy the Galaxy S20 Ultra at the original price
But wait, something doesn't add up here. After all, if you subtract 20% for Tax Free from 1,359 euros – that is exactly how much the Galaxy S20 Ultra costs in Europe – then even in this case 75 thousand rubles will not work, not to mention the fact that the servo carriers themselves will definitely not receive any profit. However, an important clarification needs to be made here: for 1,359 euros, the Galaxy S20 Ultra is still sold only in the official online store samsung.com. But in independent retail, prices are much lower. Even on the Samsung page Amazon the device is sold for 1279 euros, and even cheaper from partners. As a result, it is quite a feasible task to find a smartphone for 1150-1170 euros, which, minus 20%, is already closer to 75-77 thousand, for which it is offered to us.
So what happens? If we take as a rule the market concept that any product costs exactly what they are willing to pay for it, then the Galaxy S20 Ultra is not worth the 1,359 euros or 110 thousand rubles that Samsung asks for it. Yes, this is a very cool smartphone with an amazing camera, cool design and advanced hardware, but all this pales against the background of its price, which turned out to be prohibitive for most consumers. Therefore, Koreans urgently – albeit through partners – lower prices and allow them to buy a new product cheaper so that it does not stale. We, as consumers, only benefit from this if we take our time and wait until prices fall to acceptable values.