Here’s how much a flagship phone’s price could decline after a year – report

MANILA, Philippines – Samsung loyalists burst with excitement upon the announcement of the Samsung Galaxy S20, the latest in the company’s flagship S line. 

The new phones, which will be available in base, Plus and Ultra versions, are set for an official launch on March 6 – equipped with the best tech Samsung has to offer, including a camera with 100x zoom capability, and 5G-readiness. (READ: ‘First impressions: Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra‘ )

And as expected, they’re not cheap: P69,990 for the Ultra version, P55,990 for the Plus, and P49,990 for the base variant. 

However, if you’re in love with the phone’s features, you can always just wait for the price to go down. How long do you have to wait? Online shopping aggregator, iPrice Group, gives us an idea. The company tracked the prices of 3 previous Samsung Galaxy S models (2017’s S8, 2018’s S9, and 2019’s S10), collating figures across hundreds of merchants and online stores within their own database to get an average minimum price of the 3 models after 6 months and a year from their release dates.

With average figures in hand, they applied the decline rates to this year’s S20. The figures apply to the Southeast Asian region, where the company operates in 7 countries including the Philippines. 

Here are the results:

By iPrice’s estimates, Samsung S20’s price will be expected to drop by 21% after just 6 months, and 35% after a year. The 49,990 phone’s price is estimated to go down to about P39,000 in 6 months, then 32,000 after a year. 

Here’s a summary of insights from the study that concluded iPrice’s prediction:

• The average price drop of S8, S9, and S10 6 months after release date is 21%. After 6 months, Samsung Galaxy S8’s price dropped at 22%, S9’s at 24%, and S10’s at 18%. Therefore, the average price drop of this flagship model is 21%.

• Samsung Galaxy S10 dropped as much as 45% a year after its release. Samsung Galaxy S10’s price significantly dropped a year after its release date. Its original price last year was P49,990, and the average minimum price you could purchase it for in online merchants today is Php 27,644.43. That’s a 45% price drop. 

• Samsung Galaxy S8 and S9’s prices dropped to 30-31% after a year. One year after their release dates, both Samsung Galaxy S8 and S9 experienced a price drop of 30-31%. Samsung Galaxy S8’s price dropped from P39,990 to P27,761, while S9’s price dropped from P41,990 to P29,336.45. The average price drop of all three models (including Galaxy S10) after a year from its release date is 35%.

While this is just one phone, other flagship phones likely decline at similar rates. It would be interesting to look at how other flagship models’ values decline over time as well, along with phones from other price tiers. Do midrange phones’ value last longer? How about budget sub-P10,000 phones? 

You can read the full study here. – With reports from Jolly Ann Bilad/Rappler.com