Does it make sense to buy 4G phone now?

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Ouch said:
phones costing 10,000 rupees today would disappear from the market in a year or so. most phones do not get cheaper, they disappear. they would not drop to 4000 rupees because companies do not continue making stocks of phones for ever these days.
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My basic question is do you think a 3500 mah battery, 2 GB RAM VoLTE phone would cost Rs 6,000 by Mar 2017. Phones disappear, features of the phone live on !!

I would not ask this question to ordinary folks .. but we are most informed about telecom trends and best suited to predict.

I have a 2 year buying cycle from the time smartphones were launched and my last purchase is a year old (Asus Zenfone C). If I dump it today I will get maximum Rs 3,000 on Olx and spend Rs 9,000 on something like Lenovo K3. Is it possible (given the history of last major disruption in 03 - 04) that phones with K3 like features (or better) will drop to Rs 6,000 in few months?
 
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My 2 cents ..

R-Jio has to generate about Rs 20,000 crores every year to break even source. That is a gigantic amount. To do that they need to get more handsets out there (by subsidising handsets if need be). This is a forum of hard core users and not even 10% of members here have shown much interest in buying Jio services over past 24 hours .. how will you convince general public?

Just like in 2003 - 04 they dropped price of phone from Rs 10,800 to Rs 3,000 (Nokia 2280 to Motorola C131) to survive, I think they will drop cost of Lyf phones by 70% this time around also. So it makes sense to wait. They will probably give us something like Jio Lyf Water 8 for Rs 4,000 by next March.
 
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What you are asking for already exists for 7K. Redmi 3S Redmi 3S Specification - Mi India. 2GB RAM, 4100 mAh battery. 4G with VoLTE support. Prices might drop a little more but I don't think the price will drop substantially. They will just replace it with a better specced phone at the same price.
 
best bet is to keep an eye on lyf branded phones that people would start dumping in january.
 
mallumax said:
What you are asking for already exists for 7K. Redmi 3S Redmi 3S Specification - Mi India. 2GB RAM, 4100 mAh battery. 4G with VoLTE support. Prices might drop a little more but I don't think the price will drop substantially. They will just replace it with a better specced phone at the same price.
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Any brand but Redmi. They have excellent specs and performance but it is unnerving to see Chinese characters flashing on the screen when one resets the phone. My Redmi 1S used to show me a ton of Chinese script while resetting (which was why I went ahead and bought the Asus I use currently).
 
arijitmitter said:
Does it make sense to see if 3,500 mah battery and 2 GB RAM VoLTE phones drop to Rs 6,000 price point? I know no one here is a fortune teller but what would you advice for someone who can buy one Rs 8,000 phone every two years.
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the rate at which big players like Redmi and other reputed Chinese companies are entering the market price might even go down,look at Redmi 3S you have to compromise some specs but it is kind of bang for the buck.
 
I would definitely suggest you to wait as their is auction in October and new frequency bands can be purchased. So once auction completes and you came to know if any additional frequency band is purchased by any operator. Then accordingly buy Handset.
I am also waiting for same.
 
Considering all concerns of @arijitmitter, I would suggest go for iPhone 6s/7 or Nexus (Pixel) Smartphones. These phones would be future proof for atleast next 2 years, and surely you won't see Chinese name :D
But expect to pay more as well. BTW iPhone can fetch good resale price as well I guess.
 
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