Wow, this is messed up.
To be fair, if they don’t do this, they will need to increase prices in poorer countries - otherwise someone will simply buy the phones on the cheap and resell them in more expensive areas.
It’s called the free market where your can purchase and sell goods as you wish, within the applicable laws.
Sounds like you’re defining a failure of the free market
If these devices are so cheap the marginal cost justifies the lower price, why isn’t market competition eating into their margin in the more affluent countries?
Sounds like somebody’s got their finger on the market balance
A lot of times the cheap prices in low cost countries is (partly) subsidised by the higher profit in more expensive ones. Essentially buying market share and brand recognition for some lost revenue, hoping to recap it by cornering the market and rising prices in the future. At least that’s the theory.
Oh, I didn’t realize we needed to manipulate markets in favor of the marketing strategies of corporations, since they need so much help
Love how you’re getting downvotes for pointing out the exact reason.
Diversion is often also a means to fund crime and terrorism when done at scale.
In some cases of diversion the product also gets altered by changing valuable content for cheaper ones. A good example of this would be medicine or liqour. Worst case is that the end user gets fake medicine.
Making your product affordable in a region also increases consumer safety as it will curb counterfeiting. In the case of phones this can lead to exploding batteries or electrocutions.
As a rule of thumb, after quite a mediocre experience regarding more than a couple of items, I have learned to never buy Samsung, if an alternative exists.
I have a fold 3 and I’m on my way to have it warranty repaired for the second time after having already completed three warranty exchanges. At least they’re honoring the warranties; but I shouldn’t have to repair a single phone so many times just have a working product.
Among other things, I was one of these dumb people that bought a Bada phone, back then (Wave II). Hardware-wise it was a wonderful phone. But software wise it was abandoned by Samsung in a matter of months, IIRC. Never more.
Also bought a middle category Samsung TV a few years ago. It came with an awful IPS panel with a contrast ratio worse than an LCD casio watch and bad luminance. My fault for not swapping it in time. Nonetheless, I didn’t expect such a crappy TV from such a brand.
So….
- Never buy Apple because…
- Never buy Samsung because…
- never buy Huawei because …
- never buy oppo because …
- never buy an android because…
Well back to my landline I guess.
Lets add it to the list…
https://www.androidheadlines.com/2019/07/motorola-sucks-software-updates-moto-z4-android-one.html
I’ve been pretty happy with my Samsung, this place is just full of unhappy nerds, I swear.
I’ve used samsung s2, s4 mini, s6, s10e and now s23. They’ve all been perfectly fine products in my opinion. Their ssd as well. Not to say others aren’t better, but I’ve just never had a reason to switch
Don’t forget the 980/990 series losing durability way too quick, although it has been patched
Don’t buy anything Samsung ESPECIALLY their appliances. They got class action lawsuit for fridges that breakdown, and when you call for the warranty to repair you’ll be dealing with months of nightmare of multiple technicians coming and going trying to to repair it. Oh and they only come during weekdays during 9-5 business hours so you have to take time off work for them to come, and if they “fixed it” it breaks down the next day spoiling all your food. I was losing money fast so I told them they have one last chance to make this right before I sue them. After that a manager called saying they’re going to send us a “new” fridge. Our “new” fridge was so badly banged up it had dents all over it. I was so exhausted by everything I just put magnets over it and called it a day. FUCK SAMSUNG never ever choosing to buy any of there products. Do your research before you buy!!!
One of the many reasons why I don’t buy “connected” devices anymore.
Honestly, with how powerful modern Smartphones are, you can just buy one now, flash an open source version of android and use that for a decade, assuming the OS gets supported that long.
how samsung know if i bought their phone in gray market?
Just guessing. The phone is ear-marked for a target market, e.g. Africa. If it connects to an American network without roaming and without ever having been to Africa, it’s clear that the phone was not sold through ‘official’ distribution channels.
