Why Doesn't Verizon Sell Phones For Reasonable Prices?

[EdH2Os]

Will Verizon ever offer a decent flagship phone for a reasonable price? $650+ is too much money for a nice phone. I'd like to see Verizon offer something like this:http://www.techtimes.com/articles/206361/20170501/t-mobile-to-unleash-exclusive-smartphone- I'm really tired of seeing all the great phones on VZW's network go for so much money. You have to spend between $650 or more to get a nice phone. That's nonsense! Many of us don't want to sign up for an additional $25 to $30 a month in financing, Hey Verizon why don't work with companies like ZTE and/or Huawei to offer some affordable phones with flagship specs?

[rcschnoor]

You can always get a less expensive phone, although it may not be a "flagship" phone. When manufacturers lower the MSRP is likely when Verizon will offer flagship phones at a lower price.

I notice the article you linked to does not mention a price for the as yet unannounced "affordable" flagship phone. Your idea of "affordable" and their idea of "affordable" may be different amounts. If it is not the brand people are accustomed to, it may not be a great seller. There have been many outstanding phones in the past which were not great sellers because they were not branded "Apple" or "Samsung". We will see if the same thing happens here and how much T-Mobile has to subsidize this device to make it "affordable" in order to lure more customers.

[Ann154]

There are 10 phones available between $400 and $600. Smartphones | Verizon Wireless

[EdH2Os]

While I agree that the manufacturers need to lower their MSRPs, I still think VZW needs to think outside of the box and offer an alternative to Samsung, LG and HTC, - which costs less. Most of the current crop of affordable phones, that Verizon offers, have weak processors and lack sufficient memory (16GB).

Right now, on Amazon, you can buy an ZTE Axon 7 (64gb) for $359.99 or an Huawei Honor 8 (32 GB). Both phones have flagship specs for under $400. Maybe Verizon could work with these or other manufacturers to come up with some true lower cost alternatives, to Samsung, LG, etc., as opposed to subsidizing more expensive phones. All I'm saying is think outside the box and offer something different.

[sprmankalel]

Verizon offers only the phones people are buying. Nobody is buying the cheap phones because the don't have all the tech that people want.

You do realize that every phone that is stocked in store is purchased by Verizon BEFORE it gets to the store. They don't get the phones from the manufacturer for nothing. So every phone has some money tied up into it. It makes no sense to buy a million phones for $100 to sell for $300 if 998,000 of them will sit on the shelf and not be purchased. Then they have to unload inventory and if they can't sell them for for at least $150 then they lose money. When they lose money, they have to make it somewhere else. That will be on rate plans. Do you want higher rates for your service?

[EdH2Os]

How do you know people aren't going to buy them? I know a lot of folks who are holding on to older Android phones (myself included), who don't want to spend big bucks to purchase a new phone. One of the strong benefits on AT&T and T-Mobile is that you can truly bring your own phone. If this is such a financial burden for Verizon why not just open up the network and let customers buy a phone on Amazon and instead of being stuck buying only carrier branded phones.

[dexman]

Verizon Wireless does have a BYOD program, but, phones need to be CDMA certified in order to be allowed onto the network.

[EdH2Os]

From what I have read it's not quite as easy to bring your own phone on VZW as it is on other carriers.

[bearone21]

my son took his iphone 6s to at&t & now needs a range extender to use his phone at home when i can use the verizon network with my note5.

go for it!!

[dexman]

I think that has something to do with CDMA certification. For example, none of the latest Windows phones can be brought over to Verizon Wireless because none were submitted for CDMA certification. This would also be true if someone tried that with Sprint and US Cellular as they too are CDMA networks.