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Ask HN: Will you buy discounted phone if that had ads?

2 points by anoopmunshi ↗ HN
I was wondering, If there was a product where users could buy good quality phone for a discounted price however it would supported by some unwanted ads which rather be minimal but will be still there? would buy such a smartphone?

5 comments

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niftich
For what it's worth, there are products like this, like essentially all of Amazon's phones [1].

Personally I find that particular product's lock-screen ads irksome, but it halves the price. I can afford to drop a $100 on a cellphone (but not, say, $500+ for a flagship), so the ad-supported version doesn't appeal to me.

But thinking back to when my cashflow was much smaller, I would've found the twice-the-price-for-no-ads hard to justify and gone with the ad-supported version instead; not out of enthusiasm, but fiscal pragmatism.

[1] http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/08/review-blus-r1-hd-red...

anoopmunshi
A premium quality high-end phone for about $100 should not that bad after all? The key here would a flagship quality not a smaller phone. Comparable to good one's out there in market
onion2k
Amazon did this with their Fire Phone product. It wasn't very popular and now it's been discontinued.
anoopmunshi
Yeah it did and tanked as well. But they lost on the quality of the phone and the device had to many limitation. We are talking about a high-end device. Comparable to most high-ends in the market
Broken_Hippo
Only if I were too poor to pay full price and there wasn't a non-ad phone available in the same price range or cheaper. I'd rather take a hit on quality, buy an older model, or buy a used or refurbished phone than deal with the ads. I don't actually care if I have the latest phone, and tend not to replace a phone until it is either broken or there is significant tech upgrade.