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And there are manufacturers that do sell phones in that price range and above, like Vertu. There are customers for whom for wealth signaling purposes the device can actually be objectively worse they would still pay more. Some of the most expensive Vertu phones are dumb phones; a less useful device than the phone your average african has in his pockets.
It's a bit like watches, a cheap quartz watch just plain makes for a more useful watch than an automatic. But for phones, I don't know, it's even more outrageous to me since unlike watches, a phone has a limited useful life, even if you could replace parts like batteries that wear off. Phones stop being able to give even the most basic services as providers sunset legacy protocols or require newer ones like VoLTE.
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