The iPhone vs Galaxy war forces 5G phones to start cheap

Within the next year, there's a good chance you'll want a new iPhone with 5G connectivity. Or a new Samsung Galaxy smartphone with 5G connectivity – or some other brand. Given the brand dominance of those two companies in the smartphone realm, it's statistically sound to suggest that there's a good chance you'll chose a phone from one of those two brands.

We're a few years out, now, from the launch of 4G LTE. The speedy data network launched in a big way just about a decade ago. We were reviewing devices like the HTC Thunderbolt back in 2011, getting excited about the data speed above all else. Those were different times, in a very different smartphone market.

Generally more competition means lower prices for products – in a vacuum of a market, without any wild factors at play. Here in 2020, for smartphones here in the United States, Apple and Samsung dominate smartphone sales – with smartphone carriers and in-store sales, that is to say. This isn't a vacuum in which these brands operate – there's a power in the ubiquity of the default – people tend to go with what they see most often, and more often than not, that's a Samsung Galaxy smartphone or an iPhone.

As luck (or late-stage capitalism) would have it, in the last few years the most major two brands, Samsung and Apple, have hit some plateaus. If you look at Samsung's situation you'll see how they're sort of struggling to grow while brands like Huawei, Xiaomi, OPPO, and others grow at extraordinary rates. In Q3 of 2019, Apple topped the list with iPhone XR, Samsung came in 2nd and 3rd with Galaxy phones, and in fourth place was the OPPO A9.

As such, Samsung and Apple did some adjustments to the way they market their devices. Instead of focusing on one smartphone hero, they've always got two or more – in 2020, they'll almost always have three or more. In addition to top-tier premium phones with 5G, they'll have their standard models, and they'll have their "slightly less expensive" phones, too!

In 2019, Samsung's first 5G smartphone was, indeed, a premium piece of hardware. It was the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G, and it was not cheap.

In 2020, Samsung's rumored to basically mirror the rumored plans for the 2020 iPhone. That means three models, the least of these coming with a price to match, with "E" for "essential" features – that includes 5G by default.