[mikecane]

>>>You can buy smart phones for 30$ in shenzhen electronic malls today.

1) That's in Shenzen. Might as well be Mars for most people. When Shenzen hardware is sourced by global brands, they usually have a generous markup where that "$30" quickly disappears.

2) How long do they last? "Oh, but they're cheap. If it breaks in 3 months, just buy another!" No. People just don't want to go through possibly losing data and having hardware just suddenly drop dead on them.

So, yeah. I'll go with the guy who said five years. That's for stuff that won't drop dead in three months.

[_pmf_]

> That's in Shenzen. Might as well be Mars for most people.

Ah, yes, if only some smart people could invent some kind of global network for people to buy things remotely, and created some site where you could order these things. They could call it, for example, Ali Baba.

[mikecane]

Still Mars. Unknown companies, unknown quality, unknown warranties (as in mostly non-existent). And sending it back to China to exchange a defective unit? Suddenly that $30 isn't.

[vidarh]

A wide range of these products are available at reasonable markups via a variety of Amazon Marketplace resellers.

That's how I got my first one. But since then I've started ordering direct from Alibaba/Aliexpress and for many products the savings are large enough to "self insure" and still be worth it with a good margin.

[canttestthis]

$30 is cheap enough for most people that they wouldn't expect warranties and excellent build quality.

[sixbrx]

Have a link?

[briandh]

http://www.alibaba.com/wholesale/categories/Mobile-Phones_50...

or

http://www.aliexpress.com/category/5090301/mobile-phones.htm...

depending on the quantities you would like to purchase