Why are Android phone manufacturers missing the mark?

[halcyon]

I recently switched from an iPhone 4-32G to an Motorola Droid RAZR. I LOVE Android and the flexibility and feature-set the RAZR has. I also love that someone has finally built an Android phone with durable built-to-last high-quality materials...kevlar, aluminum, Gorilla Glass...nice. Alas, though there are disappointments.

All they needed to do to make the RAZR as close to perfect as possible, IMO, was to put the HTC Rezound's HD display and a camera that's the same (or better) quality as the iPhone 4S' in it. Even if the RAZR had to be slightly thicker to accommodate the HD display it would be worth it, IMO.

Am I the only one willing to pay an extra $20-$40 for this? Am I simply being too demanding? The SGSII? Its no longer the best phone out there...its display disappoints with a comparatively low pixel count and more of the plastic/rubber casing. The Galaxy Nexus? ...more of the cheap painted plastic casing and though the display is HD...its pentile.

Why can't a manufacturer get it right? Why can't we get state of the art features, display, and high quality build materials? ...even if at a slightly more expensive phone?

 

[jaguarskx]

The price point is a very fine line for both the consumer and the carrier. If an expensive smartphone is priced too high by a carrier, then you can loose potential sales for that particular phone. If the carrier discounts the phone too much to attract sales, then that cuts into the bottom line profit of the carrier.

iPhones do not compete against itself unlike Android phones. Meaning if you want the latest and greatest, then you buy the iPhone 4s because there is no other choice. Not so for Android phones. If one Android phone has all the features you want, but is priced too high, then you either bite the bullet and dish out the additional $$ or get a less expensive phone that meets most of your needs. Most people will likely choose the latter.

If a company like BFF (Best F**king Fones) produces an Android phone called the Maximum Uber Ultimate XXX that has everything you can want in a cellphone, but it's priced $40+ over other similar phones, then guess what? It may not be able to sell enough phones to carriers to stay in business because of competition.

 

[Maziar]

Right^
Another problem is that many people switched to the original iPhone(which has the best OS that time)and therefore,they never switched back and decided to stay in the iOS (closed) eco-system.
So even if there is a better spec'd phone,many people still prefer iPhone over it because they think it's the best option available.
I also have an iPhone 4 and after working with HTC Radar(WP7) and SGSII(Android),I realized that I prefer both of them to iOS.

 

[halcyon]

Best answer selected by Halcyon.