I would argue that the _only_ way you can come in to the phone market is through the high end.
In order to sell at the low end, you need to sell a lot. A new company doesn't have the market share to make a low end phone with almost no margin profitable in any reasonable amount of time.
On top of which, people with the money to buy high end phones are the ones with the money to throw away their perfectly fine phone in order to get the latest and greatest toys, and the ones that want to do so so they can brag that they have this cool phone that not that many people know about.
The main problem was not the price, it was the execution. False promises, late releases, poor support, general lack of transparency. The execution was abysmal, but people were willing to pay the price.
> False promises, late releases, poor support, general lack of transparency.
These aren't a problem at the low end; at the low end, you sell someone a phone for $100, and they get what they get, and you're done.
Where you can differentiate on the low end, as an Android founder, is building something where you put out a new phone every year, but everything is on the same / close enough to the same / software platform, so your quarterly (or whenever) software updates apply equally to all your devices. Get about $20-$50 spendier each phone you make, and by the time you're at the high end, you've earned a reputation for quality phones with frequent software upgrades, and people will pay the premium for your phones.
OTOH, premium phones on firesale clearance works pretty well for me. Fire phone, Nextbit Robin, etc.
In order to sell at the low end, you need to sell a lot. A new company doesn't have the market share to make a low end phone with almost no margin profitable in any reasonable amount of time.
On top of which, people with the money to buy high end phones are the ones with the money to throw away their perfectly fine phone in order to get the latest and greatest toys, and the ones that want to do so so they can brag that they have this cool phone that not that many people know about.
The main problem was not the price, it was the execution. False promises, late releases, poor support, general lack of transparency. The execution was abysmal, but people were willing to pay the price.