The mobile phone industry is one of the most versatile and ever-changing industries there is in consumer tech.

New features are constantly being added and old ones removed. What we thought was impossibly thin two years ago is simply too thick to carry about today. Where we used to strive to make things smaller, now bigger is better. Where playing music on the move used to impress, now our mobiles must stream media in super HD to any TV in the house, translate to and from any language in the world in real time, deliver our email the moment it's been sent and play HD games to keep us pacified. But while the industry is always changing, always evolving, some things remain a relative constant over the years, and that is the key players.

Nokia once ruled the hardware we carried about to keep in touch. It fell. Motorola took the crown for a while, it too fell (though seem to be making a comeback of late after a series of new owners). Having spent many years working in the mobile industry, I would say the cycle for a manufacturer to reign supreme is roughly seven years, give or take a few. It's tricky in the current cycle to choose between Apple and Samsung, with each taking the crown in various countries and swapping over from time to time. I'd say it's more of a joint crown at the moment. I feel, however, a bigturning of the tide is a'coming.

With mobile phones getting ever more capable and impressive, naturally the price tag increases accordingly. The current average cost for a top-end mobile phone in Britain is a massive £500 - for a device we used to pay around £100 for many years ago. As the hardware cost goes up, so does the monthly rental cost. We used to complain about paying £30 a month for a mobile, now we fork out £50 to get the latest iPhone or Samsung. However, what the more so-called tech-savvy among us are gradually discovering is that the same specification hardware can be sought out for often half the price of the big name brands' efforts. Last year, a new mobile manufacturer called OnePlus launched its first venture into the mobile world; the hugely hyped OnePlus One. Available (up until only two weeks ago) by invite only, it carried specs that cost £500 from Samsung, but for a much more affordable £269. The success of OnePlus, both with its affordable high-end spec and unusual methods of selling has lead some people to look more at the lesser-known manufacturers for their next handsets.

Now names like OnePlus - along with other great manufacturers from overseas such as Xiaomi - are far from household names, yet, but as the tech-savvy discover the benefits of looking away from the big name brands, this will over time filter down to the rest of the consumer market, and while some brands will always have a loyal following - Apple in particular - we always want to scope out the cheapest possible deal and brand loyalty isn't enough to keep the masses following when it means paying double the price they could be.

Apple and Samsung have been top dogs for around seven years. I think a change is coming and it isn't a change that's going to work in their favour - Samsung in particular.

As a quick comparison of two similar-spec top-end handsets:

Samsung Galaxy Note 4: £550

Xiaomi Mi Note Pro: £289

That's a price difference that's too big for brand loyalty to counter. As we near March, the annual Mobile World Congress in Barcelona - the global showcase of this year's upcoming mobile phone technology - is only a couple of weeks away. Manufacturers from around the world will be giving you all the reasons to buy their phones this year. I think more and more people will be looking from the likes of Samsung to the smaller brands to see just what they have to offer and this could spell trouble for the big names.

Until then, keep an eye out.