Recent years have seen an explosion in the smartphone market. The increase in number of users has skyrocketed, a host of brands have entered the market; at times the same parent company has multiple brands that cater to many different groups base don their buying power. We see a continuous drop in prices of mobile phones. There are of course multiple reasons as things at this scale are rarely caused by one factor. We’ll look into some of the points feeding into this phenomenon.
Democratization of Technology
When something is a new breakthrough in technology it is considered the next big thing and is usually priced as such, making it expensive. Over time as the understanding of technology has become more widespread technology has also become cheaper. More people enter and industry and try to replicate hit devices.
The Apple iPhone was considered revolutionary and within a short time, it was the first successful smartphone albeit it was not the first smartphone. Many brands were trying to replicate its success. Naturally not everyone uses the same quality and level of technology as the iPhone, making their devices cheaper.
Over the years this has happened many times over, there are more smartphone brands than there have ever been before. The technological know-how is a lot more accessible, making it easier to produce a smartphone. That ease feeds into it being somewhat cheaper as well.
Technological Advances:
It is well understood as technology ages it becomes cheaper, especially when newer updates are a lot better and the older ones are not as wanted. This happens with the most central component inside smartphones, the processor.
Companies such as Apple, Intel, MediaTek, HiSilicon and Samsung are designing new and better processors almost every 2 years. These processors, till now, have followed Moore’s Law which states that the number of transistors inside a chip will double every 2 years.
This has come down closer to 18 months as our ability to produce more finely has improved. Gordon E. Moore was on to something, he is also the brain behind Intel, one of the original chip producers.
We can see this in the production method as well the specification with the cops that states “7nm”. This refers to the size of the transistor. The ‘nm’ refers to the nanometer, to put that in perspective a nanometer is the billionth of a meter.
Not long ago we were at 10nm. Today the most powerful smartphones are at 7nm. This means that there are many other devices that make use of a slightly larger chip and be able to sell it for a lot cheaper. So something at 10nm would be available in a much cheaper model and still run very well. On a side note, the smaller and more densely packed chips such as the 7nm one also use a lot less power; which makes the smartphone more efficient overall.
The beast that is the World and the massive hand that is China:
China has proven that their capacity to produce is near endless, it is single-handedly the largest producer of smartphones. 5 of the top 10 smartphone brands in the world are Chinese. They produce for the rest f the brands on that list too. There was a time they were merely copying the international brands and producing cheaper versions, today that is not entirely the case.
Companies have gone from reverse engineering to producing their own processors. Brands like Huawei have massive R&D departments that are also originating minor technologies that have impacted the market. Even in the software arena, small things that have had a huge impact came from Chinese brands. This has helped the quality of their smartphone a lot.
Combine that with the numbers just within China, these companies can afford to produce smartphones a lot cheaper as they have a massive user base just at home. Then combine these markets with places such as Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and all of Africa. China is feeding an unimaginable number of smartphone users. Also now user can avail max discount while shopping online on different trusted platforms such as daraz, home shopping , shopsy etc etc.
This in itself has changed the game. China specifically caters to markets that cannot afford very expensive smartphones, but still do need them. One can say need as a smartphone is considered pretty much that, given that is it the most common form of communication. Especially since social media makes people want to jack into the matrix it has become. People feel left out and will save money to buy a smartphone just so they can be on the same platforms as the rest of the world.
The Internet Boom and Gaming
The mention of social media brings us to the reason it is even possible, the internet. The internet has become cheaper as your mobile service provider is probably able to support 4G, with many telcos already looking into 5G if they haven’t already started the deployment. This ability to consume is intrinsic at this point in humanity. This allows smartphone brands to tap into another huge market, the gaming segment. There are an approximate 2.1 billion mobile gamers in the world! This is a staggering number. Gamers are also very commonly known to be techies, they look forward to new smartphones so they can do even better within their digital competitive sphere.
The most interesting thing is that the brands do not even need to pull them in, the game developers do that for them. Whenever the latest game is out, gamers go into a craze and want it. The ability to game on the go on this fast lifestyle is naturally an edge. Not everyone has time to sit down and spend dedicated time on a console. Mobile gaming can be done anywhere at any time. Especially when one is connected to the internet and that is so easy inside the cities. One can game while on a commute. Another development that has added more interest to this segment is that some of the best games have become cross-platform, which means one can be playing from PlayStation vs a player who is on a smartphone. The servers are running day and night, anyone can log in any time and join a game that is being played by millions at a time.
How all this Connects:
Technology in itself is a wonder, especially when it allows you to do more and more each day. All these things come together as this increases the market base. More people want smartphones, they may not even know why they want the newer model really. They just know it will enhance their experience. With brands that cater to each and every economic segment, they are able to produce smartphone built around a specific price. As the population grows more people are coming into an age group where they need a smartphone. The newer generations are more into smartphones than the older ones are. They have more peers who are using them and to stay connected with them and to interact with them they have more of a need in comparison. The multiplication of population alone is enough to make the devices cheaper as the demand increases at such an exponential rate. Along with that the older technologies becoming cheaper make it easier.
All this, of course, does not mean that flagship smartphones are becoming cheaper if anything those are becoming a lot more costly. But as they pioneer technologies, in about two years those technologies becoming commonplace and thus cheaper. Take into account that this has been happening for about 12 odd years means there are a lot of technologies that are still great but are so much cheaper as they came about 5 years ago. The increased rate of progression also means that things age a lot faster, meaning they lose value faster as well.
In a short time, we will see a huge leap in design, innovation and invention. That in itself will make the technologies of today a lot more cheap and accessible. This continuous process will keep making some part of very relevant smartphones cheaper, thus allowing more people to have access to it.
