We just cant stop buying them
Adjusted for inflation, 1983s Motorola DynaTAC phone would cost $10,380 today.
The original iPhone launched for $400.
The original Samsung Galaxy went for $599, and now thecheapest model costs $799.
Unsplash / Vựa Táo
Thats quite a hike, and usually the prices of gadgets tend to drop, not increase.
We never knew the prices of the handsets, nor did we care.
Now, it often can be cheaper to buy a phone outright and sign up for a pay-as-you-go plan.
Unsplash / Nastya Dulhiier
And somehow, were still ok with these prices.
Many of us will replace our phones every couple of years, at a grand a pop.
Meanwhile, the MacBook Air is similarly priced, and Windows laptops can be had for much less.
Unsplash / Damo T.
And yet how many of us would consider replacing a laptop every two years?
According to Savings.coms study, iPhone prices have been creeping up since 2014s iPhone 6.
That handset cost $650.
And, remember, were looking at the least-expensive models.
The Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G 512 GB is a similar $1,379.
Overall, phone prices have been on the rise since 2012.
Before that, from 1982-2011, they declined.
The average selling price has also remained pretty constant since 2008, says analyst and Apple specialistHorace Dediuon Twitter.
And part of the change is plain old economics.
Non-Phone prices
Have other categories increased their prices over the previous decade?
According to Klongpayabal, they have not.
Why, then, are phones so expensive?
Because they can be.
Samsung shipped almost a quarter of all phones in that period.
Apple alone makes around half of all smartphones sold in the US.
Meanwhile, we keep upgrading our pocket computers at these inflated prices, every few years.
