Modern smartphones are too expensive, and it is pointless to argue with this fact. Even if you can afford to upgrade to a new model every year, one way or another, your costs have clearly increased in recent years. Yes, the functionality of top-end smartphones today turns out to be much wider than then, but if we count in absolute numbers, it turns out that we just began to pay more for the essence of the same. After all, if 5 years ago I bought a top-end device for $ 500, today I have to pay twice as much at best. Although that then I was getting the best model that now. But prices can be significantly reduced.
Smartphones could get cheaper if manufacturers stop lying to us
It is clear that smartphones have risen in price due to the rise in the cost of smartphone hardware, and manufacturers who do not want to lose margins are simply increasing their prices. But I believe that they could well sell the devices cheaper if they began to behave a little more honestly with users and themselves. Don't you understand what I'm talking about? Then let's look at this aspect in more detail.
Do smartphones track
We are monitored not only by services, but also by special mechanisms in the firmware of smartphones
It's no secret that smartphone manufacturers are monitoring their users. They do this in different ways, but one way or another, they get a fairly wide range of data about our preferences, movements, searches, attitudes, and even character. As a result, this information is processed, analyzed and further used as needed. For example, you can sell it to advertisers, or you can improve your product on its basis, giving the client what he wants. After all, if users often charge the device, it is obvious that it is necessary to increase the battery capacity, and if they often install an application, you can copy its capabilities and implement them as a standard function.
However, there is a big problem here, which is called hypocrisy. Everyone knows perfectly well that manufacturers are watching us. Manufacturers know this too. But since in the modern world there are norms and rules for the processing of confidential information, everyone pretends that the data is either not collected at all, or is encrypted and anonymized so carefully that it cannot serve any practical purpose. In addition to the abstract improvement of the quality of service, which is always referred to by all corporations, including Google, which knows everything about us in general thanks to its services.
Why smartphones are so expensive
Users Amazon could buy Fire tablets at a discount if they agreed to in-app ads
I admit that corporations that collect data may indeed be missing some (perhaps even quite tangible) piece of information that they would very much like to receive. After all, encryption and anonymization is both complex and expensive. After all, this requires specialized equipment, smart algorithms, employees who know how to work with these complexes, and many accompanying factors that eat away money from companies no less than the equipment of branded devices. Wouldn't it be better for smartphone manufacturers to release special versions of their devices that openly collect data, but at the same time make them somewhat cheaper than traditional versions?
Do you think this is impossible? In fact, it is possible, and some companies are already trying to reduce the retail prices of their devices in exchange for some concessions from users to varying degrees. For example, Amazon used to actively sell tablets with embedded ads, which cost $ 50-100 cheaper than the non-ad versions. I don't know if they were popular, but at some point Amazon I just removed them from sale and started trading only regular tablets without advertising banners.
Why smartphones Xiaomi are so cheap
I don't mind being followed, especially if it makes smartphones cheaper
Xiaomi went a little further and left no choice for smartphone users. She just embedded ads in MIUI with no option to disable it. Obviously, in this way the company tried to compensate for the low prices of branded devices. However, this was clearly not enough. Therefore, at some point Xiaomi I built tracking tools into my firmware, which literally recorded everything that users do, and then transmitted the information received to the servers of the analytics company. Do you think the Chinese are just curious about what you do? Not at all, they just make money this way.
I admit that the collection of data cannot compensate producers with any tangible amount, so they do not reduce prices. But, most likely, the point is only that at the moment when one of them offers the market a spy device half the price of the traditional version, it will immediately be branded by colleagues in the shop, and it will lose its credibility. Although, as we can see from the example of the system for tracking patients with coronavirus, the Overton Window works, and what seemed strange to us a few months ago is about to become the new norm, which, obviously, will be accepted by everyone, well, or almost everyone.