The days of only the richest Americans owning a smartphone are long gone. In fact, you can get the Motorola Motor E for $130 with no contract. What does this mean for the industry?
It means a whole new era for no thrills smartphones. Phone supplier Ericsson says there were 1.9 billion smartphones subscribers by the end on 2013. By 2019, that number is expected to almost triple. Much of this is fueled by growing smartphone demand in developing and underdeveloped nations. Some of these places have no cable TV, or even electricity, so the smartphone may be their only way of modern day communication. And companies seem eager to provide. There’s Motorola Motor E, and there’s Alcatel. It has 4G, 13 megapixel camera, quad core processor, and runs Android 4.2. The Alcatel will run you as little as $80.
So you may not get the excellent features smartphone snobs demand. But this isn’t for the smartphone snob. These are for those who have always wanted a handset, but either couldn’t afford one or were too intimidated by the difficult technology…until now. I’ve mentioned it’s popularity around the world. But the cheap smartphone has a popular following in the US too. Let’s face it, the economy isn’t exactly back to it’s normal self, and it may never be again. So for many Americans, the cheap smartphone may be their only option. Will the cheap smartphone outsell the fancy ones?