Mobile Phone Market: Too Many to Count2 min read

Apple will release their 18th version of the iPhone since 2007 on the 20th September 2019 with the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Max and iPhone 11 Max Pro all coming with slightly different features, sizes and prices.

This has been the standard practice in the phone industry with new phones being released every year, but can this model survive in the long term?

When the first iPhone was first released in 2007, it revolutionised the phone market with the introduction of touch screen smartphones. Apple cemented themselves in the phone industry, while popular mid- 2000 phone brands like Nokia and Blackberry failed to compete with the new type of phone which was unimaginable at the beginning of the millennia.

Apple’s close rivals, Samsung released their first smartphone 3 years after the introduction of the iPhone with the Samsung Galaxy S. Since then, Samsung released 38 different versions of the Samsung S series which doesn’t include the Alpha and Joy series or any other Samsung phone.

While consumers benefited from the latest technology being implemented in the phones, it got to the point where a consumer cannot stay up to date. Therefore, different companies are offering phone contracts that will allow the consumer to upgrade to the latest phone even when their contract is still active.

There was a time when the military provided the latest innovations and inventions which slowly moved into the public sphere, however, thanks to the cutting edge of the private industry, the latest technology is being showcased to the consumer for monetary reasons.

Apple is the largest technology company in the world with $59 billion profit while Samsung Company contributes to 20% of South Korea’s Gross Domestic Product.

Huawei, a Chinese based technology company who had more units sold than Apple in 2018, has recently faced allegations by the United States for allowing the Chinese government a backdoor, therefore, this will allow the Chinese government access to consumer phones even on the other side of the world. As a result, the company faced sanctions which resulted in Google stop providing their services in 2019.

The diverse choice and range of prices allow consumers to choose the right phone for them but after a year or two, another phone is released.

Photo by Neil Soni on Unsplash