Modern smart devices are impressive feats of technology – our smartphone capability continues to improve year on year and the next stage of networking in 5G is looking very exciting, and then our other additional extra through smart watches and tablets are also showing how far we’re moving forward. But there are caveats that come with these pushes forward – it can’t be denied that many of these devices are certainly luxury goods and the quality even resembles so, but that comes with its own cost too.
The most notable difference being seen is within our main devices, our smartphones. Our habits have been changing causing big changes in the hardware as our devices are more geared towards multimedia as streaming and gaming have become a big part of our mobile day to day, with mobile gaming actually becoming one of the fastest growing markets in the world accounting for over 50% of all gaming across all platforms and despite changes to regulation through initiatives such as Gamstop were launched, despite this the market continues to grow as this list gives many sites that don’t register to these initiatives – but these changing habits mean changing costs as flagship devices are now pushing into the four digit pricing as many are now well over $1,000. Given the growing habit of changing devices every twelve to eighteen months, this growing cost of our luxury devices is only set to increase as we see even enthusiast devices reaching the upper limits of these costs.
There there are the additional costs that come with our other smart devices – many of us now use smart watches which directly connect to our smartphones, but these costs are also increasing as many are starting to reach into the $500 and above range adding on to the growing costs, not to mention how many of us now have a collection of tablets and other such smart devices that will all link together. There good side of this however comes through the convenience that these devices bring – whether this be through applications to bring utility to our homes with lighting control, paying our bills, or just accessing our banking and it is no doubt they have made everyday life much easier which can help justify the cost, but as the cost continues to increase it may be more difficult to find that balance between utility and unneeded luxury cost.
The future is certainly leaning toward growing luxury cost, as mentioned with previous enthusiast devices many are starting to verge on a $2,000 cost and upwards, which show the direction of where pricing is heading and with no signs of slowing down many may be left compromising between flagship offerings or holding on to their comfort device, but as with all luxury choices that are made many of these devices should be quite limited to just those who are willing to splash out the little extra to either be an early adopter or to just see what new tech is like.