The AI boom is making the cheapest smartphones disappear
restofworld.orgI dont mind old phones, i just want to replace my batteries. I still remember my old nokia and popping out batteries to pop in another. Was perfect.
Similarly, data center loans are starting to make cheap mortgages disappear.
Care to elaborate? Are you saying that because banks are loaning to data centers, the rest of the people are experiencing an increase in mortgage rates?
The data center financing is driving up yields. Mortgage rates are based on adding a spread (maybe 2%) to the 10-year tresury (currently at 5.26%).
I think wildly out of control inflation is what's doing that.
I refuse to pay 1200 eurodollars for a phone or worse go on some shitty plan. Sadly AI boom is killing midrange phones.
iPhone se3 (A15 chip, decent), is about $130 refurbished. It has depreciated, and continues to do so. But I do wonder if there is another to take it's place in the future.
I like my 13 mini. About $230. Best phone I've had so far.
EOL is 2029 for software updates for the 13 mini. On that day i will fall to my knees and wheep in a costco parking lot for my 13 mini. This is the perfect form factor for a phone in my humble opinion
Pixel 8 also? Time to buy.
I heard they are downgrading to 12GB ram too
Oh, the horror. I remember when a 12GB disk was more than you could ever use in your life.
So nobody will be able to afford anything, great work - this sort of thing always goes well
It's by design, so they can lock you into monthly payments.
On one hand, despite being someone who makes a living writing software for mobile devices I haven't bought a new phone in more than 5 years because it is so much cheaper to just buy a 1-2 year old used phone in nearly perfect condition and all the new 'innovations' are worthless bullshit.
On the other hand, I'm sure this will trickle into the used market and still impact me so excuse me while old man yells at cloud.
Except that a 1-2 year old phone already has noticeable battery wear. I really hope the EU ends up forcing manufacturers to make changing batteries easy
They already did, didn't they. Should be an applicable law in 2027. Though I can not refer or interpret the actual laws, sorry.
Generally true for all things.
Wrong, cheapest smartphone will always exist.
"The poor will always be with you, and they too need phones." -Jesus