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Nearly 500 brands exited smartphone market during 2017-2023

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Re: Nearly 500 brands exited smartphone market during 2017-2023

#5
table stakes are much higher now. You'll find similar numbers and a similar winnowing out in PCs, from a time anyone could bang together a PC from standard parts. Michael Dell sold them out of his car trunk. That hasn't entirely disappeared but now it's a narrow space between gaming rig builders and big OEMs.

Phones will be even less forgiving of niche business models. If you can't design a titanium case, or try (and fail, and absorb the loss) to monopolize the supply of very large sapphire crystals, you can't play in phones.

Re: Nearly 500 brands exited smartphone market during 2017-2023

#7
post #2

A sign of a maturing industry where there is less innovation and instead there is consolidation, integration and lots of price pressure: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/matureindustry.asp

That sums up my feelings with smartphones, and a lot of other areas that used to be exciting in tech.

They’re “finished” products. I don’t expect massive innovation going forward, just slow, incremental changes.

Re: Nearly 500 brands exited smartphone market during 2017-2023

#8

I wonder how many of these were really doing anything novel ? Or are they basically buying a half finished android kit and slapping a logo on it

A few were, definitely. LG stands out as the biggest innovator to leave the market. Less competition in the android market is a problem, in my view. Most people's interests are covered between Pixel and Samsung, true. But what happens when google gets greedy and decides to lock the Pixel bootloader? Where the hell will people who want a privacy oriented phone go? stuck with pinephone or fairphone?

Even Samsung has been way more cautious and tame with their designs, excluding the Folding devices which are true innovations.

Re: Nearly 500 brands exited smartphone market during 2017-2023

#9
post #5

table stakes are much higher now. You'll find similar numbers and a similar winnowing out in PCs, from a time anyone could bang together a PC from standard parts. Michael Dell sold them out of his car trunk. That hasn't entirely disappeared but now it's a narrow space between gaming rig builders and big OEMs. Phones will be even less forgiving of niche business models. If you can't design a titanium case, or try (and…

Are corundum screens standard now? I thought it went the other way and the market largely gave up on corundum and just uses glass now.

Re: Nearly 500 brands exited smartphone market during 2017-2023

#10
post #2

A sign of a maturing industry where there is less innovation and instead there is consolidation, integration and lots of price pressure: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/matureindustry.asp

That sums up my feelings with smartphones, and a lot of other areas that used to be exciting in tech. They’re “finished” products. I don’t expect massive innovation going forward, just slow, incremental changes.

Could not agree more. The candy bar format is probably as good as it can reasonably be expected to get given our current technology.

One day, we may have the phones from The Expanse, but for right now, an iPhone 15 or a Galaxy S23 or a Pixel 7 are as good as they need to be.

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