# A question about the future of phones **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 23, 2019, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-the-future-of-phones/843884 "2019-11-23T19:06:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2019, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-the-future-of-phones/843884/21 "2019-11-24T14:26:52Z")
> [@DorkVader](#): > > Are cel (cell?) phones being positioned or have been postioned to become a commodity? Are they commoditized? > > I know, not the dictionary definition of the word, but I think the concept might fit Commodity as in 1) “a useful or valuable thing” or the economic definition of 2) “a good or service that the market treats as equivalent with no regard to who produced it” (like petroleum or oranges)? Because the answer to 1 is yes and 2 is no (sort of). Companies largely assume that most people own a phone (do we call them “cell”, “mobile”, or “smart” anymore?) they carry with them everywhere (at least, the sort of people companies care about). Basically a small, portable electronic device capable of browsing the internet, connecting to social media, running applications, taking pictures, playing music, giving driving directions, scanning bar/QR codes, paying for things, texting, emailing and (almost forgot), speaking to people via the phone. So more and more they are adopting business models that allow people to use their smart phone to conduct business (and gather data). As for the phone becoming a sort of commodity device (I suppose like phones used to be 30 years ago), obviously companies like Apple, Samsung, Google, Motorola, LG and so on spend a lot of money in marketing to make you think that their phones are better and somehow different from their competitors. And they are complex devices, so there are only a few companies able to actually make them. But then again, they all seem to sort of work the same. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2019, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-the-future-of-phones/843884/22 "2019-11-24T14:49:23Z")
> [@TwoCarrotSnowman](#): > > One interesting development - which doesn’t seem to have caught on yet - is the concept of plugging your phone into docking station connected to a proper keyboard, mouse and screen. The phone knows when it is plugged into the dock, and emits a proper desktop-style user interface. That has a certain amount of compelling logic to it - a flagship smartphone has plenty of power for most people’s day to day computing tasks. If you’re running iT for a large number of users, giving them a single device which is highly portable when they’re not in the office, but works like a proper computer when they are seems quite appealing. Microsoft played with this with their “Continuum” feature in the now defunct Windows Phone, and Samsung’s “Dex” feature is pretty much the same thing. > > I realise this is the polar opposite of the future I confidently predicted a few posts above. 😃 Been waiting for this for over a decade. When this is available, and doesn’t involve an unpleasant stepdown from a high-end laptop computer when it’s docked, I won’t need a computer and the phone will become my single device. So far, I’ve been a holdout, waiting for this development, using a stupidphone (neither android nor iphone; it can make phone calls and can sort of text), not wanting my data world to be split between two different nonprimary devices. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2019, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-the-future-of-phones/843884/23 "2019-11-24T17:21:31Z")
> [@MandaJo](#): > > I find cheap smart phones to be less functional than the more expensive ones. Screens aren’t as crisp or bright, apps are slower, touch functions aren’t as reaponsive. Serious question . . .is that psychosomatic? Could be. I have a £150 motorola android phone and was given a £1000+ iphone from work. The iphone is gathering dust, I don’t think it is even charged up. I’ve used it a few time and it is…fine, but no more that that. It doesn’t do anything important to me any better than my android phone and the battery runs down in half the time so there is absolutely no impetus for me to change. If the apps and the screen and the camera _are_ better on the iphone then it it isn’t so obvious as to make me drop the android. Seeing as it was a work gift I have no real emotional investment either way so I’m pretty objective. I was also given an ipad which I do use for media consumption and light browing and again, that seems to be fine. Not noticeably better than my old Samsumg tablet but it does have a dedicated set-up to my work email, webex and files so I use it in preference to carting my laptop home every day. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2019, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-the-future-of-phones/843884/24 "2019-11-24T17:21:53Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > But then again, they all seem to sort of work the same. Right, like a TV. And there are cheap TVs, crappy TVs, well made TVs, small TVs, HD TVs, etc. So the idea of the OP isn’t really about commodification. It’s more like, “Who cares whether you have an iPhone or an Android–they all just work off of the cloud anyway, so as long as you have something that works well, you’re good.” > [@AHunter3](#): > > So far, I’ve been a holdout, waiting for this development, using a stupidphone (neither android nor iphone; it can make phone calls and can sort of text), not wanting my data world to be split between two different nonprimary devices. I get what you’re saying completely, but I’m not going to “hold out” and be forced to pull out and boot up a computer every time I just want to put an appointment on my calendar or something like that in anticipation of the idea, single device. If data can be synced in the cloud, why go to all that trouble? ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2019, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-the-future-of-phones/843884/25 "2019-11-24T20:25:06Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > Mini phones such as this [one](https://www.ebay.com/itm/Smallest-Cell-Phone-Credit-Card-Size-Micro-SIM-Unlocked-GSM-Mini-Mobile-Phone/303093495604?hash=item4691c7b734:m:mBQUB72CSmwB4lP2MCgVPCw) are incredibly popular around the world. According to the 5[sup]th[/sup] image, that phone has “Three-Dimensional Buttons In Case Of Any Wrong Touching.” ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2019, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-the-future-of-phones/843884/26 "2019-11-24T20:40:51Z")
> [@](#): > > I have a £150 motorola android phone and was given a £1000+ iphone from work. > … > If the apps and the screen and the camera are better on the iphone then it it isn’t so obvious as to make me drop the android. I thought you mentioned something in an earlier thead [mentioning a Moto G6](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=21309317&postcount=16) in that price range (back when I was researching possible replacement phones.) I got a refurb Moto G6 (non-Play) less than a month ago and the screen is nice enough but the camera is _horrible_. Very laggy, and terrible low-light capability. And that isn’t in comparison to a flagship phone, that is in comparison to the much better camera on my equally-cheap and contemporary-released Samsung Galaxy J7 Crown. The G6 camera is barely better than a Kindle Fire camera. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2019, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-the-future-of-phones/843884/27 "2019-11-24T21:21:47Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > According to the 5[sup]th[/sup] image, that phone has “Three-Dimensional Buttons In Case Of Any Wrong Touching.” Oh, there’s a ton of terrible translation in that and similar ads. I buy stuff from China here and there and only got one bad item (out of a set of 3) once and promptly got a refund. (But these are cheap things I know are crap I get just for the funz.) So I’ve sort of gotten use to this type of wording. ---
**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2019, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-the-future-of-phones/843884/28 "2019-11-24T23:45:23Z")
> [@MandaJo](#): > > I find cheap smart phones to be less functional than the more expensive ones. Screens aren’t as crisp or bright, apps are slower, touch functions aren’t as reaponsive. Serious question . . .is that psychosomatic? No, not at all. I had to use a cheap Samsung (J5 I think) for a month, because I broke my Note 5, and it would be 4 weeks before the Note 9 was released. The phone was so slow, it was almost intolerable. The screen would scratch from normal use and pocket storage, apps were very slow (and it could only run one at a time), battery life was horrible, the construction was flimsy, light and not even water resistant. The display resolution was shit and the camera was garbage. There is certainly quality, performance and capability differences between cheap smart phones and high end flagship models. RAM, processor, storage, bandwidth, resolution, camera, etc. These things are not equal among different phones, and for people who take full advantage of these thing, the difference is noticeable. To others, it might not be. It’s like getting a high end gaming laptop or a $200 Acer. For someone whole only uses a computer to check Gmail, it might not matter and they’d possibly not even notice a difference. But the difference is huge, and the more a person uses the machine, the more noticable the differences are. ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2019, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-the-future-of-phones/843884/29 "2019-11-25T00:03:18Z")
> [@RioRico](#): > > Discrete cell phones are on their way out. We’ll soon have communications links implanted in our bodies. Implanted right behind your ear, where the sound can be transmitted directly to the bones so only you can hear. There will be a brief period where you will still need to vocally give instructions ala Alexis but that will be replaced by direct TTW or thought to word technology. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2019, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-the-future-of-phones/843884/30 "2019-11-25T15:25:06Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > The one with the lowest cost which meets your requirements. Cost alone isn’t a good way to buy. > > But they are definitely a commodity now. When we were in Hong Kong our not super expensive hotel lent us one as a standard part of the room - like shampoo. They’re similar to a commodity, but they’re \*NOT \*a commodity- they’re not fungible enough when it comes right down to it. A Samsung Galaxy S7 is NOT “the same” as a Iphone 11, and neither are the same as a Google Pixel 2. And that’s not taking into account the two main competing app/OS ecosystems (Android/iOS). That’s really the definition of a commodity- something where the individual items are literally completely interchangeable- one grain of rice/pork belly/ton of iron ore/barrel of oil is no different than another within their particular markets. And they’re typically traded in geographically wide markets- the oil market, the pork belly market, etc… Generally speaking, commodities are items that it is virtually impossible to differentiate- how are you going to differentiate your particular natural gas from the guy with a well on the other side of the river? You’re not, and you’re not going to be able to differentiate it from anyone else’s natural gas either. So everyone’s natural gas is traded on a huge market where prices are mostly set by supply and demand alone- there’s no differentiation going on. But smartphones ARE eminently differentiable. Color, size, screen shape, sound, camera, notch/cut-out (or not), OS, heartbeat sensor, and so on are all ways manufacturers try to differentiate their phones from the rest. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2019, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-the-future-of-phones/843884/31 "2019-11-25T16:13:25Z")
> [@bump](#): > > They’re similar to a commodity, but they’re \*NOT \*a commodity- they’re not fungible enough when it comes right down to it. A Samsung Galaxy S7 is NOT “the same” as a Iphone 11, and neither are the same as a Google Pixel 2. And that’s not taking into account the two main competing app/OS ecosystems (Android/iOS). > > That’s really the definition of a commodity- something where the individual items are literally completely interchangeable- one grain of rice/pork belly/ton of iron ore/barrel of oil is no different than another within their particular markets. And they’re typically traded in geographically wide markets- the oil market, the pork belly market, etc… > > Generally speaking, commodities are items that it is virtually impossible to differentiate- how are you going to differentiate your particular natural gas from the guy with a well on the other side of the river? You’re not, and you’re not going to be able to differentiate it from anyone else’s natural gas either. So everyone’s natural gas is traded on a huge market where prices are mostly set by supply and demand alone- there’s no differentiation going on. > > But smartphones ARE eminently differentiable. Color, size, screen shape, sound, camera, notch/cut-out (or not), OS, heartbeat sensor, and so on are all ways manufacturers try to differentiate their phones from the rest. Right, which is why I said above that the idea of the OP is rather that they are becoming increasingly “genericized.” ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2019, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-the-future-of-phones/843884/32 "2019-11-25T16:18:56Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > I thought you mentioned something in an earlier thead [mentioning a Moto G6](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=21309317&postcount=16) in that price range (back when I was researching possible replacement phones.) I got a refurb Moto G6 (non-Play) less than a month ago and the screen is nice enough but the camera is _horrible_. Very laggy, and terrible low-light capability. And that isn’t in comparison to a flagship phone, that is in comparison to the much better camera on my equally-cheap and contemporary-released Samsung Galaxy J7 Crown. The G6 camera is barely better than a Kindle Fire camera. OK, well I currently have a photo of Austrian mountains taken on the G6 play, as my wallpaper on a 32 inch ultra-wide, ultra hd monitor. It is a sharp and colourful as I could want. I did some side-by-side photo comparisons with the G6 play and the iphone this summer and I couldn’t pick a favourite. Certainly not one that was worth the best part of £1000. I can’t speak to low-light capability as I never use it for that. I don’t know what you mean by laggy either, I open the app, I take a photo., I’ve never thought to myself “wow that’s slow”, just like I didn’t think “wow that’s fast” when using the iphone. It may be that the camera is different on the G6 to the G6 play of course ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2019, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-the-future-of-phones/843884/33 "2019-11-25T16:21:39Z")
> [@bump](#): > > But smartphones ARE eminently differentiable. Color, size, screen shape, sound, camera, notch/cut-out (or not), OS, heartbeat sensor, and so on are all ways manufacturers try to differentiate their phones from the rest. Don’t such fairly frivolous or irrelevant features rather suggest that they are being commoditised? I mean, does anyone show off their phone or brag about features anymore? ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2019, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-the-future-of-phones/843884/34 "2019-11-25T16:26:44Z")
Why does it matter if you show them off? That would suggest they mattered at status symbols. The question should be if people use them. I know that what I really want is speed. If I open google maps, I don’t want it to lag, or to close the other apps I have going. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2019, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-the-future-of-phones/843884/35 "2019-11-25T16:59:23Z")
> [@TwoCarrotSnowman](#): > > One interesting development - which doesn’t seem to have caught on yet - is the concept of plugging your phone into docking station connected to a proper keyboard, mouse and screen. The phone knows when it is plugged into the dock, and emits a proper desktop-style user interface. That has a certain amount of compelling logic to it - a flagship smartphone has plenty of power for most people’s day to day computing tasks. If you’re running iT for a large number of users, giving them a single device which is highly portable when they’re not in the office, but works like a proper computer when they are seems quite appealing. Microsoft played with this with their “Continuum” feature in the now defunct Windows Phone, and Samsung’s “Dex” feature is pretty much the same thing. > > I realise this is the polar opposite of the future I confidently predicted a few posts above. 😃 There have been a few attempts at this - including: [Motorola Atrix](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjZI94VfC1U) - the dock was a sort of dumb laptop that the phone would plug into - it never really took off, but the laptop docks are now highly sought after by people who want to use them for Raspberry Pi or similar [HP Elite X3](https://www.pcworld.com/article/3035657/hps-elite-x3-is-a-flagship-sailing-into-a-dangerous-windows-phone-wasteland.html) - a Windows phone with a dock to make it into a desktop computer. it failed because it was launched at around about the time when Microsoft was abandoning Windows Phone. I think there has been a more recent attempt for Android that either hasn’t yet come to fruition, or has already died. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2019, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-the-future-of-phones/843884/36 "2019-11-25T17:25:10Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > Don’t such fairly frivolous or irrelevant features rather suggest that they are being commoditised? I mean, does anyone show off their phone or brag about features anymore? No. Really the idea of a commodity is more of a business concept. Basically it’s an item that is so fungible (i.e. undistinguishable from others of its type) that it’s treated without regard for where or who produced it. This leads to worldwide markets, such as the oil, wheat, etc… ones. Commodities are typically either raw materials like iron ore, oil, wheat, etc… or bulk manufactured goods used as components to other things- screws, memory chips, nails, etc… where say… a 6D nail is functionally indistinguishable from any other 6D nail, or a million BTU of natural gas is indistinguishable from any other million BTU of natural gas from anywhere else in the world. Very little of what we see as consumers are actually commodities- about the closest we come is bulk baking ingredients like sugar, flour, and oil, and their manufacturers do their damnedest to differentiate them from each other- that’s why we have Gold Medal and Pillsbury flour, Domino, C&H and Imperial sugar, and Wesson, Mazola and Crisco vegetable oils. I can’t see any situation where a cell phone could be a commodity, unless they were literally disposable and standardized like a plastic spoon or something. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2019, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-the-future-of-phones/843884/37 "2019-11-25T18:39:53Z")
> [@bump](#): > > I can’t see any situation where a cell phone could be a commodity, unless they were literally disposable and standardized like a plastic spoon or something. I don’t think disposability is a necessary feature of commoditisation and I’m not saying that we are there yet in the purest sense of the word but I think phones are definitely moving in that direction. All phones do look pretty much the same, most of them do 95% of what the average user needs well enough. There seems to be an inordinate amount of effort undertaken to make a big thing about smaller and smaller detail differences. That suggests to me that the manufacturers are battling against that commodification issue. I reckon plenty of people do indeed treat it as commodity in many respects. If my phone broke tomorrow I’d just go out and buy something similar to replace it in the £100-£150 range and I wouldn’t be too fussed about the exact model. Come to think of it I’d probably treat a replacement laptop and TV in much the same way as the phone. I think over the last decade the differences between different models of all three items has beome smaller and smaller and careful scrutiny of the specs has become less and less useful. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2019, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-the-future-of-phones/843884/38 "2019-11-25T19:48:13Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > I don’t think disposability is a necessary feature of commoditisation and I’m not saying that we are there yet in the purest sense of the word but I think phones are definitely moving in that direction. > > All phones do look pretty much the same, most of them do 95% of what the average user needs well enough. There seems to be an inordinate amount of effort undertaken to make a big thing about smaller and smaller detail differences. That suggests to me that the manufacturers are battling against that commodification issue. I reckon plenty of people do indeed treat it as commodity in many respects. If my phone broke tomorrow I’d just go out and buy something similar to replace it in the £100-£150 range and I wouldn’t be too fussed about the exact model. > > Come to think of it I’d probably treat a replacement laptop and TV in much the same way as the phone. I think over the last decade the differences between different models of all three items has beome smaller and smaller and careful scrutiny of the specs has become less and less useful. Manufacturers are always working against what you’re calling “commodification”, although I suspect what you’re getting at is that people are starting to be more price-sensitive and less concerned with features. That’s not the same thing as being a commodity though. Basically when everything’s boiled down as far as you can get it, there are two basic business strategies- you either differentiate yourself from the competition and work from there, or you compete on price. Most retailers and manufacturers don’t want to compete on price because in order to be successful, you have to ALWAYS be the lowest priced option, or price-sensitive consumers will go to whoever else is cheapest. This means your profit margins are razor-thin or non-existent. Most opt to differentiate themselves in some way- through product features, support, service, etc… The reason I compared a commodity cell phone to a disposable plastic spoon is because nobody ever really cares what a plastic flatware looks like, but if you’re buying a permanent set, you start looking at materials, patterns, etc… - all differentiating characteristics. Cell phones would have to be about as interchangeable and replaceable as a plastic spoon to even be in the same league as a commodity. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2019, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-the-future-of-phones/843884/39 "2019-11-25T20:49:40Z")
The definition of commodity, from Wiki > [@](#): > > In economics, a commodity is an economic good or service that has full or substantial fungibility: that is, the market treats instances of the good as equivalent or nearly so with no regard to who produced them.[1][2] > > The price of a commodity good is typically determined as a function of its market as a whole: well-established physical commodities have actively traded spot and derivative markets. The wide availability of commodities typically leads to smaller profit margins and diminishes the importance of factors (such as brand name) other than price. > > Most commodities are raw materials, basic resources, agricultural, or mining products, such as iron ore, sugar, or grains like rice and wheat. Commodities can also be mass-produced unspecialized products such as chemicals and computer memory. While rice is a commodity, there is differentiation among types of rices and definitely branding of normal rices. Very high end smartphones aren’t a commodity, but cellphones (think burner phones) and older smartphones are. Apple is brilliant at extracting extra money for the brand both when their product is differentiated and when it isn’t. AT&T did the same thing for phones when they started to be sold in stores. The phone I got in Hong Kong was definitely a commodity. It had phone, text, GPS, a browser. Not much more was required. I don’t remember who made it, it didn’t matter. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2019, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-the-future-of-phones/843884/40 "2019-11-25T20:56:31Z")
> [@bump](#): > > Most opt to differentiate themselves in some way- through product features, support, service, etc… > > The reason I compared a commodity cell phone to a disposable plastic spoon is because nobody ever really cares what a plastic flatware looks like, but if you’re buying a permanent set, you start looking at materials, patterns, etc… - all differentiating characteristics. Cell phones would have to be about as interchangeable and replaceable as a plastic spoon to even be in the same league as a commodity. You forgot branding. My wife worked in a vegetable cannery. The same damn vegetables went out under their private label, at a premium, and under other labels, as a discount. Ditto for store brands. Memory is a commodity - but it comes in different sizes and speeds. Early PCs were basically commodities also. AT&T ones got a premium because of perception, not because of features or quality. I heard that from a high level executive. Again, do you think people buying burner phones do so on features or brand? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-the-future-of-phones/843884.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-the-future-of-phones/843884.md?page=3)