Overpriced smartphones will make 5G a failure? It is very likely!
Is it soon to turn out that the problem for the development of 5G network is not infrastructure, but customers who are less willing to spend large amounts on new devices?
The smartphone exchange cycle has slowed down considerably in recent years and users are choosing to use their mobile devices for a long time. Manufacturers and experts predicted that the development of the 5G network will significantly accelerate this process, bringing it to a whole new level, but it seems that they could be wrong, and the price of smartphones will most likely prove to be a barrier, or at least Brad Akyuz, an industry analyst at NPD suggests Connected Intelligence. For some two years, flagship smartphones have been valued at around USD 1,000 and although customers are slowly getting used to such sums, it does not mean that they are willing to spend them.
As it results from the data collected by the NPD Group using the Mobile Phone Tracking service, less than 10% of consumers decide to pay more than a thousand dollars for a smartphone. And considering the costs of implementing 5G modems in mobile devices, we don't expect headphones cheaper than $1,200. Next year, this trend will probably continue, which may mean that the development of 5G network will be significantly slowed down and not because of infrastructure or technology problems, but for purely economic reasons, because users may find them too expensive or their current headphones too enough.
There are also increasing concerns about whether 5G technology is scalable enough, if only because of the very limited range and line of sight requirements. And yet other experts suggest that thermal limitations may also stand in the way of implementation, so although manufacturers are trying to convince us that this is the only right option, in reality it may be different. Either way, American mobile network operators put everything on one card, because the four largest players spent 2019 on preparing their infrastructure for 5G networks, hoping that customers will decide to buy the necessary device and change.