• Tech News
    • Games
    • Pc & Laptop
    • Mobile Tech
    • Ar & Vr
    • Security
  • Startup
    • Fintech
  • Reviews
  • How To
What's Hot

Elementor #32036

January 24, 2025

The Redmi Note 13 is a bigger downgrade compared to the 5G model than you might think

April 18, 2024

Xiaomi Redmi Watch 4 is a budget smartwatch with a premium look and feel

April 16, 2024
Facebook Twitter Instagram
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions
Facebook Twitter Instagram Pinterest VKontakte
Behind The ScreenBehind The Screen
  • Tech News
    1. Games
    2. Pc & Laptop
    3. Mobile Tech
    4. Ar & Vr
    5. Security
    6. View All

    Bring Elden Ring to the table with the upcoming board game adaptation

    September 19, 2022

    ONI: Road to be the Mightiest Oni reveals its opening movie

    September 19, 2022

    GTA 6 images and footage allegedly leak

    September 19, 2022

    Wild west adventure Card Cowboy turns cards into weird and silly stories

    September 18, 2022

    7 Reasons Why You Should Study PHP Programming Language

    October 19, 2022

    Logitech MX Master 3S and MX Keys Combo for Business Gen 2 Review

    October 9, 2022

    Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen10 Review

    September 18, 2022

    Lenovo IdeaPad 5i Chromebook, 16-inch+120Hz

    September 3, 2022

    It’s 2023 and Spotify Still Can’t Say When AirPlay 2 Support Will Arrive

    April 4, 2023

    YouTube adds very convenient iPhone homescreen widgets

    October 15, 2022

    Google finishes iOS 16 Lock Screen widgets rollout w/ Maps

    October 14, 2022

    Is Apple actually turning iMessage into AIM or is this sketchy redesign rumor for laughs?

    October 14, 2022

    MeetKai launches AI-powered metaverse, starting with a billboard in Times Square

    August 10, 2022

    The DeanBeat: RP1 simulates putting 4,000 people together in a single metaverse plaza

    August 10, 2022

    Improving the customer experience with virtual and augmented reality

    August 10, 2022

    Why the metaverse won’t fall to Clubhouse’s fate

    August 10, 2022

    How Apple privacy changes have forced social media marketing to evolve

    October 16, 2022

    Microsoft Patch Tuesday October Fixed 85 Vulnerabilities – Latest Hacking News

    October 16, 2022

    Decentralization and KYC compliance: Critical concepts in sovereign policy

    October 15, 2022

    What Thoma Bravo’s latest acquisition reveals about identity management

    October 14, 2022

    What is a Service Robot? The vision of an intelligent service application is possible.

    November 7, 2022

    Tom Brady just chucked another Microsoft Surface tablet

    September 18, 2022

    The best AIO coolers for your PC in 2022

    September 18, 2022

    YC’s Michael Seibel clarifies some misconceptions about the accelerator • DailyTech

    September 18, 2022
  • Startup
    • Fintech
  • Reviews
  • How To
Behind The ScreenBehind The Screen
Home»Tech News»Yes, inflation has come for tech products, too
Tech News

Yes, inflation has come for tech products, too

August 18, 2022No Comments6 Mins Read
Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email
Yes, inflation has come for tech products, too
Share
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Email

For many, this summer has been the season of inflation. After fuel prices spiked earlier this year (and have only slowly started to come down), it seems like everything we had to pay for suddenly became more expensive. Outside of the gas station, this is most likely felt at the grocery store, where staples like bread, pasta, vegetables, and other consumables all cost more now than they did a year (or even just a few months) ago.

Inflation has also impacted the price of tech products, like smartphones and laptops, but it can be harder to spot. Unlike food or other consumables, technology products have a long production cycle, often taking 18 months or more to go from an idea to a store shelf. Many companies set a product’s target price at the start of its development cycle, which makes them more insulated from short-term swings in inflation. Tech devices also rarely go up in price after they’ve been released; in fact, we’re accustomed to them becoming less expensive over time.

But this year, we’ve seen numerous examples where devices have either gotten explicitly more expensive or just haven’t fallen in price over time the way we’ve been conditioned to expect them to. Part of this is due to the ongoing supply chain crunch, which makes it harder for companies to source components, especially for devices that don’t use high-end smartphone or laptop processors. But big companies are also not immune to rising fuel costs and other inflationary effects, and that’s also driving prices up for your next gadget.

See also  Slime Rancher 2: Launch date, trailers, gameplay, and extra

Let’s take a look at a few examples.

Apple’s latest MacBook Air, which was announced at the beginning of June and started shipping in July, comes with a starting price of $200 more than the model it’s succeeding. It’s hard to say that’s entirely due to inflation because the new Air comes with a host of new features to help justify its cost: a new chassis design, better display, faster processor, and so on.

Apple’s new MacBook Air costs more than the old one, and the old model hasn’t fallen in price — it’s the same as it was two years ago

But Apple is still selling the prior generation MacBook Air alongside the new one, and it’s still listed for the same price as when it came out way back in 2020. Typically, Apple lowers the price of older models when a new one comes out, which provides a way for smart (and patient) shoppers to save money on still very capable technology. But with the new model coming in at a higher price, Apple didn’t have to lower the old one to make it look like a deal — you’ll still pay the same $999 for an entry-level MacBook Air with the M1 processor today as you would have had you bought it in November 2020.

Samsung recently announced a whole suite of new wearables and folding phones, and the impacts of inflation are more explicit there. The Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Z Flip 4 are the same prices as their forebears, but the new Galaxy Watch 5 is $30 more expensive than the Galaxy Watch 4, despite only coming with a slightly larger battery and one (dubiously useful) extra health sensor. For all intents and purposes, it’s the same watch as the Galaxy Watch 4, but it costs more than the Watch 4 did at launch last year. Similarly, the new Galaxy Buds 2 Pro are $229, $30 more than the Galaxy Buds Pro were when they came out in January 2021.

See also  Now all of your new Instagram movies are Reels

Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 5 (left) costs $30 more than the Watch 4 (middle), despite having essentially the same specs and design.
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Other companies have made the rare move of just raising prices on existing products. Late last year, ahead of the inflation spike of 2022, Sonos raised prices across its line of wireless speakers, citing increasing supply chain costs. Meta recently increased the price of the Quest 2 virtual reality headset by a whopping $100 (a 33 percent jump) as it attempts to staunch its own bleeding of revenue across its business. The Quest 2 was likely a money loser for Meta at launch, but thanks to other business and economic pressures, it’s clear that Meta doesn’t want to continue floating it, and so consumers will have to pay more going forward.

Good deals on older devices are also harder to find now

Anecdotally, it’s also been harder to find really great deals on last year’s technology. A year ago, I was able to get a year-old iPad Pro for hundreds of dollars off its launch price at Best Buy; when I was looking for a similar deal this summer, the big box stores came up empty, and I had to scrounge around eBay until I could find something for a price I was willing to pay. Our deals team has also seen fewer big discounts on new-in-box products across the board this summer, with most good sales happening on refurbished or second-hand devices. (Pro tip: buy refurbished if you can — it can save you a lot of money, and it helps keep things from ending up in a landfill or being inefficiently recycled.) Another factor keeping prices up is just the lack of availability of many in-demand products, thanks to the ongoing supply chain woes.

As we head into the big product launch season, we can expect to see more effects of inflation in the prices of new phones, laptops, and other devices that get announced. Industry analysts are warning that the iPhone 14 will be more expensive than the iPhone 13 was; if that pans out, Apple could keep the iPhone 13 in the lineup without lowering its price like it has with older models in years past. It will still look like a savings compared to the new one while still costing the same as it did a year ago. Apple is also expected to use the same processor in the iPhone 14 as in the iPhone 13, similar to how Samsung’s new watches use the same chips as last year but cost more.

Amazon is reportedly raising the price of its seller fees this fall as a way to deal with inflation — you can certainly expect that cost to be passed on to you, the consumer, which means your next USB-C cable or phone case will likely cost more.

We’ve been used to the cost of tech coming down over time, and if you look at a long-term scale of decades, that’s still certainly the case. But we can’t expect technology to be immune to the rest of the economy forever, and if your next loaf of bread costs more than it did before, your next smartphone likely will, too.

Source link

inflation products Tech
Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email

Related Posts

She Sacrificed Her Youth to Get the Tech Bros to Grow Up

September 2, 2023

Tapping His Experience, Serial Tech Entrepreneur Launches VC Firm To Back Black Founders

July 31, 2023

Porto Digital Is the Quixotic Tech Hub That Actually Worked

June 30, 2023

Is A Pan-National Ecosystem The Key To Europe’s Tech Startup Challenge?

June 24, 2023
Add A Comment

Comments are closed.

Editors Picks

Neobank For Immigrants Expands To The U.S.-Mexico Border

June 24, 2023

Jetpack Joyride 2 is worth an Apple Arcade subscription on its own

August 19, 2022

iPhone 15 Pro vs 15 Pro Max: which phone should you buy?

September 15, 2023

Why more orgs are moving away from the big 3 public cloud vendors 

July 12, 2022

Subscribe to Updates

Get the latest news and Updates from Behind The Scene about Tech, Startup and more.

Top Post

Elementor #32036

The Redmi Note 13 is a bigger downgrade compared to the 5G model than you might think

Xiaomi Redmi Watch 4 is a budget smartwatch with a premium look and feel

Behind The Screen
Facebook Twitter Instagram Pinterest Vimeo YouTube
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions
© 2025 behindthescreen.uk - All rights reserved.

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.