Traditionally, the forces of demand of a given good are dictated by the price. Price influences most of the consumers to buy a good from a certain producer over another. Consumers with less disposable incomes usually make their decisions based on price. Economists supersede this narrative of making price kingpin of demand influencers. According to economists, there are more external factors that influence demand apart from a price like demographic structure, preferences of consumers, consumers income, prices of related goods, disposable income of consumers, and demand seems to have been largely affected by the producer of the product( for some consumers prefer Apple products over techno products yet both products are identical).
The demand for smartphones has passed through cycles of booms and recessions. Some smartphone producers who once dominated the market have been edged out by the rising dinosaurs of the 21st century. The demographic structure has changed, living standards amongst the people have changed; companies who didn’t acknowledge changes were left out. The demand for the smartphone has experienced exponential growth in the last ten years, and this article will elaborate on some factors that have caused sharp exponential growth on the smartphone’s demand curve.
The sharp rise in demand for smartphones is attributed to advancements in technology and the need for updated information. The industrial revolution has been washed away by the information revolution. We live in a century where having the right information at the right moment is the best weapon in your arsenal. Government, businesses, and individuals pass their judgments based on available information. Most of the information is collected from social media platforms and relevant documentaries posted on the internet. Smartphones have become the cheapest and most available gadget to access information anywhere so long as you have an active internet connection. The ‘necessity’ of fetching information on the internet has led to a rise in demand for smartphones. When technology in a country is advanced, demand for smartphones is high.
The civilization of African communities has ballooned the demand for smartphones in the continent. Africans have acknowledged the need for the adoption of the latest technologies with smartphones being the most basic one. The middle and lower class in Africa are struggling to take their investments online and the majority of them are online students. The majority of Africans are also fascinated by social media handles like Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp. All these online activities demand smartphones and have caused a sharp rise in demand for it in the continent.
Rise of the population of young people around the world who are obsessed with technology. The demographic structure of most countries in the world is dominated by the youths. Youths have tendencies to adopting newly released items. When it comes to purchasing smartphones, youths are concerned with the manufacturer and features of the model. Smartphone producing companies have realized this trick, they are in continuous production of smartphones with slight changes on internal features. The slight changes (continuous upgrade) agitates the young people to make purchases of recently louche smartphones. Youths are known to be social media champions and smartphones give them the most basic opportunity to hit on the race with full force. This has caused a steady rise in demand for smartphones over the last ten years.
Released of fairly priced smartphones. In the past, smartphones were priced in favor of only the top and middle class. Smartphone producers used to target minute segment of people, people who had huge disposable incomes, this behavior by producers was limiting the demand. When the smartphone industry was hit with the fiercest competition, producers start to produce cheaper and quality smartphones.
Peer pressures from society have caused some people to make impulse purchases of smartphones. Smartphones have been adopted by several people as a necessity and when someone doesn’t have it, he is seen to be a stranger hanging around in the digital world. This ‘abnormality’ that has been created by society causes a lot of people to dive into their pockets to buy smartphones.
The demand for smartphones is experiencing spiral upward movement. General advancement in technology around the world has caused a boom in demand for smartphones.