Hollis Johnson/Business Insider
Google's Pixel 3a.
- After years of increasing costs and slowing sales, 2020 looks like the year that smartphone prices may finally come down.
- Advanced features, like edge-to-edge screens and facial recognition, are starting to become more widely available on smartphones that cost far less than $1,000.
- Apple and Google are also both expected to debut cheaper versions of their respective smartphones this year, in another sign that large tech firms are acknowledging that $1,000 upgrades can be hard for many customers to justify.
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It's 2020, which means it's been roughly 13 years since Apple laid the foundation for the modern smartphone with its original iPhone in 2007.
To say that smartphones have made leaps and bounds since then would be an understatement. While the original iPhone was essentially an iPod touch with cellular connectivity, today's mobile devices have evolved into superfast pocket-sized computers with professional-grade cameras.
But the most exciting change in the smartphone industry to emerge over the next year may not have anything to do with boosting performance, creating new screens that bend and fold, or enhancing their cameras. Rather, it's the notion that high-quality phones with features like facial recognition and borderless screens may no longer come at $1,000 a pop.
Following several years of increasing smartphone prices, 2020 is already shaping up to be a banner year for cheaper smartphones as advanced features begin trickling down to more affordable products.
The year has just begun, but based on the smartphone launches that have occurred in 2020 so far - and the ones that are rumored to arrive in the coming months - it looks like a wave of compelling new devices that cost noticeably less than recent flagships from Apple and Samsung are on the horizon.
