Been helping friends sell a number of their gadgets for years now and have noticed that in recent years, gadget prices have depreciated much faster than before.
Devices like laptops and cellphones are among the most notorious when it comes to depreciation. I think there are several factors that contribute to this effect.
Product Lifecycle. Before, devices like cellphones usually have a lifecycle of around 9 months to 12 months before they are replaced with a newer model. Today, it’s around 6 months or sometimes even shorter.
Purchasing Power. People can afford these device more than ever before. Remember when a prepaid SIM card used to cost around Php950 a piece? Now, they’re just Php40 a pop.
Supply & Demand. People want more so manufacturers make more of these products to sell.
Competition. There are more players competing in the same market so movement of products are faster and pricing is more aggressive.
Some brands aren’t affected by these market forces, like Apple as they vigorously try to control SRPs of their distributors while others like Nokia that moves hundred of millions of devices annually pretty much exemplify our case.
So, which other gadget brands do you think are very prone to depreciation?
cellphones and laptops….unless its Apple