The Law of Diminishing Returns refers to a point at which the level of profits or benefits gained is less than the amount of money or energy invested.
I believe we’re seeing that happening in the smartphone space. It even seems to be accelerating. It’s very rare we see major advances in this space from year to year like we all observed from 2009-2016. During that time there were major advances each year in camera tech, screen quality, user experience, software usability and so on.
However, when we look at the advances in smartphone tech over the past 2-3 years the annual changes have become increasingly marginal and much more nuanced.
I’ve been a big enthusiast of smartphones and have owned probably 20-30 different smartphones over the past 8 years. But increasingly, I’m finding less difference in the changes year over year. It’s disappointing for me as an enthusiast because there’s less change each year to get excited about.
It feels like the majority of the growth of this area of tech has matured and at this point we’re seeing iOS and Android simply fine tune and tweak. It feels like they’re now what they are. We saw the same thing with the evolution of the home PC, video games, and countless other tech areas.
I still enjoy reading people’s experiences with smartphones, but for me, i find less and less reason to part with major dollars multiple times a year. You?
