The $200 Phone You Love Is Dead. And AI Killed It.
The $200 phone is vanishing, not because of inflation, but because AI demand for memory chips is starving the budget phone market. With RAM costs up 300%, manufacturers can’t absorb the hit — so they gut specs and raise prices. The weakest consumers — students, gig workers, the elderly — pay the price. This isn’t a temporary blip; it’s a structural shift that signals the death of affordable electronics.