Brace Yourself: The $100 Smartphone Is Near – Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NOK), Google Inc (GOOG), Apple Inc. (AAPL)

Missing out
In a world where average selling pricings of smartphones continue their precipitous decline and OEMs are largely responsible for driving worldwide smartphone adoption rates, one must wonder if Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has really missed the mark. Save for a slight adjustment in strategy in emerging markets, Team Cupertino has yet to announce a meaningful product to address this gargantuan opportunity. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has on many occasions made clear that it doesn’t fear cannibalization, so what’s the hold up? It’s almost a given that releasing a lower-cost iPhone would do wonders for share sentiment because it would signal to investors that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is in the business of capitalizing on tremendous growth opportunities. In other words, it’s not going to take a revolutionary product for the Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) bears to get discouraged.

The clock is ticking
Over the next three to five years, the majority of the next 2 billion Internet users will experience the Internet for the first time on a mobile device. To say this whole “smartphone revolution” thing is huge would be an understatement. The ultimate driver for stoking new smartphone growth will be when the price gap between the feature phone and the smartphone disappears. With the upcoming introduction of a $100 smartphone, Samsung will have effectively closed the gap against higher-end feature phones like the $85 Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK) 301. This development is extremely likely to begin the next phase of worldwide smartphone domination. Whenever there’s a gold rush, it’s the picks and axes that tend to make off like bandits. In the context of smartphones, the ecosystems are shaping up to be the proverbial picks and axes. If I had to choose just one, my money is on Android as the best fit to continue its ecosystem domination.

The article Brace Yourself: The $100 Smartphone Is Near originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Steve Heller.

Fool contributor Steve Heller owns shares of Apple and Google. The Motley Fool recommends Apple and Google. The Motley Fool owns shares of Apple and Google.

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