I absolutely love the personal electronics market. The market has few regulations requiring expensive compliance with idiotic mandates compared to most other markets. Having fewer regulations in place means companies are free to spend a majority of their capital on making electronics cheaper, more powerful, and overall more effective. Case in point, there is an $80.00 Android phone in Kenya that seems to be selling very well:
It seems like just yesterday when only the slickest kid on the block had a smartphone, but now, this revolutionary gadget is selling like hotcakes in the developing world. Earlier this year, the Chinese firm Huawei unveiled IDEOS through Kenya’s telecom titan, Safaricom. So far, this $80 smartphone has found its way into the hands of 350,000+ Kenyans, an impressive sales number in a country where 40% of the population lives on less than two dollars a day.
Cellular phone technology has been taking off very well in much of Africa. In fact in many African countries cell phone minutes are being used as a form of currency. This is possible because cell phone technology across the board has only become more capable and less expensive through the years. The smartphone you hold in your pocket right now is far more powerful than many computers made available only a few years ago. Manufacturers exist in the market to fill every need form cheap burner phones to high end satellite phones. Most of this is thanks to the fact the governments of the world have mostly kept their noses out of the personal electronics market (once again, compare to most other markets where the government regulates everything).
I wouldn’t completely agree about the few regulations part in the US. About 12 years ago we had designed an IP Telephone at the VOIP startup I was working at, and I remember the hassles we had to go through to pass FCC testing. That being said compared to other industries it is much less.
I was only saying that the personal electronics market had fewer regulations compared to most other markets. Sadly there doesn’t exist a market with little or no regulations. The state wouldn’t allow themselves to be deprived of all that income.