First things first, this from Geoffrey Fowler, writing for The Washington Post, commenting on Samsung’s new phones, announced yesterday:

With prices ranging from $1,000 to $1,400, either one is hard to justify as much more than a luxury.

Gruber:

There are way more people on the planet who’d rather have a $1,400 phone and a $400 laptop than the other way around. But you’ll never see a tech reviewer claim that $1,000-1,400 is “hard to justify” for a laptop.

Read Gruber’s piece, headline-linked.

Obviously, current, state-of-the-art smartphones have indeed become much more expensive, beyond the budgets of many. But Gruber’s point is spot on. Smartphones have become the new laptops, the main computer for many people.