The economic climate these days isn’t exactly encouraging. There’s a lot of global volatility, and there’s a real risk that AI might be coming for all of our jobs, after having devoured all of our RAM. 2026 is increasingly becoming the year of “good enough,” with rising prices and incremental upgrades driving consumers toward hardware that offers a premium experience without the premium monthly installment.
This shift makes the budget and mid-range smartphone segments more critical than ever. In this landscape, the iPhone 17e should have been the definitive winner — a phone that could have rendered the $500-$600 Android market obsolete.
