"What do a cell phone, a laptop, and an electric car have in common?"
All three devices depend on batteries that contain a very scarce natural metal called lithium. The price of lithium has drastically increased due to its scarcity. This price increase has many technology companies rethinking the use of a lithium battery because the budget calls for a much lesser equivalent. Also to make matters worse for lithium, studies have shown that the contents in the lithium battery negatively affect brain activity. Lithium is very hard to find and its scarce amounts have predicated its price increase. Countries that have an abundance of the metal have the ability to price it at whatever they would like. With the demand of the lithium battery going up, producers of these devices have no choice but to pay those outrageous prices if they want to keep business booming. This in turn causes those lithium driven devices' prices to be increased by the manufacturers because of the increase in the price to produce the product. Many products that require the lithium battery are beginning to explore other alternatives to the long lasting battery. Suppliers of lithium are under much pressure from the demand of this scarce product. These factors will continue to decrease the popularity of the cell phone.
8 comments:
I doubt that Cell phones will be gone by 2015 much less ever. If anything companies will research the development of a better battery. With the versatility of smart phones now and the opportunities it has given humankind, there is no going back to land lines. Alternative resources will be found and although it may not be as efficient or possibly it would be more sufficient technology will continue on it's course.
The discovery of a new battery that can provide devices with the same power of lithium will ne one of great magnitude. It will be tedious but hopefully it happens so that the cell phone market will continue to strive. Althought they may not completely be gone, they will definitely raise the prices of the commodity.
I also believe that other people will research ways to provide devices with the same power of lithium. Cell phones have become a necessity in today's world to where landlines will not be sufficient. Prices will definitely increase just as most products are increasing.
I agree with Garrett - I doubt that cell phones will be gone by 2015, but maybe much later. Hopefully companies can find an alternitive to lithium that will produce the same outcome. The world has come so far in producing portable technology and it is highly unlikely that we will move backwards in progress. Alissa is right in that the prices will definitely rise.
The prices for new cellphones will rise, but people still have ways of getting a phone. Old phones that they've kept and buying other people's old phones off of the internet will probably keep cell phones from being rare products.
I don't see cell phones evr going away. Something would have to go horribly wrong for us to go back to land lines. With all the new advances in technology we will probably find another way to power cell phones. Humankind has worked too hard to come up with these great new devices that make our lives so much easier, and I don't see how they would let cellphones just fade away.
I find it hard to see society rewinding the clock and going back to land lines. Today's culture is all about convenience, letting the consumer have what they want when and where they want it. I agree with Amber about the fact that cellphone manufacturers will put time and resources in to finding alternatives to lithium.
I agree with Easton, todays world is all about convenience. Cell phones are like cars. People consider them a necessity because they are used everyday and make things easier. Gas prices are flying of the charts but people will still fill there cars because driving is easier than most other transportations. Its the same thing with cell phones. No one is going to stop and use a pay phone or a landline.
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