Large-scale outdoor advertising banners for the iPhone 17 Pro and the BMW iX3 50 xDrive cover the facade of a building in the city center at night, in Warsaw, Poland, on February 26, 2026 (Artur Widak/Getty Images)

Smartphones are 12% cheaper than last year, according to the latest inflation data... except they’re not

Phones are one of a few important categories that get quality, or “hedonic,” adjustments in the Consumer Price Index — which make their price go down in the official statistics.

David Crowther

5/12/26 11:06AM

Measuring prices is easy, right? It’s right there on the sticker! Write it down in a big spreadsheet, come back in a month, write it down again, and voila — you are now tracking inflation.

Of course, it’s not quite that simple.

Before you even get to the writing it down part, a lot of legwork is needed to work out the right basket of stickers to track and how to weight them appropriately. And the fun part about doing the weighting work is that it is, of course, wrong for every single person; I, for example, probably spend more than 0.829% of my annual income on alcohol, but that is the weighting in the official index nonetheless.

But one of the hardest things about measuring inflation is that products change. If a $1 chocolate bar shrinks by 20%, but is still a buck to buy, we want that reflected in the index! If there are more sheets of toilet paper in my roll, for the same money, technically that got cheaper. This makes the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ job a lot harder — now they’re out here weighing chocolate bars and counting toilet paper sheets — but these are, at least, pretty sensible adjustments to make.

However, what if the new model of a car is safer in a crash, has 10 more horsepower, has brighter headlights, a better stereo, and is a bit comfier? What if the camera or processor in my iPhone is better than last year for the same amount of money? What if I buy a microwave for $50, which has a billion more settings (that I never use) than my parents’ microwave, which was also $50?

Do you adjust for those?

The answer, with the exception of the “comfiness” and stereo quality, in all of those cases is yes.

And that’s how you get smartphones registering as 12% cheaper in April 2026, compared to April 2025, in the latest Consumer Price Index print — because, when adjusted for feature parity, they are.

This leads to some pretty insane results. For example, according to the official CPI data for smartphones, prices (read: quality-adjusted prices) have dropped 65% since the start of 2020 in the United States.

For comparison, the latest iPhone at the start of 2020 was the iPhone 11, which was yours for $699. Today, the iPhone 17 from Apple is $799 — not a crazy amount more, of course, but not exactly a 65% cut.

That’s the quality adjustments at play.

And, for what it’s worth, it’s hard to say that the adjustments are wrong. Nor are they trying to mislead — we really do have way better phones in our pockets for only slightly more money — it’s just that the inflation statistics are often wildly misunderstood.

Go Deeper: TVs don’t actually cost 98% less than they used to... and other inflation misconceptions

Tom Jones6/24/26

Prime Day is here again and Amazon’s subscription service has never been more popular

Well, it’s that time of year again: many have made their wish lists, people are scraping together the money they’ve saved to pick out a perfect gift, some are presumably leaving out refreshments for the weary delivery drivers and, more and more, drones.

It’s Amazon Prime Day — meaning that it’s the second day of the four-day promotional event that Amazon still calls Prime Day — of course, and it’s even come early this year, with the company bringing the period into late June from July, when it’s been traditionally held for the last five years.

The Prime Age

Alongside the eyes and endless clicks that the arbitrary stream of listicles on “The Best Prime Day Deals” that almost every media outlet pours into, Amazon will also be cheering the fact that there’s now more Prime users than ever before to devour the retailer and its sellers’ sometimes-contested “discounts.” Indeed, according to the latest annual estimates from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP), there were just over 200 million American shoppers using Amazon’s massive subscription service at the end of 2025.

Max Knoblauch6/15/26

Electronic Arts launches a platform to put more ads in its games

Video game publishing giant EA launched a new platform on Monday designed to make the process of selling immersive ad space in its popular games easier.

The company says the platform, called EA Advertising, allows brands to “integrate directly into gameplay through dynamic, real-time placements, from stadium signage to custom in-game content.”

More so than other studios, EA has incorporated advertising into its most popular titles. As Kotaku points out, the company’s ad efforts stretch as far back as 2006. Several of its sports franchises already feature partnerships with brands like Visa, Lowe’s, Red Bull, and PepsiCo.

In-game advertising hasn’t exactly been embraced by fans, but industry experts expect it to ramp up as companies seek more revenue to offset higher games budgets and surging memory costs. EA rival Take-Two has taken a different approach, with CEO Strauss Zelnick recently saying the company was “not at risk of doing brand partnerships” in the forthcoming “Grand Theft Auto VI,” and that ads in full-price games seems “unfair.”

The $55 billion deal to take EA private, led by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, is set to close at the end of this month. Being the largest leveraged buyout in history, EA will likely look for more ways to boost revenue to cover interest payments.

Electronic Arts Makes Push for Ad Dollars Tied to Sports

Millie Giles6/11/26

JM Smucker says it sold $1 billion worth of Uncrustables in FY2026

After years of booming sandwich sales, JM Smucker has finally earned a billion-dollar crust.

On Tuesday, the company reported results for fiscal year 2026, highlighting better-than-expected profits driven by higher prices for coffee and sweet baked goods. However, at another point on the earnings call, CEO Mark Smucker pointed to one particularly jammy figure: in line with previous forecasts, the company sold $1 billion worth of its (almost always) crustless sandwiches, Uncrustables, in the last year alone.

Max Knoblauch6/8/26

Paramount reportedly offers concessions to resolve multistate antitrust investigation

Paramount has reportedly offered up some concessions in an effort to prevent an antitrust lawsuit by California and about 10 other states, according to Bloomberg reporting on Monday.

Reuters first reported on the potential suit from a group of unnamed states last week, which could throw a wrench in Paramount’s plans to buy rival Warner Bros. Discovery in a Hollywood megamerger.

The list of concessions is unknown, though Bloomberg previously reported that Paramount is open to divesting some of its kids TV assets to appease EU regulators.

Late last month, reports said US regulators appeared likely to approve the $110 billion merger, following a meeting between Paramount CEO David Ellison and DOJ antitrust staffers.

Paramount Offers Concessions to Head Off State Antitrust Lawsuit

The list of concessions is unknown, though Bloomberg previously reported that Paramount is open to divesting some of its kids TV assets to appease EU regulators.

Late last month, reports said US regulators appeared likely to approve the $110 billion merger, following a meeting between Paramount CEO David Ellison and DOJ antitrust staffers.

$98B ⛽

Max Knoblauch6/8/26

The IATA released its latest financial outlook for the airline industry over the weekend, forecasting a $98 billion jump in the sector’s collective fuel bill. The world’s largest trade group representing airlines expects the oil spike to halve profits by 49% from last year to $23 billion.

The group also expects profit margins to halve year over year, falling from 2025’s 4.2% to 2%. Still, revenue is expected to climb to $1.17 trillion from $1.07 trillion.

A surge in the cost of jet fuel has rocked US and global airlines this year, leading Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, JetBlue, and others to raise fares and ancillary charges like bag fees. Low-cost carriers, which operate on smaller margins, have been squeezed the hardest, resulting in Spirit’s shutdown.

“It’s a tough year for all airlines, especially those whose balance sheets had not yet recovered from COVID. And, of course, for those operating in the Gulf,” said IATA Director General Willie Walsh, who added that demand is holding up and about half of passengers expect to spend more on travel this year. “That bodes well for a strong northern summer peak season. The big unknown is how long travelers and shippers can tolerate the higher costs of connectivity.”