>I don't think it is true. Just a cursory google search suggests that the market, at least globally, is a lot flatter and is likely flattening. Not everyone has an iPhone or Samsung.
He doesn't say that "everyone has an iPhone or Samsung". Quite the opposite. That there's a large flat base of sub-300 phones, and a 10% (or more, depending on country) of people with high end (say over $800 phones), and not much in between.
> That there's a large flat base of sub-300 phones
No, actually he doesn't say that. He says that people who don't care about their phone will take one for $0, any phone:
> Or, b. you’ve decided that just about every phone out there is ‘good enough’ and is more than adequate for your needs, so you’ll go with whatever one costs $0 with your existing wireless contract.
People buy many different phones (including high-end Android phones, and second-hand iPhones); the reality he describes doesn't seem to exist.
Also, including people who don't care about Taylor Swift in a study of the value of Taylor Swift concert tickets' value, is absurd: that some people (or even most people) don't want something, doesn't have anything to do with the price of goods. What matters is who wants it and how hard they want it.
Some people like Taylor Swift a lot, some like her a little, some like to go to concerts, some like to go out, some are looking for a place to bring a date, etc. etc. The author's binary division is completely artificial.
You can see all between price points, but not all have equal peaks -- it's a larger "cheapo" and a smaller but significant "expensivo" segment that dominate, that's the author's point (whether it's true or not).
He doesn't say that there are absolutely no cases that fall in between, just that the distribution of them is not normal, but bifurcated to those two extremes.
He doesn't say that "everyone has an iPhone or Samsung". Quite the opposite. That there's a large flat base of sub-300 phones, and a 10% (or more, depending on country) of people with high end (say over $800 phones), and not much in between.