What it's like to live in the country where gadgets are cheap

Gadgets are expensive. This is a fact of life. You don't have to look much further than your monthly budget to see that you could easily spend your monthly income buying smart devices like phones, computers, drones and so forth. But what if I told you that you could live in the country where gadgets are cheap?

Where even the best smartphones cost $100 or less?

Fairly old compared to some other countries

I'm in the middle of vacation, and while I'm away from my usual work routine, I've been thinking about how things are different in my home country. It's not just a difference of culture or language, but also a difference of technology. I'm in the country where gadgets are cheap.

The Philippines is a relatively new country — it only gained independence from Spain in 1898 — so there aren't many historical buildings or monuments. The majority of its cities are built after World War II and were designed to accommodate cars rather than pedestrians. The roads and highways are often jammed with traffic, so people spend most of their time inside air-conditioned malls or homes.

There are no major brands of computers or laptops here; most people use Microsoft Windows machines with Intel processors, but sometimes they can be found running an operating system like Linux or BSD Unix instead. The most popular operating systems in this part of the world include Linux Mint, Ubuntu and OpenSUSE Leap.

Most people have smartphones running Android or iOS instead of Windows Phone or BlackBerry OS.

Not a lot of cash to go around

Living in the country where gadgets are cheap I was born and raised in China. It's a developing country, and it's not a wealthy one. In fact, most of my friends live on less than $200 per month. This means that they have to be creative when making purchases. They will go to electronics markets (like Huaqiangbei) to buy cheap gadgets.

Then they'll take them apart and sell the parts for a profit. There are plenty of stories about people who have made fortunes doing this, but it's not easy work. I've watched friends spend hours disassembling devices before selling them as parts — sometimes only to find out that they're not worth as much as they thought they were.

That's why I was surprised when I visited one of these markets recently: there were still plenty of devices being sold as complete units! There were even more devices being sold as complete units than there were being sold for their parts!

Where labor is cheap

There's a place in the world where technology is cheap and plentiful. It's called Shenzhen, China, and it's home to more than 8 million people. It's also the place where many of the gadgets we use every day are made — from iPhones to refrigerators and televisions. The city is also known as the "Silicon Valley of hardware." But if you're not familiar with Shenzhen or China, it can be hard to get a sense of what life there is like — especially if you're used to living in America or Europe.

So here are some things I've learned about Shenzhen: It's an incredibly crowded city. It has roughly 8 million people but feels much more crowded than New York City or London. The city is so dense that there are no central parks or public spaces where people can easily gather (except on weekends when workers get time off).

Where smart phones are everywhere

The country where gadgets are cheap What it's like to live in the country where gadgets are cheap I've been using a Samsung Galaxy S4 for two years. But I've never owned a smartphone. The reason I'm telling you this is because I live in Nigeria, and there are many people here who do not own smartphones but want them very badly.

They want to use apps such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger to communicate with family members and friends abroad. They want to get online and stream movies and TV shows from Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Now TV. And they want to use their phones for social media without having to pay ridiculous fees for data usage.

Here's the thing: You can't do any of those things if you don't have a smartphone. You need an internet connection, which isn't available everywhere in Nigeria — especially if you're living in rural areas outside cities like Lagos or Abuja — let alone a reliable one that doesn't cost an arm and a leg per gigabyte of data used.

But even when there is internet access available, it's often slow enough that it makes using apps like WhatsApp impossible; forget streaming video or music!

To Sum Up

The biggest takeaway from the article is that Chinese consumers are smart, and they are willing to pay much more for quality products. There is a huge market in China that has a lot of potential, but I think it would be foolish to assume that all these customers will just be willing to purchase lower quality, foreign-made products.

Many of these consumer are willing to pay extra if it means having something better.