On the other hand in 1990 the smartphone was no necessity to take part in normal society, so the 500$ and monthly data fee is an additional cost weighing on people, if wages and the price for a bag of potatoes remained equal. It's complicated. (Predictably the bias is to downplay inflation, to allow "printing" more money.)
>On the other hand in 1990 the smartphone was no necessity to take part in normal society, so the 500$ and monthly data fee is an additional cost weighing on people
That's only if you don't consider the cost savings from that. Today you would use your smartphone to handle your online banking. In the 90s you would do what? Drive to the bank and talk to the teller? That costs a non-negligible amount of time, and money for the bank which presumably gets passed on to you.
Also, there's no reason you need to spend $500 on a phone, if all you need is "take part in normal society". That can be done with a $200 android phone, or a $180 iphone SE[1]. I would wager that even with the purchase cost + monthly fee (of a reasonable plan), you'd still be coming out ahead in terms of time savings.
