This Smartphone Pricing Chart Shows Apple Is Fighting An Unstoppable Force

Kleiner Perkins partner Mary Meeker has some bad news for Apple in her big "2014 internet trends" slideshow: The company appears to be fighting an unstoppable force in the smartphone market by continuing to charge around $700 for the iPhone when average phone prices have slipped to around $300.

Average global phone prices are heading inexorably down, according to Meeker's data. Just like computers, the price of technology declines rapidly over time.

Meeker's chart dovetails neatly with an internal Apple document that surfaced in its recent patent litigation with Samsung. That document showed how all the growth in smartphones was coming in the sub-$300 price range. The document was titled, "Consumers want what we don't have."

Here's Meeker's chart:

And here's Apple's: