Taxi medallion to "The Washington Post", medallions were "the best investment in America", but—due to increased competition from app-based car services and transportation network company growth from companies like Uber and Lyft—taxi medallions are now decreasing in price. In 2013, the price of a medallion was $625,000. In 2014, that price had risen to around $700,000. In 2014, a medallion was worth nearly $700,000. The total value of all medallions and assets related to them had a value of $2.5 billion in Chicago in 2013. In 2012, medallion prices ranged from $87,000 to $385,000. In 2015, Chicago's average medallion price was under
Smartphone support for multi-touch gestures rather than physical keyboards, and offer the ability for users to download or purchase additional applications from a centralized store, and use cloud storage and synchronization, virtual assistants, as well as mobile payment services. Improved hardware and faster wireless communication (due to standards such as LTE) have bolstered the growth of the smartphone industry. In the third quarter of 2012, one billion smartphones were in use worldwide. Global smartphone sales surpassed the sales figures for feature phones in early 2013. The first commercially available device that could be properly referred to as a "smartphone" began as