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With a $1k Price, Apple’s iPhone Crosses a Threshold

nytimes.com

91–100 of 730 posts

Re: With a $1k Price, Apple’s iPhone Crosses a Threshold

#91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Not excusing the price, but people these days spend multiple hours a day on their phones That's my reasoning when I buy a new computer. I can buy a MBP for $2000, use it for 3 years and sell it used for $1000. $30 a month is a bargain considering I use it between 5-10 hours a day. I may pay a mac a little more (20%?) than the competition but it's worth it considering it's subjectively better (and objectively differ…

Much of this logic is why I stopped buying new computers or phones. I'd rather use a $70 T440 that I've upgraded and know how to repair most everything on than haul a MBP that I'll need to get a pro to service, that also happens to have terrible ventilation. I mean, my last MBP literally cooked itself, comparatively this T440 has a giant grill that it rapidly removes heat through (though its 15w i5 doesn't make much)…

You make it sound like the MBP is a weighty piece of burden compared to a dainty T440 (use a T440 vs. haul a MBP.)

And the part about cooking itself sounds like a manufacturing defect for which you should have gotten a replacement - in normal conditions it should just shut down, if temperatures get high enough that ventilation and throttling don't help.

Re: With a $1k Price, Apple’s iPhone Crosses a Threshold

#92
post #60

The first iPhone was announced at $599 in mid-2007. That's $704 2017 dollars, and look how much more of a device you will be getting. Seems perfectly find to me. If people want to spend it, of course a company will make it.

Competition is a hell of a lot better these days. A phone at 1/5 the cost will cover the same needs.

Re: With a $1k Price, Apple’s iPhone Crosses a Threshold

#93

Not excusing the price, but people these days spend multiple hours a day on their phones. Phones are as important as cars for example. How high prices can go ? Even higher imo People are ready to pay for expensive cars for a better experience and higher "social standing". Phones are not that different in this regard

> Not excusing the price, but people these days spend multiple hours a day on their phones That's my reasoning when I buy a new computer. I can buy a MBP for $2000, use it for 3 years and sell it used for $1000. $30 a month is a bargain considering I use it between 5-10 hours a day. I may pay a mac a little more (20%?) than the competition but it's worth it considering it's subjectively better (and objectively differ…

> So easy to lose it or forget it.

Or break it. After I broke my Nexus4's screen three times I gave up and bought some cheap Zenfone (and it cost as much as one screen repair for Nexus).

Re: With a $1k Price, Apple’s iPhone Crosses a Threshold

#94
post #76
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is different to soft drinks in other countries... how? Change the drink to whiskey, another popular one, and you can be sure that there's a difference between what the American rich and poor drink. > no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the Cokes are the same and all the Cokes are good And coke is not the same everywhere either. My guess is that the pre…

You can buy Mexican cokes now in California Safeway's and Lucky's supermarkets.

They're common even in South Florida convenience stores. Not every single one, but maybe 25% of stores.

Re: With a $1k Price, Apple’s iPhone Crosses a Threshold

#95
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, still doesn't get better than OSX.

as a user of both windows and mac os x, what do you truly like about mac os x that you prefer it so heavily over windows?

I've recently started using Windows again on a gaming computer. Here are the problems I found, that felt "ugh, Windows":

- I'm now used to the "inverse mouse scrolling". To enable this for my mouse (logitech something?) I needed to edit the registry. Every time I plug it into a new USB port it's now a new device with a new registry entry to hack.

- I installed the various device drivers that came with my hardware. The Realtek on-motherboard network card had some driver, which actually stopped the hardware from working - Microsoft's own standard driver was better. But every time I rebooted, Windows would helpfully install the "updated" driver from it's local cache. I ended up fixing this by setting the permissions on some c:\windows\system32 file to such that the system itself could not update it

I'm also not yet familiar with the changes to the Start menu and Windows Explorer, so those also feel confusing. But it's a gaming computer, I turn it on, play games, then turn it off. Presumably if it was a development workstation I'd have more opinions on the rest of it.

Re: With a $1k Price, Apple’s iPhone Crosses a Threshold

#96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Not excusing the price, but people these days spend multiple hours a day on their phones That's my reasoning when I buy a new computer. I can buy a MBP for $2000, use it for 3 years and sell it used for $1000. $30 a month is a bargain considering I use it between 5-10 hours a day. I may pay a mac a little more (20%?) than the competition but it's worth it considering it's subjectively better (and objectively differ…

Much of this logic is why I stopped buying new computers or phones. I'd rather use a $70 T440 that I've upgraded and know how to repair most everything on than haul a MBP that I'll need to get a pro to service, that also happens to have terrible ventilation. I mean, my last MBP literally cooked itself, comparatively this T440 has a giant grill that it rapidly removes heat through (though its 15w i5 doesn't make much)…

I do exactly the same but with X220s. With an SSD and Debian they make a great coding laptop. I buy stacks of them and just move the SSD across when the break.

Also means I can leave one in the office and have one at home then just move the SSDs between them.

Re: With a $1k Price, Apple’s iPhone Crosses a Threshold

#97
post #36
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An iPhone is a Veblen good [1]. The purpose of buying an iPhone is to advertise your economic resources. Like a Gucci handbag or a Rolex watch. With a smaller markup. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veblen_good

That the purpose of it is to advertise economic resources is not true. My wife has an iPhone because it's the most competent tool she can use to get the job done. Having used several Android phones prior to this, I don't blame her. Relatively speaking there are fewer security issues, compatibility quirks, and reliability issues with iPhones which makes them worth the price to her. After the 2 year mark our Android ph…

Exactly, iOS devices get more _official_ OS updates than 95% of Android devices.

There are always a few Android devices that get multiple OS upgrades, but you can't predict which one of the current generation is the update-unicorn.

Re: With a $1k Price, Apple’s iPhone Crosses a Threshold

#98
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My wife has one of the new ones with the "particular" keyboard. I think it's okay (the keyboard), but it's pretty noisy.

I hated it at first but started liking it after a few weeks. 9 months later I kind of hate it again. You get used to the short travel, and the clickiness is very pleasant. The problem I have now is that sometimes you can feel a click and it doesn't trigger - most commonly with the arrow keys. Also occasionally a few keys would "jam" and not fully click. Overall my typing speed and accuracy has definitely decreased.

Yeah, but it's 2 mm thinner. /s

Re: With a $1k Price, Apple’s iPhone Crosses a Threshold

#100
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean my wife is still using my iPhone 3Gs (8 years old), so I get there are different needs. That's exactly my point. Would you make the argument that everyone should be using $200 chromebooks? If not, then why would one make the argument that anything more expensive than a chromebook is crossing some kind of threshold?

> "I get there are different needs." What are those different needs? What do the top end phones do that the mid range phones do not, other than take better photos? Battery life is comparable, screen size is comparable, they run the same apps. I'm struggling to think of a single reason (other than the camera) why people buy high end phones anymore. There used to be a big difference in quality, but that gap has pretty…

Go to an Apple Store and see them all side-by-side. What makes those devices what they are are the high end devices on the next table over.

The advances very much do trickle down. Whether you would personally buy it or not.

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