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

nytimes.com

221–230 of 730 posts

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

#221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Also, iPhones are extremely economical. My iPhone 6, which cost $749 at the time, is coming up to 3 years old. Uh, what? I'm on my second ~$70 Android smart phone in eight years. It's a tad slow, but we're talking about literally a few seconds of waiting, nothing truly inconvenient. I have honestly never been impressed by anything a $600+ iPhone can do beyond what my phone can. The only drawback is that it isn't co…

> It's a tad slow, but weren't talking about literally a few seconds of waiting, nothing truly inconvenient. A few seconds of waiting is not "truly inconvenient"? I suppose you're either a zen master, or not doing much with the phone (possibly because it's "a tad slow"). For me, the phone is something I use constantly during the day, in lots of brief bursts. Few seconds of lag may be the difference between me staying…

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

#222
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> competition is such that you can get an excellent product [..] for $1,000 The really interesting part is that for ~$1000 you get the best product available at any price . That's the magic of economies of scale in consumer markets, especially technology. It's so incredibly expensive and largely fruitless to step out of the economy of scale, that practically speaking no-one does it. I don't have a yacht like Paul All…

For example, look at the now defunct Vertu. All the titanium and ostrich skin in the world wouldn’t let them sell a better OS.

For what it's worth Vertu is still around (www.vertu.com) and still selling phones to a certain clientele at places like Harrods and Dubai Airport. And with Android 6, Snapdragon 820, a 534ppi screen and a 3200mAh battery, they can at least hold their own against your average android phone.

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

#223
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Andy Warhol: "What’s great about this country is that America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest. You can be watching TV and see Coca-Cola, and you know that the President drinks Coke, Liz Taylor drinks Coke, and just think, you can drink Coke, too. A Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drin…

This was said before fancier soft drinks were sold, I assume. For example, some bars round here sell this cola: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fentimans_Curiosity_Cola

I mean, it's still only three bucks.

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

#224

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…

"I can buy a MBP for $2000, use it for 3 years and sell it used for $1000."

I've used a refurbed Thinkpad T420 for about a year now. It cost me $350 to buy, and I expect it to last at least 2-3 years. Less than $10 a month, and it's more than fast enough to do absolutely everything I need to do. Not too shabby for a 6 year old machine.

The only reason for buying a brand-new computer is if you absolutely need the highest end of computing power, or need the very newest peripheral ports for some reason.

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

#225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

A friend of mine takes that approach, but the T440 has a whole unibody panel that takes a minute or so to remove. The T430 and T410s comparatively have nice little hatches where a single screw will let you pull the drive. How do you like the X220s? I nabbed one for a friend a while back, seemed like a nice smaller form factor laptop, she rather liked it iirc. Good price too, think I paid $65 for it.

The X220 is a great laptop, especially if you find one with the IPS screen (and no bright/dark spot defects).

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

#226
post #218

A lot of people just get the best iphone every 24 months (e.g. rich people, or people who have a generous smartphone policy at work). Having a model that gets another couple of hundred bucks from those people is pretty clever I think. This is basically the S-class phone (To make a car analogy, because that's what we do). The S-class Mercedes costs twice as much as the "Normal" E-class, and each time they launch a new…

I also know a guy who made his living for many years repairing and reselling iPhones, who simply buys the top of the line as soon as it comes out and resells the old one to pay for it, at as close to full price as he can get away with. Since he always gets the most specc'd out phone available, treats it very carefully, always inside an otterbox, and is a pretty decent salesman, he usually gets his price. He also clai…

You could save even more money by getting a cheaper Android phone and treating it just as carefully. The problem you described has nothing to do with the brand.

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

#227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Got a five years old Jolla which still receives updates every other month

My criticism was mainly aimed at Android, which has a tendency to drop support for devices within 1-2 years.

which is why should use Lineage OS.

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

#228
post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Yeah but there was a big jump in performance / new features between early iphone generations. Nowadays the difference is really marginal for every day use. You can say the exact same for PCs, which could have stopped getting any performance improvements about 5 years ago and the general populace wouldn’t have complained at all.

And you can see the effect on sales. The only reason to replace a laptop these days is if you spill some coffee on it.

There are still reasons to replace a laptop before it breaks. For example, my 2012 Asus Zenbook has only 4 GB of RAM and cannot drive an external 4K display. Both are not urgent problems for me since I also have a desktop PC with plenty of RAM and a 4K display, but if I did not, I'd be looking into a replacement for the notebook around now.

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

#230
post #139
post #67

Apple's 1k pricing will be doing just fine as Samsung is also pricing Note 8 around the same.

I believe the Note is equivalent to Apple's Plus models.

Is it? I think the S8 Plus is the equivalent - unless the new iPhone comes with a stylus.
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