With a $1k Price, Apple’s iPhone Crosses a Threshold • Hacker News Board

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

#241

Post by la_oveja » Mon, Sep 11, 2017, 9:05 AM UTC

TeMPOraL wrote: post #54

jayd16 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an Android dev, I see the total opposite sentiment. Most new phones are pretty damn good, even the mid range. I assume things will go the same way as the PC. Cheaper hardware for most, Apple still holding onto a niche in the market.

> Most new phones are pretty damn good, even the mid range. For the first week, at least. Then they start to accumulate cruft and slow down, eventually becoming barely usable. I've experienced it in the past. I see it happen for my friends and family. I decided some time ago to save up that $750 - $1k and go for the high-range phones, so that I can use them for two or three years without daily frustrations. The top-m…

> Then they start to accumulate cruft and slow down, eventually becoming barely usable.

When naive users install 3 different weather widgets, 2 battery meters and a custom launcher, you start to understand why people say mid-range phones start to slow down.

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

#242

Post by disgruntledphd2 » Mon, Sep 11, 2017, 9:07 AM UTC

KozmoNau7 wrote: post #215

dvfjsdhgfv wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not true. Yes, there are snobs, and there is a lot of subjectivity involved, an several studies exposed that. On the other hand, some wines have a certain richness of flavor not present in other wines. Certain aspects of it can be better appreciate by people who developed a certain taste of wines and can differentiate better. They're the target group of the more expensive wines. You pay for a unique experience,…

With wine and spirits, you're often paying for rarity, rather than outright quality. I'm not a huge wine snob (most wines I buy are in the $10-$20 range), but I have tasted some rather expensive wines. In a lot of cases, you're not really paying for "richness of flavor" (a lot of cheaper wines have plenty of richness and balance), you're paying for name and for rarity, especially when it comes to older wines. I'm act…

As another whiskey lover, can you tell me what that bottle is?

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

#243

Post by x0x0 » Mon, Sep 11, 2017, 9:09 AM UTC

la_oveja wrote: post #231

Kluny wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

If you break/lose your phone it's your problem, dude. My Androids are lasting ~4 years each.

With security patches?

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

#244

Post by Tsiklon » Mon, Sep 11, 2017, 9:15 AM UTC

StreamBright wrote: post #107

1000 USD phone, still no audiophile option to listen to music. I am extremely disapointed with the direction Apple is going with all of this "we remove X because you do not need it anymore" approach.

I always thought the Audiophile option was an external DAC? Though the DAC that iOS devices have shipped with was traditionally quite strong.

I have an Oppo HA-2 and it works great with my iOS devices (though i use it as a portable amp for my work computer).

There's also the likes of Audeze who are shipping Headphones and Earphones with a Lightning cable DAC in addition to the usual 3.5mm TRS jack.

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

#245

Post by zimpenfish » Mon, Sep 11, 2017, 9:20 AM UTC

cm2187 wrote: post #179

Razengan wrote: post #154

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.

Or you start getting into editing 8K+ images in Photoshop. That's not much fun on a Macbook 12" (I mean, it's doable but ... slow ... ly ... and ... clu ... nk ... ily.)

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

#246

Post by steve19 » Mon, Sep 11, 2017, 9:21 AM UTC

dagw wrote: post #222

robin_reala wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Note he said OS. As far as I understand the android fork on those phones is awful. Also the hardware is always a generation behind.

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

#247

Post by imron » Mon, Sep 11, 2017, 9:22 AM UTC

sho wrote: post #9

Malician wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree. People will spend $1000 (or more) for relatively minor features on their cars. A phone is with you 24/7 - it's less like a tool, or even a digital assistant, and more like a cybernetic implant. The amazing thing isn't that phones cost so much but that competition is such that you can get an excellent product with top-of-the-line CPU, radio, RAM, screen, everything for $1,000 instead of $100,000 or $1,000,000.

> 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…

> But it's quite possible I have the same phone!

Maybe, maybe not: https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/vertu-for-bentley-smart...

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

#248

Post by ksec » Mon, Sep 11, 2017, 9:23 AM UTC

If we take a look from a Global Perspective, US has the cheapest iPhone ( All prices excluding sales Tax ), and everywhere else had it more expensive. i.e The $1K Prices may be making a big waves in US, but elsewhere in the world they have been paying that much for an iPhone already.

And in terms of iPhones / Population / Apple Store, the US has it most. While in Japan 60% of the Smartphone are iPhone ( i.e Higher the US usage ) they have less then 10 Apple Stores. And it is the same everywhere else, which means any mark up in a certain countries has nothing to do with its Operation with in, and more to do with a Sales Tax, Global Pricing structure.

For Example, HongKong used to have the cheapest iPhone around the world, it was priced the same as US and because there are no Sales tax, it was 10-15% cheaper. Making HK the trading ground for all of SEA region or mainly China. ( Hence Tim Cook continue to blame HK market is more of a delusion rather then fact. ) Around iPhone 5 Apple started to put up additional $100 USD to ALL iPhone price in HK, as a way to combat the black market trading, and if everyone else where making money of it, why not keep the profits itself?

What has all these got to do with $1K iPhone. Well Apple already knew certain people are buying at those prices, again why not make a product that fit those segment? And to re balance the prices across the Globe?

And we have known for long there is no way to make the cutting edge devices every 12 months and ship 200M+ of it. They will need a product that only 10-20% of those 200M will buy, and have the best technology in it.

And mind you, shipping cutting edge technology to 20-40M user a year isn't any easier then the 200M+ iPhone.

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

#249

Post by noncoml » Mon, Sep 11, 2017, 9:23 AM UTC

bluthru wrote: post #38

noncoml wrote: post #26

From the so far leaked rumors I don’t see anything to justify the price. If anything there is a regression with the absence of TouchID. But I guess we will have to wait and see in two days.

>If anything there is a regression with the absence of TouchID. FaceID fulfills that role.

Will it be as reliable and fast as TouchID?

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

#250

Post by princekolt » Mon, Sep 11, 2017, 9:23 AM UTC

alkonaut wrote: post #189

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 can completely understand the reasoning, and it is very clever indeed. This goes in line with the first Apple Watch Edition, which sold for $10k+ but wasn't very successful at all, not even for a luxury product. So they quietly removed it from sale and instead pushed the ceramic model which is still a luxury product both in looks and in price, but not at that gold tier.

However, the price of the lowest-tier of the latest model has been going up steadily over time, which seems not natural at all. I'd expect them to keep the price of the lower-tier constant, at least. OTOH, if they push out an Apple Watch with LTE, you can combine it with an iPad and the AirPods, and there will be no need for the iPhone at all. How much either of these combinations is "reasonable," only time can tell.