Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

361–370 of 730 posts

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

#361

Post by dhimes »

skookumchuck wrote: post #253
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…

Common pricing strategy is to have 3 price points: 1. a cheap stripper model used to bring people into the showroom 2. an expensive deluxe model with every bell and whistle. It's primary purpose is to frame the next one as being affordable: 3. the mid-price mid-range one you're expected to buy. Of course, the price-is-no-object people will buy (2) anyway, and that's just extra gravy. You'll see this technique used ac…

My understanding was the USD $1K mark was for the cheapest. If they were introducing a luxury version I wouldn't be so upset.

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

#362

Post by techer »

chemmail wrote: post #261
dagw wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The resale value of a 2 year old Android phone is much lower that a 2 year old iPhone, even it spent those two years sealed in its original box.

Yep, i sold an iPhone 6 plus 16gb for $550 yesterday. I couldn't believe it. It was just the asking price to start the haggle. Try get more than $50 for a 3 year old samsung.

That is actually incredible. I won't get more than 275GBP for my 128GB!

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

#363

Post by stevoo »

pdimitar wrote: post #345

...So? I knew plenty of people who buy a new Android, priced anywhere from $400 to $700, every year, more often than not it was once every 9 months even. So I might spend $1100 or so on the iPhone Pro / X / whatever the moniker is. But I'll use it at least 3 years. Annual cost of owning an iPhone makes it cheaper than almost any Android. Not everything is about upfront cost. iPhones get updated for 5 years and they d…

I disagree with this.

Although the iPhones might get updated for 5 years that does not make them fast. Each update makes the older device slower which at a point it becomes unusable. A 3 year old device just cant compare with the increase in features, how a newer device can.

But for Android, it all comes down to the provider. This has always been the issue. I have a Nexus 6 running 7.1 and working just fine. I could use it for another year if i wanted but it does show signals of getting old.

People used to change iphone every year as they did with Android. I believe that this is coming to an end and people will keep there phones longer as they become much more expensive (X:1100+, note8:1050, etc) and the increase in hardware is not that massive any more.

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

#364

Post by YSFEJ4SWJUVU6 »

jcelerier wrote: post #186
saagarjha wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 98% of the same performance and features You’re talking about phones with hardware from half a decade ago. How exactly are you getting the same performance and features, let alone even support or updates from manufacturers?

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

That's odd, considering their first phone was launched in stores less than 4 years ago.

In any case, I used to have one too until about 2 weeks ago when it finally broke down (tbh, possibly due to moisture). While it's not odd they still release updates for their phone OS for the only phone they've ever sold to regular customers, I can't brush away GP's point entirely. The hardware is definitely sub-par by now (it wasn't that good to begin with), not to mention the trade-offs made in the construction of the phone (loudspeaker issues are rather common, and my phone started later to have problems with the display back-light, too).

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

#366

Post by acjohnson55 »

$1k? Wow, they must have figured out a way to add the audio jack back!

It'll be interesting to see how this works out. I'm in the minority amongst my social group as an Android user, but I can't imagine many of the iPhone users I know shelling out $1k. But I'm sure there's a mid-range model. Right?

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

#367

Post by Retric »

astura wrote: post #332
Retric wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many people spend more time on their phone than their PC. So, 1,000$ is not an unreasonable price if it's noticeably better. It's like spending 200+$ on a pair of shoes, they don't need to be that much better fit to be worth it. I mean 1,000$ seems bad, but that can translate to under 30 cents an hour if you're spending 4 hours a day on your phone.

Except it's really easy to accidentally destroy or lose a phone. That's the reason I don't buy expensive phones anymore, because I'll probably just drop it.

You can buy insurance, assuming your not losing several phones a year that should not be an issue.

PS: Dropping a phone should not destroy it. Over the last 20 years I have never used a case and shattered exactly one screen when fumbling it onto concrete. The new screen was not that expensive.

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

#368

Post by ordbajsare »

wutwutwutwut wrote: post #287
ksec wrote: post #248

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 th…

Yep the base price for a Iphone 7 Plus in Sweden is 1100$. Not sure it makes sense comparing prices like this though. In Sweden the cost of an iphone does not compete with your ability to get access to health care or education for example.

"ability to get access to health care" get in line...

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

#369

Post by Vinnl »

StudentStuff wrote: post #73
cm2187 wrote: post #31

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 are only going to take better photos in marginal low light conditions, if you even take lots of photos, everything else will be pretty much the same experience. I'd argue that we are even in removal of features mode (audio jack, touch id) which is putting off…

Its surprising how good a used, $50 phone is today. You can get something on par with a Note 3 or Note 4 from LG and get two solid years of use out of it, perhaps more with ROMs. This is part of why I stopped buying the latest flagship, just didn't make sense for me to worry so much when I could avoid that entirely, and get 98% of the same performance and features.

How's the battery on those used phones? That feels like the main blocker for me.

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

#370

Post by ust »

dannysu wrote: post #51
Yetanfou wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see your 3 year young iPhone and raise my 6 year old Motorola Defy. I bought it new in 2011 for about 1/4 of what the then-current iPhone would have cost. It still works flawlessly, the battery is fine as well (~5 days of normal use on a single charge or ~7 hours of screen time). If the battery were to fail I could just replace it, no tools required. Oh, the thing is waterproof and 'shock-proof' (although the latte…

That misses a key point I was making: OS updates. Yes, I too have a Nexus 4 (bought in 2012) and it still works fine. But no more updates. I don't consider that on par with say my previous work laptop, which was also 3 years before I upgraded. I also own a Moto E (2nd Gen, $60-ish) and bought a Moto G+ for my brother this year, but I can't count on them to receive OS updates for as long.

I have Nexus 4, too, and changed stock OS to LineageOS (previosly I've used cyanogenmod) and it works great, and now I have Android 7.1.2. and I receive weekly updates...

I realize that "flashing" the ROM is not what normal user would do, but it has become very easy to do, and it does extend the (usable) life of the phone..

Post reply on HN