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Apple iPhone X Demand Limited, Wall Street Analysts Say

fortune.com

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Re: Apple iPhone X Demand Limited, Wall Street Analysts Say

#91

Post by vinceguidry »

briandear wrote: post #75
valuearb wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get a new iPhone every 2-3 years. This year I spent $10 a month extra to get the best possible screen and camera on a device I use hours every day. Not because it’s a status symbol. And very happy with my purchase.

I work out of my house. I rarely go out in public (perhaps once a week to the store,) and I couldn’t possibly care less if people see my phone. I see my phone hours a day. I take a lot of photos, read a lot of ebooks and do a ton of stuff on my phone. My X purchase has zero to do with “status symbol.” It’s a childish and ridiculous assertion that “status symbol” is a primary motivator for a phone. A car on the other…

And I honestly don't see what's wrong with wanting the status part of it either. When I started web contracting 5 years ago, the first thing I bought with my money was a MacBook Pro to replace my ancient ThinkPad T40. Makes client meetings go that much smoother when you're using the same thing as everyone else.

Geeks always seem to want to erase the human factor out of everything.

Re: Apple iPhone X Demand Limited, Wall Street Analysts Say

#92

Post by 1123581321 »

gruez wrote: post #54
TimTheTinker wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If practicality is the #1 priority for phone shoppers, they will simply buy a 7 or 8. Clever or particularly frugal shoppers may note that the SE has the same chip as the 6S (the A9) and can be had for $250 unlocked and in mint condition.

On Black Friday they were going for $150 brand new.

Can you link to this? I don’t think this deal happened because Apple doesn’t discount this heavily. Some of their partners might but only in exchange for phone service or something. The SE is $350/$450 USD new, not $250 like the above poster said.

Re: Apple iPhone X Demand Limited, Wall Street Analysts Say

#93

Post by orf »

lostlogin wrote: post #86
baddox wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is that a terrible way to think about prices? Most people earn money at a predictable rate per month, so it’s perfectly reasonable to talk about these phone payment plans in the same terms. Obviously this isn’t true for things like credit card or mortgage payments, where interest is likely a significant factor, but AFAIK these cell phone payment plans are interest free.

It’s terrible because any difference between carrier prices is a large multiple of what the sticker/brochure says. Most plans here (New Zealand) are over 2 years, so any difference in price is 24x greater at the end of the contract. And no one here is paid per month, that’s seen as completely antiquated and they are paid per week or per fortnight.

Really? Nobody is paid per month? Coming from the UK that is unexpected. Are jobs wages advertised per week? What are the real advantages? Surely it's a bit harder to pay for larger purchases as it requires more controlled saving and spending?

Re: Apple iPhone X Demand Limited, Wall Street Analysts Say

#94

Post by olegkikin »

tlholaday wrote: post #10
olegkikin wrote: post #8

What do people buy $1000 smartphones for? For gaming I can get a pretty good gaming PC for that amount, or Xbox One X with a VR headset. I've never seen anybody do anything really cool with their phone - everyone browses the internet, checks the email, does chats/videochats, maps, take photos, and some silly mobile gaming. I do that all on my sub $200 phone.

> What do people buy $1000 smartphones for? Consider the iPhone X a smartcamera instead of a smartphone. Consider the "portraits in low light" at the end of the side-by-side comparison section that Vanessa Hand Orellana and Lexy Savvides did for CNET here: https://www.cnet.com/news/iphone-x-vs-iphone-8-plus-is-the-c...

If I want a low-light camera, I will buy a DSLR/mirrorless, and no smartphone comes even close to something like Sony A7s (~$1100 used). I used to do commercial portrait photography, so I know.

I also dislike the fake background blur / bokeh trend. I understand why the companies are doing it, but it's insanely hard to implement it right, and no phone has achieved it. Every time there's hair involved, they all fail.

Re: Apple iPhone X Demand Limited, Wall Street Analysts Say

#95

Post by rayiner »

michaelmrose wrote: post #90
baddox wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is that a terrible way to think about prices? Most people earn money at a predictable rate per month, so it’s perfectly reasonable to talk about these phone payment plans in the same terms. Obviously this isn’t true for things like credit card or mortgage payments, where interest is likely a significant factor, but AFAIK these cell phone payment plans are interest free.

It's an intellectually dishonest way to de-emphasise how much it costs in total by showing you the smaller monthly amount. You are basically using a marketing trick on yourself to justify the money spent.

It also hides the opportunity cost. $10/month doesn't sound like much, but $400 could buy something else nice.

Re: Apple iPhone X Demand Limited, Wall Street Analysts Say

#96

Post by valuearb »

smnrchrds wrote: post #59
valuearb wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Too expensive? It’s $10 a month more.

Phone contracts are 2-3 years. $10 a month would mean $240-360 in total. Is that correct? Here is Canada, the price tag from Apple is about $1300 (Canadian dollar is worth less than US dollars). I can buy it from a carrier for $1000 upfront plus $15 a month for 24 month. There are other options to pay less upfront and more each month, but the total is always the same. Can you really buy an iPhone X in the US with les…

In the US, in USD.

An iphone X will be worth around $500 in two years. Your total cost (ignoring service costs obviously) of ownership would be $20-$25 a month (depending upon depreciation and interest costs).

Buying an iphone 8 for $650, and having it worth 50% in two years costs you around $13 per month. Hence iphone X costs only about $10 a month extra.

If you buy a super cheap android phone for $200, it essentially going to be nearly worthless in 2 years. Your cost of ownership is around $6-$8 a month.

And these are devices we use heavily every day. If the benefits of s particular device are useful at all to you, it’s trivial to get the right one. Your monthly service costs are far higher than any specific phone costs.

Re: Apple iPhone X Demand Limited, Wall Street Analysts Say

#97

Post by rayiner »

aiofgniaotnio wrote: post #29
dkrich wrote: post #21

I think market analysts continue to miss the mark on this story. What I keep hearing over and over are variations of "people are turned off by the $1,000 price tag." I think this is a complete misread. People don't pay $1k for an iPhone because it's the practical thing to do. If practicality is the #1 priority for phone shoppers, they will simply buy a 7 or 8. I don't think this comprises the top of the market, thoug…

>People buy the X because it's a status symbol and they want to be seen with it. I find this aspect of the tech industry so gross that I'm considering changing careers. Building a new tool that makes people's lives better is great, but much of the time it just becomes a status symbol. No one should feel bad for owning a machine that's a few years old but does everything they need. I'm not convinced that consumer gadg…

I'm okay with this aspect of the iPhone X. People buying $1,000 iPhone X's subsidize the technology that goes into a $350 iPhone SE.

Re: Apple iPhone X Demand Limited, Wall Street Analysts Say

#98

Post by nugi »

Its a luxury, disposable income signalling device. I don't know many tech savvy people with iphones of any kind anymore. Its clearly image and exclusivity driving sales, not features.

I think many people see apple as a luxury brand more than a technology company now. Which might be better than the alternative. 'Anyone' can create tech, it takes years and billions to create a valuable brand.

Re: Apple iPhone X Demand Limited, Wall Street Analysts Say

#99

Post by chewz »

yladiz wrote: post #13
chewz wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree on hardware quality. Security to me seems like a sales pitch - Apple is just as sensitive information greedy as Google. And I deal in this area with Google as well as I do with Apple. But the inferior software quality is terrible drag for Apple. Photos - their syncing with iCloud is out of control. There are bugs that haven’t been eliminated for years. I gave up when after deleting 50 GB of RAW photos Apple r…

> Apple is just as sensitive information greedy as Google As in Apple stores the information on their servers, forever? A lot of the sensitive information like a fingerprint or face scan is saved solely on the phone, as is a lot of the ML based features like content detection within a photo. Apple doesn't use a server farm to tell you there's a dog in your photo, it uses your phone. There aren't good excuses for some…

I agree that Google is evil regarding data collection. I have no illusions about Google. But I am dealing with it through blocking Google calling home mostly via DNS, firewall and some custom extensions in Chrome or using Firefox Focus and on the go via Raspberry Pi router and my private VPN.

Apple however is calling home no less then Google and is quite secretive about why and what information is transferred so I am blocking most of it same as Google.

Re: Apple iPhone X Demand Limited, Wall Street Analysts Say

#100

Post by 1123581321 »

PacketPaul wrote: post #20

Good. The phone is too damn expensive. My middle school son has a $64 BLU phone. It was subsidized by Amazon in return for ads on the lock screen. Non-subsidized price is around $100. Last week we went to a theme park with a lot of waiting for rides. He played plants vs zombies and YouTube videos non-stop while we waited for rides. I occasionally surfed the web on my $1049 iPhone X. By 3 PM my iPhone battery was dead…

I hope you won’t stay complacent about the battery issue. I would have 70-80% left in your scenario. Is it possible that sweat was leaking into your pocket and keeping the screen active?
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