Agree this fees non-Apple and the screen time allotted to the VZ guy was cringeworthy. Feels like a big sell-out.
The real prices of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini
161–170 of 416 posts
Re: The real prices of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini
#162Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Starting at $x" ads like this are by far the least egregious any of those examples. I don't really see much of a problem with advertising configurable products like this, especially when it is called out specifically as a starting price. The F150 can be priced from $28,745 all the way to $81,000+ and anything in-between. People know trucks have options, and they know that when Ford says it's "starts at $28,745" they…
> Nobody is being hurt by these practices. Price obfuscation makes it nearly impossible to do a like-for-like price comparison between two manufacturers. If the consumer isn't being hurt by these practices, then why do car dealership groups need to continue lobbying the government to uphold laws preventing direct-to-consumer sales? They know that open-pricing would drive competition and erode their middleman profits.
> nearly impossible to do a like-for-like price comparison between two manufacturers
Not really.
https://shop.ford.com/build/f150
https://www.chevrolet.com/trucks/silverado/1500/build-and-pr...
The price isn't obfuscated. Manufacturers even publish nice tools that transparently explain their pricing model. The pricing is necessarily varied because the product configuration is varied.
Dealers are a whole different story; I agree dealer protection laws shouldn't exist, and manufacturers aren't really a fan of those laws either.
Re: The real prices of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini
#163Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Apple also removed a $20-30 accessory from the box under the guise of saving the planet Come on.... Everyone (to some approximation) has a charger already! Why knock the people trying to reduce waste?
Then they should have dropped the price of the phone, no? At least, they should have bundled it in some way, considering that very few people probably have a USB-C brick designed for charging iPhones.
> Then they should have dropped the price of the phone, no?
But it's a different phone with different components? Are you expecting that the price should otherwise be exactly the same? That's never what happens that's not a reasonable assumption.
> considering that very few people probably have a USB-C brick designed for charging iPhones
This is not a truthful statement. It can be charged by Lightning, which plugs into any USB-A charger. Anyone buying an iPhone has that.
Re: The real prices of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini
#164Let's also not forget that Apple also removed a $20-30 accessory from the box under the guise of saving the planet. Then not only decided to not pass that savings onto the customer, but actually secretively raised the price $30. I am not suggesting that removing the power brick doesn't have any impact on the environment. What I am suggesting is that I don't buy for a second that it was the primary motivator for remov…
But what about Google include Verizon's mmWave in the Pixel 5, even the Google Store version, increasing the price by $100? Strangely enough, the 4a 5G on the Google Store doesn't have it, but there's a special Verizon version of the 4a 5G that costs $100 more. I honestly don't understand why they didn't do the same thing and sell the Pixel 5 for $600 on the Google Store...
Re: The real prices of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini
#165Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's really not true. US political and economic thought heavily centered around individual proprietors and farmers before the civil war, and was deeply suspicious of large corporations. In some states you could only form a joint stock company for time & scope limited things, such as building a canal. It's only after the Civil War and into the Gilded Age do we see the rise and acceptance of large scale corporations,…
Do you have a source for this? I'd love to read more.
David Graeber’s Bullshit Jobs, a Theory, around page 524 or so.
> The mechanics and tradesmen who became the foot soldiers of the American War of Independence represented themselves as producers of the wealth that they saw the British crown as looting, and after the Revolution, many turned the same language against would-be capitalists.
> When US President Abraham Lincoln delivered his first annual message to Congress in 1861, for instance, he included the following lines, which, radical though they seem to a contemporary ear, where really just a reflection of the common sense of the time:[189] “Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.”
> In 1880 a Protestant “home missionary” who had spent some years traveling along the Western frontier reported that: “You can hardly find a group of ranchmen or miners from Colorado to the Pacific who will not have on their tongue’s end the labor slang of Denis Kearney, the infidel ribaldry of [atheist pamphleteer] Robert Ingersoll, the Socialistic theories of Karl Marx”
Re: The real prices of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini
#166Earlier quoted context omitted.
The carrier contracts likely don’t give any leeway on that. They just provide the image and Apple has to show it.
Contracts never stopped Steve Jobs from doing what he thought was right for his customers.
They most certainly did - like having Maps go out half-baked because they couldn't get a contract for what they wanted.
Re: The real prices of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini
#167Let's also not forget that Apple also removed a $20-30 accessory from the box under the guise of saving the planet. Then not only decided to not pass that savings onto the customer, but actually secretively raised the price $30. I am not suggesting that removing the power brick doesn't have any impact on the environment. What I am suggesting is that I don't buy for a second that it was the primary motivator for remov…
For what it is worth, I noticed that there are a lot of little bits added to the phone with the 12 however. The display is an OLED like the Pro, honestly the new phone seems like a lot of bang for the buck. They even came out with a smaller $100 cheaper model.
Re: The real prices of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini
#168Let's also not forget that Apple also removed a $20-30 accessory from the box under the guise of saving the planet. Then not only decided to not pass that savings onto the customer, but actually secretively raised the price $30. I am not suggesting that removing the power brick doesn't have any impact on the environment. What I am suggesting is that I don't buy for a second that it was the primary motivator for remov…
Whatever the reason is--are corporations obliged to pass cost savings to the customer, or is their objective to maximize profit margins?
Re: The real prices of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini
#169Let's also not forget that Apple also removed a $20-30 accessory from the box under the guise of saving the planet. Then not only decided to not pass that savings onto the customer, but actually secretively raised the price $30. I am not suggesting that removing the power brick doesn't have any impact on the environment. What I am suggesting is that I don't buy for a second that it was the primary motivator for remov…
> Apple also removed a $20-30 accessory from the box under the guise of saving the planet Come on.... Everyone (to some approximation) has a charger already! Why knock the people trying to reduce waste?
I have an old SE. I'm considering upgrading to the new SE. The SE (which has already been out for months at $399) used to come with earpods and now doesn't, at the same price.
Re: The real prices of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini
#170Let's also not forget that Apple also removed a $20-30 accessory from the box under the guise of saving the planet. Then not only decided to not pass that savings onto the customer, but actually secretively raised the price $30. I am not suggesting that removing the power brick doesn't have any impact on the environment. What I am suggesting is that I don't buy for a second that it was the primary motivator for remov…
It's going to be incredibly frustrating for the average person to buy an almost-$1000 device, use it until it runs out of battery, and realize that a charger is a completely separate purchase. Especially because the included cable is USB-C, so it won't work with most old power bricks.
I feel like Steve wouldn't've let this happen... the UX is just so, so bad. It feels incredibly profit-motivated.