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The real prices of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini

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Re: The real prices of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini

#211

Post by derivagral »

jb775 wrote: post #104
freedomben wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I asked straight up before seeing the doc about the cost and nobody knew. They finally estimated "about $1,500" and my total bill was around $5,000. And if I refuse to pay it, they send me to collections. It's insane what they are allowed to do.

I've always wondered which part of the medical supply chain is causing healthcare prices to rise so rapidly. There's no way these are natural market rates being driven by supply/demand, it's gotta be something artificial. My guess is something along the lines of medical device companies colluding to prop up prices to hospitals.

You might take a look at some things from e.g. this result[1] around what parts of USA healthcare are negotiatiable and which are fixed. The "$1500 for a gauze bandage" meme makes a little more sense if you view it from the perspective of "we can't charge market price for expensive things like an MRI since Medi___ pays a flat $1.5k/ea, so lets gouge everywhere we can to make up for it". In addition, the business setup of hospitals/providers and lack of a single customer-facing entity/provider that charges you for services makes these even more Kafkaesque.

On top of this, my friends who work at (private, non-general) hospitals work a lot and are not paid what someone on HN might expect for what they put in. This isn't even necessarily ownership vs labor, since afaik the hospitals themselves are not usually in the best of places financially.

To me, the short version is: can't easily negotiate, information asymmetry, and captured regulators. Imo, this isn't helped that in USA we say "healthcare insurance" but what we mean/want seems to actually be "healthcare subsidy/guarantee".

[1] https://www.kff.org/medicare/issue-brief/whats-the-latest-on...

Re: The real prices of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini

#212

Post by Fauntleroy »

mqrs wrote: post #168
jacurtis wrote: post #122

Let'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?

Sigh... no, corporations are obligated to chase profit with absolute avarice :(

Maybe we should strive for something better than pure capitalism, though?

Re: The real prices of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini

#213

Post by aardshark »

chrisseaton wrote: post #154
saagarjha wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're not.

This is not an honest statement, unless you have access to their pricing and costs.

They didn't get to be one of the most profitable companies in the world by 'passing savings along to the customer'.

It is more dishonest IMO to allow Apple's claims to go unchallenged, given what we know of their history.

Re: The real prices of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini

#214

Post by noizejoy »

tomjakubowski wrote: post #117
vineyardmike wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Listening to U2 Album >>> Listening to Verizon talk about 5g

The U2 album has some evil way of popping up and finding its way onto my Apple devices (and then auto playing) no matter how I try and remove it from my library. It is my albatross.

Interesting - but that hasn’t been my experience. I removed that U2 album shortly after it was included in my library, and it hasn’t shown up on any of my devices since then.

Re: The real prices of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini

#215

Post by oflannabhra »

_x5tx wrote: post #193

I tried to prepare for preorder at Apple Store App like they direct, but I couldn't find a way to finish the process because it won't show the sim-free option (I'm on google fi). Anyone else had this issue?

The "prepare and save your preorder" option requires Apple Card monthly payments to be pre-approved, and does not allow carrier "special offers".

Re: The real prices of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini

#216

Post by gnicholas »

JoelTheSuperior wrote: post #180
gnicholas wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fair point. They do have a significantly upgraded radio, however. I don't remember what happened to pricing when they went from 2G to 3G or 3G to 4G/LTE, but I would not have been surprised if pricing had gone up with the 5G upgrade (in a normal economy). That said, the AT&T/Verizon giveaway/deception is absolute garbage.

Motorola literally sells an Android phone for £200 with 5G. I just don't buy it.

The question is: what price does Motorola sell their non-5G phones for? I assume they're cheaper.

Re: The real prices of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini

#217

Post by Shivetya »

epanchin wrote: post #158
stetrain wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"decided to not pass that savings onto the customer" Do you have access to the BOM? Sure it was likely a cost-savings measure, but it may have been to combat rising prices elsewhere. It's a two-sided equation and we can't see the whole thing. If Apple did want to be environmentally friendly though I would think offering a reasonably priced multi-device (4-ports?) charger would be more effective than just selling a si…

If they wanted to be enviroment they would have switched to USB-C. I'm personally happy about the lack of charger, all my Apple ones go into a drawer never to be seen again.

I am in the camp that they should just hand them out to anyone who has purchased a new phone. They cannot cost that much and this way new customers are not out an additional cost.

This is easily accomplished at the store and a good retailer could run with the idea to differentiate themselves for a low cost

Re: The real prices of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini

#218

Post by alistairSH »

notJim wrote: post #210
mtm7 wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Are you serious? You think the average person a) doesn't know that you have to charge your phone and b) doesn't have like 50 of those stupid cubes and a bunch of cables sitting in a drawer somewhere? Tech people's continued assumption that they're the only ones who aren't total troglodytes is ridiculous.

Most of thee existing Apple charging cubes are not USB-C. The cable included with the new phones is USB-C -> Lightning. So, the cable doesn't work with most existing chargers (unless you happen to also own an iPad Pro).

Re: The real prices of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini

#219

Post by VibrantClarity »

samatman wrote: post #90
wyldfire wrote: post #4

Phone subsidies are bad and should go away. Showing the post-subsidy price is dishonest.

If I grant the second premise, could you explain your antipathy to the first? If I want to have a mobile phone, I need a mobile phone plan to go with it. What's wrong with bundling those services for a slightly lower total bill? It strikes me as pretty standard business logic.

In Canada the carriers show the cost of the plan and then tell you how much extra is tacked on for the phone. The prices are still outrageous here, but it is nice to be able to quickly tell how much money you save or lose by bundling it.

Re: The real prices of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini

#220

Post by alistairSH »

AgloeDreams wrote: post #167
jacurtis wrote: post #122

Let'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.

The smaller model is the same price. The same-size model went up $100.
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