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

A Guy Walks into an Apple Store

birchtree.me

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 385 posts

Re: A Guy Walks into an Apple Store

#111

Post by notJim »

paledot wrote: post #21
Bud wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me it's an optimal experience: my device cost went down, I get to choose what I spend that money on (such as superior 3rd-party chargers with multiple ports), and I get the satisfaction of knowing that Apple didn't waste planetary resources making inflexible single-port chargers and $5 wired earbuds that I will never, ever use. I do admit that it's not optimal for every single user, but I do think it's a net impr…

Or Apple's did. Do you really think they're passing the savings on to the customer?

Honestly, who cares? If you're spending $1200 or whatever on a phone, is your life really that much better if you spend $1190 instead?

Re: A Guy Walks into an Apple Store

#112

Post by alistairSH »

notJim wrote: post #103
alistairSH wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The cable is a wear item. By the time I'm ready to swap phones (3 years or so), I'm also ready for a new cable. If I bought an iPhone 12 tomorrow, I would, at minimum, also have to buy another cable, because the one Apple included doesn't work with my existing charger. Not the end of the world, but still annoying.

I think you may be an outlier in owning only one lightning cable. I just looked in my desk drawer and counted 5, and I can think of 3 more in other areas of my house and car.

I own more than 1, but they all get used regularly. There's one on my nightstand, one in my car, and one in the office. I can swap them around, but that doesn't solve the problem - at the time I'm ready to buy a new phone, one of them is worn out.

Re: A Guy Walks into an Apple Store

#114

Post by criddell »

jiofih wrote: post #60
criddell wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a massive net positive on the eco-friendly front Isn't wireless charging a big step backwards with respect to power efficiency? With the millions of phones they sell and the fact that every one of them is charged daily, are the losses due to Apples new charging scheme insignificant?

Wired chargers are 85%-90% efficient, Qi is somewhat between 75-85%. If you live in a country powered by green energy it shouldn’t be a concern :)

So wireless results in about 10% efficiency loss? So if half of the iPhone 12 users adopt wireless charging that's about 36 billion charge cycles per year (100 million phones charged daily). Those are big numbers. It seems like it would add up.

Re: A Guy Walks into an Apple Store

#115

Post by Sodman »

stocknoob wrote: post #77
criddell wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a massive net positive on the eco-friendly front Isn't wireless charging a big step backwards with respect to power efficiency? With the millions of phones they sell and the fact that every one of them is charged daily, are the losses due to Apples new charging scheme insignificant?

I'd say the energy used to charge phones is inconsequential. The iPhone 12 has a 11 Wh battery. Assume it's fully charged daily, that's 11Wh * 365 ~ 4kwh per year. It's about 50 cents of electricity to charge the phone for a year. It's imperceptible given other household electricity items. If people are concerned about electricity usage, they should give away LED lightbulbs.

Pro tip - If you make under 39k and live in Massachusetts you can literally get free LED lightbulbs through Mass save! It's an awesome program. https://www.masssave.com/en/saving/income-based-offers

Re: A Guy Walks into an Apple Store

#116

Post by nickthegreek »

henriquez wrote: post #16
cma wrote: post #4

What's the point of the mag-safe branding if the magnet doesn't really provide any safety if you trip on the cord, since the phones are so lightweight and would still get yanked to the ground?

Seems like literally just a trademark Apple had laying around. I also don't see how it's better or more convenient than just plugging in a cord. From what I understand it wastes a lot of electricity.

I found the the best thing with it is that it can be done with one hand. I would consider it way more convenient for me and I can’t wait til a 3rd part releases a car mount.

Re: A Guy Walks into an Apple Store

#117

Post by giantrobot »

skohan wrote: post #10
Bud wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They didn't make the products more expensive, though. The iPhone 12 Pro series got cheaper (for the equivalent storage). They also made the charger and cable in question cheaper, for the small minority of users who actually need those items.

I have heard a lot of speculation that the move to remove the charger was motivated by Apple's desire to sell more chargers, but I suspect that they could care less about moving chargers. I believe it is profit motivated, but the real reason is the massive savings they will get on logistics by fitting almost 50% more iPhones in a shipping container by removing the charger. If they pass some of that savings onto the c…

The same thing happened with iPods back in the day. The first couple generations came in these fat cubic boxes with cables, headphones, an installation CD, a printed manual, and a charging brick. The 3rd gen was probably peak packaging as it also game with plastic adapter inserts for licensed 30-pin adapter products and both FireWire and USB cables. The 5th gen iPod came in a much flatter box, probably a third the height of the old ones. That meant an freight container or UPS truck could carry three times more iPods. The iPod mini vs nano was very similar in terms of packaging savings.

Besides the better shipping efficiency it's also worth considering the real estate. Retailers, including Apple's own stores, have finite storage space for products. The new iPhones come in multiple colors for each model. Shrinking the packaging dimensions means a wider selection can be kept in stock in the same space as a narrower selection of the previous model.

Regardless, at the scale of Apple selling iPhones a small decrease in weight and/or better packing efficiency can mean huge CO2 savings. A gallon of diesel producers about 20 pounds of CO2. Doubling the iPhone/mile because of smaller packages halves the CO2/iPhone production.

Re: A Guy Walks into an Apple Store

#118

Post by fiblye »

chrisseaton wrote: post #96
h4waii wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're telling him not to care about their costs, but Apple is straight up telling him to care about their savings, but don't pass it on to the consumer. Generally speaking, people care about saving more of their money, they care much less about how much money the company they are purchasing goods or services for is able to retain by providing less for the same (or more) price.

Is the iPhone as useful as before? So it’s the same price as before.

It’s not as useful because without a charger I can only use it until the battery dies.

It’s like selling a car without tires, saying it’s a big savings for the company while not changing the price.

Re: A Guy Walks into an Apple Store

#119

Post by jbombadil »

samatman wrote: post #68
Zak wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm disappointed Apple hasn't dropped Lightning and just made all their devices use standard USB-C. I could see their motivation for developing their own connector when everyone else was using micro-B, which has a number of disadvantages, but now USB-C is used to power virtually every other phone and tablet, and many laptops including Apple's own.

I'm indifferent. On the one hand, yeah, USB-C works great, and everything else I own takes it. On the other hand, Lightning also works great, USB-C isn't an improvement on the merits, and iPhone users have a bunch of accessories for it. Like in my car, I have a 12v charger with one USB-A port and a built-in Lightning cable, and I'd have to either junk it or just ignore the built in cable if they went USB-C. I'm prett…

My concern with them removing the port is what what would happen to everyone whose car's entertainment unit supports CarPlay but not wireless CarPlay?

Re: A Guy Walks into an Apple Store

#120

Post by skohan »

robocat wrote: post #110
skohan wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah sure, the price of logistics is probably tiny compared to the BOM of an individual phone, but at the scale Apple is operating on, make no mistake this is saving them a huge amount of money. And it's not just logistics - it's storage space in warehouses, and probably a number of other things which are made substantially more efficient by fitting the same amount of units in a lot less space.

Now you are replying with a double-down on your original thesis “but the real reason is the massive savings they will get on logistics”? Sure, add all the logistics costs in your head using some heuristic (security is a big component you are missing). Now compare that number to the profit of selling an extra charger, or the BOM price of a charger. HN is a community of thinkers and you will be judged by your responses…

With all due respect your responses are incredibly condescending. I believe my point stands. If you disagree, I suggest that you propose a concrete model which would refute my thesis. I don’t know who you are to speak for the “HN community”.
Post reply on HN