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The iPhone Upgrade Program is being replaced by Apple Upgrade

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Re: The iPhone Upgrade Program is being replaced by Apple Upgrade

#321

Post by jandrewrogers »

kube-system wrote: post #309
Aurornis wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The median US household has a net worth of $200,000. Even a 50th percentile US household is very wealthy by global standards. Credit card statistics are heavily manipulated because it's easy to make them sound terrible. I don't know which factoid specifically you're referring to, but the studies about "X percent of Americans couldn't handle an emergency expense without putting it on a credit card" often use tricks li…

> The median US household has a net worth of $200,000. Which is primarily the market value of the home they live in. They can’t pay a bill with it. The median American household has $8000 of liquid cash in all of their cash accounts combined.

> The median American household has $8000 of liquid cash in all of their cash accounts combined.

That’s a lot of liquid cash. It reinforces the idea that the median American household has an unparalleled amount of money to burn on whatever.

Re: The iPhone Upgrade Program is being replaced by Apple Upgrade

#322

Post by TiredOfLife »

fny wrote: post #291

Holy hell--you can rent a 32GB M5 MacBook Air for $33 a month. You can stick that in your closet for one hell of an agent playground. A standard $33 server has trash specs by comparison.

A shared vps with 8 core 9950x3d and 32gb of ram is twice that

Re: The iPhone Upgrade Program is being replaced by Apple Upgrade

#323

Post by prmoustache »

Onawa wrote: post #287
olyjohn wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My screen is cracked, and I still prefer it over a case. Just a personal preference, I think.

Phones these days are so slippery without a case though... Is it just me? Feels like trying to hold on to a wet bar of soap sans case.

Disregarding the commodity of a big screen, they have the wrong shape to be honest for something that is made to be handled.

Re: The iPhone Upgrade Program is being replaced by Apple Upgrade

#324

Post by Youden »

TiredOfLife wrote: post #322
fny wrote: post #291

Holy hell--you can rent a 32GB M5 MacBook Air for $33 a month. You can stick that in your closet for one hell of an agent playground. A standard $33 server has trash specs by comparison.

A shared vps with 8 core 9950x3d and 32gb of ram is twice that

A 9950x3d has about double the multi-core performance though: https://browser.geekbench.com/v7/cpu/compare/53883?baseline=...

Re: The iPhone Upgrade Program is being replaced by Apple Upgrade

#325

Post by gigatexal »

nerdjon wrote: post #23

The math for the new program is kinda perplexing, my guess is that they are hoping that most people just will send in the device and upgrade. If I am reading the FAQ here properly: https://www.apple.com/shop/apple-upgrade . > If you decide to buy the device, the purchase option fee is the list price minus any lease payments you’ve made minus any remaining discounts or trade-in credit. (excluding tax and any damage fe…

This is predatory. I don’t like it. They should just split the cost equally over the number of months so at the end you have paid it off.

Re: The iPhone Upgrade Program is being replaced by Apple Upgrade

#326

Post by Twisell »

aucisson_masque wrote: post #314
Aurornis wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A lot of people aren’t going to have that $433 at the end of the lease to purchase the device outright I think you're looking at this too much from the perspective of someone who wants to own the phone, not as someone who wants to consider a lease. Leases are not a new invention. A lot of people, including very financially savvy and well off people, choose to lease rather than buy depending on the circumstances. It…

> It preserves optionality. If you get to the end of the lease period and there’s a new iPhone you want or the battery isn’t holding up, you can choose not to buy it. You don’t have to deal with selling it or trading in. If you don't buy it at the end of the 24 month, you've been paying for a very costly lease. 2/3 of the price for a 24 month lease whereas iphones are updated for 7, 8 years ? And the resell value is…

That is the actual point of this program.

Apple clearly pay the fees for the customers loan but at the end, the only real mistake the customer can make and might regret is switching out of the Apple ecosystem.

That's clever and only mildly evil. Financial savvy people will use it as a "no fee loan" if they can't pay upfront. Less savvy will be more receptive to the commercial discourse at the end of the lease. Eco-deniers will think twice before renewing every year.

And it's actually a consolidation of existing options because Apple already offered "no fee loan" here in EU but you had to choose the option to begin with. Now it's look like this is a single contract and you choose the option at the end of the lease.

Re: The iPhone Upgrade Program is being replaced by Apple Upgrade

#327

Post by prmoustache »

dzonga wrote: post #140
tw600040 wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someone who won't have that $433 has no business even thinking about a 1200$ phone in the first place

you overestimate the financial health of most Americans. most people live on credit cards as bridge finance between paychecks. when I mean most people - I mean 50% of the population.

I think what he means is that if you can't swallow $433 on one payment, it is more likely you can't support and accumulate monthly subscriptions either and you should look at sub $200 smartphones.

It is not like having a $1200 flagship smartphone is a requirement to earn a living like, say, having a mean of transportation is to many people not living close to their workplace. There is nothing one do in a flagship that you can't do - albeit maybe with less quality or slower - than a lower end one. All allows to make and receive calls, use messaging, have a browser, apps.

To be honest, I am clumsy and break stuff easily so I have never spent more than $200 on a smartphone, my current one is a pixel 6a running grapheneos that I bought for 180€ 2.5 years ago. It makes very good photos actually and is fast enough for everything I do. I understand people can want something nicer but it is not a need.

Re: The iPhone Upgrade Program is being replaced by Apple Upgrade

#328

Post by Scoring6931 »

esikich wrote: post #241
Zambyte wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Selling my car that I fully owned in favor of a nice bicycle and an e-scooter was one of my best financial decisions in the last few years. I don't have to deal with insurance, parking (if parking is free by you, it shouldn't be), maintenance (I work on them myself, I just pay for cheap parts), and fuel is effectively free. That's all on top of the car payment for people who haven't paid off their car.

You do understand that unless you live in a relatively warm metropolis this is literally not an option right?

You need to travel more. Plenty of people in Canadian cities rely on public transport just fine.

Re: The iPhone Upgrade Program is being replaced by Apple Upgrade

#329

Post by Scoring6931 »

sneak wrote: post #305
olyjohn wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Netherlands would like to have a talk with you.

Tell me you’ve never slipped on ice riding a bike in Europe in the winter without telling me you’ve never slipped on ice riding a bike in Europe in the winter.

Europe has a concept novel to most Americans which is known as public transport.

Re: The iPhone Upgrade Program is being replaced by Apple Upgrade

#330

Post by kube-system »

jandrewrogers wrote: post #321
kube-system wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The median US household has a net worth of $200,000. Which is primarily the market value of the home they live in. They can’t pay a bill with it. The median American household has $8000 of liquid cash in all of their cash accounts combined.

> The median American household has $8000 of liquid cash in all of their cash accounts combined. That’s a lot of liquid cash. It reinforces the idea that the median American household has an unparalleled amount of money to burn on whatever.

That includes savings. The median checking account is $2800. People can burn from that $8000 but it’ll be at the expense of being able to handle an unexpected emergency expense, or a goal they’re saving up for.

And this is the median, which means that half of US households have less than this. Which is quite a lot of people who still use phones.

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