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With a $1k Price, Apple’s iPhone Crosses a Threshold

nytimes.com

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Re: With a $1k Price, Apple’s iPhone Crosses a Threshold

#71

Post by Aeolun »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #58
delazeur wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Also, iPhones are extremely economical. My iPhone 6, which cost $749 at the time, is coming up to 3 years old. Uh, what? I'm on my second ~$70 Android smart phone in eight years. It's a tad slow, but we're talking about literally a few seconds of waiting, nothing truly inconvenient. I have honestly never been impressed by anything a $600+ iPhone can do beyond what my phone can. The only drawback is that it isn't co…

> It's a tad slow, but weren't talking about literally a few seconds of waiting, nothing truly inconvenient. A few seconds of waiting is not "truly inconvenient"? I suppose you're either a zen master, or not doing much with the phone (possibly because it's "a tad slow"). For me, the phone is something I use constantly during the day, in lots of brief bursts. Few seconds of lag may be the difference between me staying…

That can be a choice. If you know every interaction with your phone is going to be an exercise in patience, you'll be less likely to whip it out for every random thought or notification you get.

Re: With a $1k Price, Apple’s iPhone Crosses a Threshold

#72

Post by yodsanklai »

ihateneckbeards wrote: post #5

Not excusing the price, but people these days spend multiple hours a day on their phones. Phones are as important as cars for example. How high prices can go ? Even higher imo People are ready to pay for expensive cars for a better experience and higher "social standing". Phones are not that different in this regard

> Not excusing the price, but people these days spend multiple hours a day on their phones

That's my reasoning when I buy a new computer. I can buy a MBP for $2000, use it for 3 years and sell it used for $1000. $30 a month is a bargain considering I use it between 5-10 hours a day. I may pay a mac a little more (20%?) than the competition but it's worth it considering it's subjectively better (and objectively different, Mac OS / design / size -- arguably less and less so).

However, I'd never buy an iphone (or an expensive smartphone). Iphone users may disagree, but for what I've seen they provide almost the same experience as much cheaper phones (typically two times cheaper). Another issue I have with the price is that I don't feel confortable walking around with such a small expensive item. So easy to lose it or forget it.

Re: With a $1k Price, Apple’s iPhone Crosses a Threshold

#73

Post by StudentStuff »

cm2187 wrote: post #31
ihateneckbeards wrote: post #5

Not excusing the price, but people these days spend multiple hours a day on their phones. Phones are as important as cars for example. How high prices can go ? Even higher imo People are ready to pay for expensive cars for a better experience and higher "social standing". Phones are not that different in this regard

Yeah but there was a big jump in performance / new features between early iphone generations. Nowadays the difference is really marginal for every day use. You are only going to take better photos in marginal low light conditions, if you even take lots of photos, everything else will be pretty much the same experience. I'd argue that we are even in removal of features mode (audio jack, touch id) which is putting off…

Its surprising how good a used, $50 phone is today. You can get something on par with a Note 3 or Note 4 from LG and get two solid years of use out of it, perhaps more with ROMs.

This is part of why I stopped buying the latest flagship, just didn't make sense for me to worry so much when I could avoid that entirely, and get 98% of the same performance and features.

Re: With a $1k Price, Apple’s iPhone Crosses a Threshold

#74

Post by ptaipale »

tekklloneer wrote: post #64
TeMPOraL wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Most new phones are pretty damn good, even the mid range. For the first week, at least. Then they start to accumulate cruft and slow down, eventually becoming barely usable. I've experienced it in the past. I see it happen for my friends and family. I decided some time ago to save up that $750 - $1k and go for the high-range phones, so that I can use them for two or three years without daily frustrations. The top-m…

I disagree - I've used a $300 stock android phone for just over a year now, and I haven't really run into any "cruft" issues. But, poor android performance is a very valid problem with android.

Agree with this - cheap Android phones are what they are, but mid-range hardware is astonishing and if you don't install clutter, you don't get clutter.

(I even remove/disable any Facebook clients etc, only use Chrome to access services. Perhaps this is why I'm happy.)

Re: With a $1k Price, Apple’s iPhone Crosses a Threshold

#75

Post by mtgx »

bluthru wrote: post #38
noncoml wrote: post #26

From the so far leaked rumors I don’t see anything to justify the price. If anything there is a regression with the absence of TouchID. But I guess we will have to wait and see in two days.

>If anything there is a regression with the absence of TouchID. FaceID fulfills that role.

All face authentication schemes are a joke and can be broken soon after release. Fingerprint auth can be broken, too, but it's orders of magnitude more difficult to "clone" someone's fingerprint than it is to copy one of their pictures from the internet, or from a CCTV camera, etc.

Even if the system uses infrared or 3D images or whatever, it's just a matter of developing an advanced enough algorithm to deal with that, which shouldn't take that long if the target market is there (hundreds of millions of iphones with such an auth system).

Re: With a $1k Price, Apple’s iPhone Crosses a Threshold

#76

Post by njarboe »

vacri wrote: post #42
jkaptur wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Andy Warhol: "What’s great about this country is that America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest. You can be watching TV and see Coca-Cola, and you know that the President drinks Coke, Liz Taylor drinks Coke, and just think, you can drink Coke, too. A Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drin…

This is different to soft drinks in other countries... how? Change the drink to whiskey, another popular one, and you can be sure that there's a difference between what the American rich and poor drink. > no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the Cokes are the same and all the Cokes are good And coke is not the same everywhere either. My guess is that the pre…

You can buy Mexican cokes now in California Safeway's and Lucky's supermarkets.

Re: With a $1k Price, Apple’s iPhone Crosses a Threshold

#77

Post by Aeolun »

bthrn wrote: post #36
pravda wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An iPhone is a Veblen good [1]. The purpose of buying an iPhone is to advertise your economic resources. Like a Gucci handbag or a Rolex watch. With a smaller markup. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veblen_good

That the purpose of it is to advertise economic resources is not true. My wife has an iPhone because it's the most competent tool she can use to get the job done. Having used several Android phones prior to this, I don't blame her. Relatively speaking there are fewer security issues, compatibility quirks, and reliability issues with iPhones which makes them worth the price to her. After the 2 year mark our Android ph…

Did you buy android phones at the same price point as the iPhones?

I've had nothing but bad experiences with iPhones in the first 4 years they existed, and have switched back to android for the past 6.

Re: With a $1k Price, Apple’s iPhone Crosses a Threshold

#78

Post by pmiller2 »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #54
jayd16 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an Android dev, I see the total opposite sentiment. Most new phones are pretty damn good, even the mid range. I assume things will go the same way as the PC. Cheaper hardware for most, Apple still holding onto a niche in the market.

> Most new phones are pretty damn good, even the mid range. For the first week, at least. Then they start to accumulate cruft and slow down, eventually becoming barely usable. I've experienced it in the past. I see it happen for my friends and family. I decided some time ago to save up that $750 - $1k and go for the high-range phones, so that I can use them for two or three years without daily frustrations. The top-m…

I've been using a 5s for 3 years now, and I don't have much desire to replace it. I don't find it the least bit slow. The only time I get frustrated with it is when network performance is slow or reception is bad, but that happens with any phone.

Re: With a $1k Price, Apple’s iPhone Crosses a Threshold

#79

Post by mtgx »

1ba9115454 wrote: post #28

This is a very good strategy in my opinion. The iPhone will be the Rolex of the smartphone market and purchased as a fashion item and a status symbol.

How many rolexes are sold worldwide again?

Apple becoming a "fashion" company is such a horrible strategic mistake that I don't think Steve Jobs would've made. Apple will proportionally become less of a "tech" company as a it becomes a fashion company.

In other words, the technology it uses in its devices will feel less and less advanced (especially for the price) as time moves on. You can already see that with other companies developing (real) gold phones with crystals on them and such, while using specs from 2-3 years before, but charging many thousands or tens of thousands of dollars for the phone.

Re: With a $1k Price, Apple’s iPhone Crosses a Threshold

#80

Post by ZenoArrow »

dannysu wrote: post #69
delazeur wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Also, iPhones are extremely economical. My iPhone 6, which cost $749 at the time, is coming up to 3 years old. Uh, what? I'm on my second ~$70 Android smart phone in eight years. It's a tad slow, but we're talking about literally a few seconds of waiting, nothing truly inconvenient. I have honestly never been impressed by anything a $600+ iPhone can do beyond what my phone can. The only drawback is that it isn't co…

I mean my wife is still using my iPhone 3Gs (8 years old), so I get there are different needs. That's exactly my point. Would you make the argument that everyone should be using $200 chromebooks? If not, then why would one make the argument that anything more expensive than a chromebook is crossing some kind of threshold?

> "I get there are different needs."

What are those different needs? What do the top end phones do that the mid range phones do not, other than take better photos? Battery life is comparable, screen size is comparable, they run the same apps. I'm struggling to think of a single reason (other than the camera) why people buy high end phones anymore. There used to be a big difference in quality, but that gap has pretty much evaporated.

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