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Apple really does do nasty things to drive short term profits while hurting user experience. Why does Apple charge $130 for a $5 LTE antenna on iPads or $100 fo

Apple really does do nasty things to drive short term profits while hurting user experience. Why does Apple charge $130 for a $5 LTE antenna on iPads or $100 for a $3 64GB SSD chip on iPhones? Why do they cripple entry level iPhones with only 16GB? Why do they have a long history (recently ameliorated) of selling Macs with far too little RAM to be useful and charging ten times the market price for upgrades? Just because they aren't guilty here doesn't mean Apple hasn't behaved badly at some point. And when a company prizes short term profits from loyal customers over long term profits and gains of market share, that isn't a conspiracy -- it's a strategy.

coldtea 11y ago
>Apple really does do nasty things to drive short term profits while hurting user experience. Why does Apple charge $130 for a $5 LTE antenna on iPads or $100 for a $3 64GB SSD chip on iPhones? Why do they cripple entry level iPhones with only 16GB? Because market segmentation. It's a concept in sales as old as Adam Smith.
- scholia 11y ago
  You can do market segmentation without abusing your customers.
scholia 11y ago
Well, obviously Apple has to keep driving up short-term profits because having only $200 billion stowed away in cash (mostly overseas, to avoid taxes) is not good enough. If only Apple had $300 billion, or $500 billion, it could really change the world... though I doubt whether paying Foxconn or Pegatron workers a decent basic wage would be part of it ;-)
plaguuuuuu 11y ago
When you think about it, either 64GB iPhone is overpriced or the 32GB is underpriced, or both. Possibly, the people buying the 64GB iPhone for slightly more than they should are actually subsidising the people getting the 32GB for less than otherwise.
- scholia 11y ago
  > either 64GB iPhone is overpriced or the 32GB is underpriced, or both The problem is that there isn't a 32GB iPhone 6s, though it would only cost Apple a few pennies per unit to offer one. Instead, it has a 16GB version (too little storage) and then jumps to a 64GB version (which is comparatively overpriced). Either way, purely in terms of manufacturing costs, it's a choice between "overpriced" and "even more overpriced" -- or, if it makes you feel better, "premium priced" and "even more premium priced". I don't think "subsidising" comes into it.

coldtea 11y ago

>Apple really does do nasty things to drive short term profits while hurting user experience. Why does Apple charge $130 for a $5 LTE antenna on iPads or $100 for a $3 64GB SSD chip on iPhones? Why do they cripple entry level iPhones with only 16GB? Because market segmentation. It's a concept in sales as old as Adam Smith.

scholia 11y ago
You can do market segmentation without abusing your customers.

scholia 11y ago

Well, obviously Apple has to keep driving up short-term profits because having only $200 billion stowed away in cash (mostly overseas, to avoid taxes) is not good enough. If only Apple had $300 billion, or $500 billion, it could really change the world... though I doubt whether paying Foxconn or Pegatron workers a decent basic wage would be part of it ;-)

plaguuuuuu 11y ago

When you think about it, either 64GB iPhone is overpriced or the 32GB is underpriced, or both. Possibly, the people buying the 64GB iPhone for slightly more than they should are actually subsidising the people getting the 32GB for less than otherwise.

scholia 11y ago
> either 64GB iPhone is overpriced or the 32GB is underpriced, or both The problem is that there isn't a 32GB iPhone 6s, though it would only cost Apple a few pennies per unit to offer one. Instead, it has a 16GB version (too little storage) and then jumps to a 64GB version (which is comparatively overpriced). Either way, purely in terms of manufacturing costs, it's a choice between "overpriced" and "even more overpriced" -- or, if it makes you feel better, "premium priced" and "even more premium priced". I don't think "subsidising" comes into it.