6 ms·

Agree. People will spend $1000 (or more) for relatively minor features on their cars. A phone is with you 24/7 - it's less like a tool, or even a digital assi

Agree. People will spend $1000 (or more) for relatively minor features on their cars. A phone is with you 24/7 - it's less like a tool, or even a digital assistant, and more like a cybernetic implant. The amazing thing isn't that phones cost so much but that competition is such that you can get an excellent product with top-of-the-line CPU, radio, RAM, screen, everything for $1,000 instead of $100,000 or $1,000,000.

sho 9y ago
> competition is such that you can get an excellent product [..] for $1,000 The really interesting part is that for ~$1000 you get the best product available at any price. That's the magic of economies of scale in consumer markets, especially technology. It's so incredibly expensive and largely fruitless to step out of the economy of scale, that practically speaking no-one does it. I don't have a yacht like Paul Allen, I bet my house isn't as nice as Bill Gates' and my bank account looks nothing like Zuckerberg's. But it's quite possible I have the same phone!
- jkaptur 9y ago
  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 drinking. All the Cokes are the same and all the Cokes are good. Liz Taylor knows it, the President knows it, the bum knows it, and you know it."
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - vacri 9y ago
    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 prez isn't going to be drinking much watery post-mix coke with his meals. Similarly, coke in glass bottles is nicer than post-mix coke, and it's more expensive. 'Regular' cokes are in-between. And, for the US with its HFCS coke, you can import the much better-tasting sucrose-coke, which is more expensive to obtain if you're importing it yourself (although a lot of places on the Mexican border already have it).
    - njarboe 9y ago
      You can buy Mexican cokes now in California Safeway's and Lucky's supermarkets.
      - squeaky-clean 9y ago
        They're common even in South Florida convenience stores. Not every single one, but maybe 25% of stores.
    - adventured 9y ago
      > This is different to soft drinks in other countries... how? The US - along with a select few nations - was a pioneer when it comes to mass-consumer economics that leverage a relatively free market to deliver high quality goods to both rich and poor. It required a dramatic leap in productivity, manufacturing output, to get the scale necessary to drive prices down to such an extent. Ford's Model T was arguably the earliest, best example of that. Over eight years post introduction it went from $850 (6k unit sales) to $360 (577k unit sales), eventually bottoming out under $300 (and incomes climbed substantially over that ~16 year total period). Whether we're talking mass production soda, or cars, or radios, or kitchen appliances, the US was particularly a global pioneer at it from ~1880-1980. > And, for the US with its HFCS coke, you can import the much better-tasting sucrose-coke To be fair, that's a Warhol quote from 1975. At the time he said it, Coke was still using sugar in the US market. It was 1984 when Coke and Pepsi announced plans to switch to HFCS.
    - petecox 9y ago
      Yes, Coke does taste different depending on the country. (And I've tried it on 5 different continents.)
      - Macha 9y ago
        Whenever I go to the US, I always switch to diet coke. Not because of cutting down on that area to compensate for holiday food intake, but because aspartame coke tastes nicer than HFCS coke.
  - mandeepj 9y ago
    Coke is a bad example. Let's talk about a bottle of wine which is $20k. I certainly can't afford that along with a lot of other people.
    - TeMPOraL 9y ago
      $20k wine is probably not going to taste any better than $20 wine, objectively speaking. It's just a luxury good for conspicuous spending.
      - dvfjsdhgfv 9y ago
        It's not true. Yes, there are snobs, and there is a lot of subjectivity involved, an several studies exposed that. On the other hand, some wines have a certain richness of flavor not present in other wines. Certain aspects of it can be better appreciate by people who developed a certain taste of wines and can differentiate better. They're the target group of the more expensive wines. You pay for a unique experience, for something that you like but you can' really get anywhere else. True, the prices of certain wines reach ridiculous levels, but it doesn't mean they wouldn't taste better, especially for someone who tasted a lot of wines and can appreciate them. All this in spite of the fact that "objectively better taste" is in fact an oxymoron, since all discussions of taste (as well as beauty etc.) are by nature subjective and all notions of objectivity are assumed because of a certain consensus (by a majority, an authority/experts etc.).
        KozmoNau7 9y ago
        With wine and spirits, you're often paying for rarity, rather than outright quality. I'm not a huge wine snob (most wines I buy are in the $10-$20 range), but I have tasted some rather expensive wines. In a lot of cases, you're not really paying for "richness of flavor" (a lot of cheaper wines have plenty of richness and balance), you're paying for name and for rarity, especially when it comes to older wines. I'm actually more into whisky, and I can tell you in no uncertain terms, that the best whisky I have ever tasted in my life costs around $400. Now, that is still somewhat expensive compared to the <$100 whiskies I usually enjoy, but it's not outrageously expensive, especially considering how long a bottle of whisky lasts, when compared to a bottle of wine, once it's opened. And it was immeasurably better than any multi-thousand dollar whisky I've had the chance to taste. With Macallans, Dalmores, Pappy van Winkle and other high-priced spirits, you are absolutely paying for a name, not necessarily for the quality.
  - Symbiote 9y ago
    This was said before fancier soft drinks were sold, I assume. For example, some bars round here sell this cola: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fentimans_Curiosity_Cola https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fentimans_Curiosity_Cola
    - varjag 9y ago
      But is is really… unaffordable to anyone but the richest?
      - monsieurbanana 9y ago
        Nop http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/tesco-price-comparison/Soft_Drinks/Fentimans_Curiosity_Cola_275ml.html http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/tesco-price-comparison/Soft_D...
    - Kluny 9y ago
      I mean, it's still only three bucks.
    - joe5150 9y ago
      even the wealthiest people are probably still going to go for a Coke (Fentimans isn't that good imo)
- jeeyoungk 9y ago
  Great thing about America is that no matter how rich or poor you are, you drink the same coke - Andy Warhol.
  - mo11 9y ago
    This is a better quote about America's consumer culture - What was the nature of MTV? For me it was insatiable desire. Thats the very nature of Americans. We want what we don't have. One of the characteristics of American consumers in the early 80's was Shop till you drop. "I want it. I don't know what it is but I want it." - Dale Pon, Advertising exec part of the MTV launch campaign in Aug 1981
- robin_reala 9y ago
  For example, look at the now defunct Vertu. All the titanium and ostrich skin in the world wouldn’t let them sell a better OS.
  - dagw 9y ago
    For what it's worth Vertu is still around (www.vertu.com) and still selling phones to a certain clientele at places like Harrods and Dubai Airport. And with Android 6, Snapdragon 820, a 534ppi screen and a 3200mAh battery, they can at least hold their own against your average android phone.
    - steve19 9y ago
      Note he said OS. As far as I understand the android fork on those phones is awful. Also the hardware is always a generation behind.
      - dagw 9y ago
        As far as I understand the android fork on those phones is awful. According to this review: https://www.androidcentral.com/vertu-constellation https://www.androidcentral.com/vertu-constellation it's pretty close to stock android these days with a slightly customized launcher and a few minor tweaks like "Where a typical phone might offer only a few options for title — Mister, Miss, Doctor — Vertu Accounts offer a laundry list of titles, ranging from King and Queen to Sheikh and Lord and His Excellency" Also the hardware is always a generation behind. Hey they're improving. They used to be at least three generations behind.
    - robin_reala 9y ago
      Ah, OK, I’d assumed that as they shut their manufacturing facilities and went bankrupt they’d closed their concessions as well: https://www.theverge.com/2017/7/13/15963656/vertu-luxury-phone-manufacturing-bankrupt https://www.theverge.com/2017/7/13/15963656/vertu-luxury-pho...
- bambax 9y ago
  I wonder what phone Bill Gates uses nowadays!?! He said many times he's very loyal to MS but they have all but stopped making phones, so every choice left is a bad one...
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - monsieurbanana 9y ago
    If I was as rich as Bill Gates I wouldn't have a smartphone. I would have a secretary follow me everywhere and she would be the one to use her phone. Just kidding. I'd have an android and a squad of engineers to set it up exactly like I want.
  - neogodless 9y ago
    If I had to go back to Windows phone, I'd use a Lumia 950/XL or an HP Elite x3. The main things I'd give up would be first party Google apps and neat apps like my D&D companion. I'd be giving up SnapChat, but I rarely use it. Not sure if Bill Gates is big into that one! Honestly for a professional, a Windows Phone would probably work just fine. But you give up big players in social, most banking apps and a vast library of entertainment. Fortunately for some, you can bank on your computer, and distractions on your phone are not desired.
- imron 9y ago
  > But it's quite possible I have the same phone! Maybe, maybe not: https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/vertu-for-bentley-smartphone-news/ https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/vertu-for-bentley-smart...
StudentStuff 9y ago
Or, for $50 you can get a phone with a midrange chipset that will be nearly as fast as any of the top tier phones out there. The slightly used phone market has really broadened access to cellphones quite a bit.

sho 9y ago

> competition is such that you can get an excellent product [..] for $1,000 The really interesting part is that for ~$1000 you get the best product available at any price. That's the magic of economies of scale in consumer markets, especially technology. It's so incredibly expensive and largely fruitless to step out of the economy of scale, that practically speaking no-one does it. I don't have a yacht like Paul Allen, I bet my house isn't as nice as Bill Gates' and my bank account looks nothing like Zuckerberg's. But it's quite possible I have the same phone!

jkaptur 9y ago
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 drinking. All the Cokes are the same and all the Cokes are good. Liz Taylor knows it, the President knows it, the bum knows it, and you know it."
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- vacri 9y ago
  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 prez isn't going to be drinking much watery post-mix coke with his meals. Similarly, coke in glass bottles is nicer than post-mix coke, and it's more expensive. 'Regular' cokes are in-between. And, for the US with its HFCS coke, you can import the much better-tasting sucrose-coke, which is more expensive to obtain if you're importing it yourself (although a lot of places on the Mexican border already have it).
  - njarboe 9y ago
    You can buy Mexican cokes now in California Safeway's and Lucky's supermarkets.
    - squeaky-clean 9y ago
      They're common even in South Florida convenience stores. Not every single one, but maybe 25% of stores.
  - adventured 9y ago
    > This is different to soft drinks in other countries... how? The US - along with a select few nations - was a pioneer when it comes to mass-consumer economics that leverage a relatively free market to deliver high quality goods to both rich and poor. It required a dramatic leap in productivity, manufacturing output, to get the scale necessary to drive prices down to such an extent. Ford's Model T was arguably the earliest, best example of that. Over eight years post introduction it went from $850 (6k unit sales) to $360 (577k unit sales), eventually bottoming out under $300 (and incomes climbed substantially over that ~16 year total period). Whether we're talking mass production soda, or cars, or radios, or kitchen appliances, the US was particularly a global pioneer at it from ~1880-1980. > And, for the US with its HFCS coke, you can import the much better-tasting sucrose-coke To be fair, that's a Warhol quote from 1975. At the time he said it, Coke was still using sugar in the US market. It was 1984 when Coke and Pepsi announced plans to switch to HFCS.
  - petecox 9y ago
    Yes, Coke does taste different depending on the country. (And I've tried it on 5 different continents.)
    - Macha 9y ago
      Whenever I go to the US, I always switch to diet coke. Not because of cutting down on that area to compensate for holiday food intake, but because aspartame coke tastes nicer than HFCS coke.
- mandeepj 9y ago
  Coke is a bad example. Let's talk about a bottle of wine which is $20k. I certainly can't afford that along with a lot of other people.
  - TeMPOraL 9y ago
    $20k wine is probably not going to taste any better than $20 wine, objectively speaking. It's just a luxury good for conspicuous spending.
    - dvfjsdhgfv 9y ago
      It's not true. Yes, there are snobs, and there is a lot of subjectivity involved, an several studies exposed that. On the other hand, some wines have a certain richness of flavor not present in other wines. Certain aspects of it can be better appreciate by people who developed a certain taste of wines and can differentiate better. They're the target group of the more expensive wines. You pay for a unique experience, for something that you like but you can' really get anywhere else. True, the prices of certain wines reach ridiculous levels, but it doesn't mean they wouldn't taste better, especially for someone who tasted a lot of wines and can appreciate them. All this in spite of the fact that "objectively better taste" is in fact an oxymoron, since all discussions of taste (as well as beauty etc.) are by nature subjective and all notions of objectivity are assumed because of a certain consensus (by a majority, an authority/experts etc.).
      - KozmoNau7 9y ago
        With wine and spirits, you're often paying for rarity, rather than outright quality. I'm not a huge wine snob (most wines I buy are in the $10-$20 range), but I have tasted some rather expensive wines. In a lot of cases, you're not really paying for "richness of flavor" (a lot of cheaper wines have plenty of richness and balance), you're paying for name and for rarity, especially when it comes to older wines. I'm actually more into whisky, and I can tell you in no uncertain terms, that the best whisky I have ever tasted in my life costs around $400. Now, that is still somewhat expensive compared to the <$100 whiskies I usually enjoy, but it's not outrageously expensive, especially considering how long a bottle of whisky lasts, when compared to a bottle of wine, once it's opened. And it was immeasurably better than any multi-thousand dollar whisky I've had the chance to taste. With Macallans, Dalmores, Pappy van Winkle and other high-priced spirits, you are absolutely paying for a name, not necessarily for the quality.
- Symbiote 9y ago
  This was said before fancier soft drinks were sold, I assume. For example, some bars round here sell this cola: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fentimans_Curiosity_Cola https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fentimans_Curiosity_Cola
  - varjag 9y ago
    But is is really… unaffordable to anyone but the richest?
    - monsieurbanana 9y ago
      Nop http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/tesco-price-comparison/Soft_Drinks/Fentimans_Curiosity_Cola_275ml.html http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/tesco-price-comparison/Soft_D...
  - Kluny 9y ago
    I mean, it's still only three bucks.
  - joe5150 9y ago
    even the wealthiest people are probably still going to go for a Coke (Fentimans isn't that good imo)
jeeyoungk 9y ago
Great thing about America is that no matter how rich or poor you are, you drink the same coke - Andy Warhol.
- mo11 9y ago
  This is a better quote about America's consumer culture - What was the nature of MTV? For me it was insatiable desire. Thats the very nature of Americans. We want what we don't have. One of the characteristics of American consumers in the early 80's was Shop till you drop. "I want it. I don't know what it is but I want it." - Dale Pon, Advertising exec part of the MTV launch campaign in Aug 1981
robin_reala 9y ago
For example, look at the now defunct Vertu. All the titanium and ostrich skin in the world wouldn’t let them sell a better OS.
- dagw 9y ago
  For what it's worth Vertu is still around (www.vertu.com) and still selling phones to a certain clientele at places like Harrods and Dubai Airport. And with Android 6, Snapdragon 820, a 534ppi screen and a 3200mAh battery, they can at least hold their own against your average android phone.
  - steve19 9y ago
    Note he said OS. As far as I understand the android fork on those phones is awful. Also the hardware is always a generation behind.
    - dagw 9y ago
      As far as I understand the android fork on those phones is awful. According to this review: https://www.androidcentral.com/vertu-constellation https://www.androidcentral.com/vertu-constellation it's pretty close to stock android these days with a slightly customized launcher and a few minor tweaks like "Where a typical phone might offer only a few options for title — Mister, Miss, Doctor — Vertu Accounts offer a laundry list of titles, ranging from King and Queen to Sheikh and Lord and His Excellency" Also the hardware is always a generation behind. Hey they're improving. They used to be at least three generations behind.
  - robin_reala 9y ago
    Ah, OK, I’d assumed that as they shut their manufacturing facilities and went bankrupt they’d closed their concessions as well: https://www.theverge.com/2017/7/13/15963656/vertu-luxury-phone-manufacturing-bankrupt https://www.theverge.com/2017/7/13/15963656/vertu-luxury-pho...
bambax 9y ago
I wonder what phone Bill Gates uses nowadays!?! He said many times he's very loyal to MS but they have all but stopped making phones, so every choice left is a bad one...
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- monsieurbanana 9y ago
  If I was as rich as Bill Gates I wouldn't have a smartphone. I would have a secretary follow me everywhere and she would be the one to use her phone. Just kidding. I'd have an android and a squad of engineers to set it up exactly like I want.
- neogodless 9y ago
  If I had to go back to Windows phone, I'd use a Lumia 950/XL or an HP Elite x3. The main things I'd give up would be first party Google apps and neat apps like my D&D companion. I'd be giving up SnapChat, but I rarely use it. Not sure if Bill Gates is big into that one! Honestly for a professional, a Windows Phone would probably work just fine. But you give up big players in social, most banking apps and a vast library of entertainment. Fortunately for some, you can bank on your computer, and distractions on your phone are not desired.
imron 9y ago
> But it's quite possible I have the same phone! Maybe, maybe not: https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/vertu-for-bentley-smartphone-news/ https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/vertu-for-bentley-smart...

StudentStuff 9y ago

Or, for $50 you can get a phone with a midrange chipset that will be nearly as fast as any of the top tier phones out there. The slightly used phone market has really broadened access to cellphones quite a bit.