4 ms·
Why are people comfortable carrying a $1000 piece of equipment that can be dropped or stolen in an instant in their pocket? My Nexus6p takes great pictures, run
by dangjc 9y ago
Why are people comfortable carrying a $1000 piece of equipment that can be dropped or stolen in an instant in their pocket? My Nexus6p takes great pictures, runs everything smoothly, and I don't have to freak out as much if the $350 suddenly vanishes.
- rmrfrmrf 9y agoI personally don't think it's healthy to operate under the assumption that my belongings will get damaged, lost, or stolen.
- SXX 9y agoFor same reason why people comfortable to pay for their car maintenance might be? There is always hidden cost of owning something and everyone can decide whatever they want to take a risk or not. Many of us here buy high-end PC hardware even if we know in 2 years it's price will likely drop up to 2-3 times so I don't see why phones are any different. Also personally over last 10 years I lived in different parts of the world including Europe and Asian countries and worse and none of my devices or personal things were ever stolen and I only break few devices. So might be it's just less of problem for some especially considering many people rarely go outside of their usual home / office or travel to countries with high risk of theft.
- dangjc 9y agoI've traveled a lot too, and haven't ever had things stolen. But I know people who have. One of my friends had his iphone in a waterproof protector strapped around his neck for Songkram in Bangkok, and someone in the crowd walked right up behind him with a scissors and cut the string and ran off . He had a second phone stolen shortly after. Luckily he works in travel insurance and was a big believer, so everything was fully insured! Maybe the bad stories just stick out and are the exception not the rule.
- Uhhrrr 9y agoNot thinking about it, or status seeking, or a weighted combination of both.
- dewey 9y agoPeople also drive around in expensive cars on open roads with a lot distracted drivers. You an also get hit in an instant by one person not paying attention. You just have insurance for that, just like you have Apple Care or a similar insurance in case it happens.
- komali2 9y agoI also wonder about, for example, the Maserati I sometime see parked just on the street in Daly City. I have a shitty car and a relatively cheap motorcycle exactly so I can confidently leave them in the city without worrying too much.
- funnelsgun 9y agoApple Care doesn't help if the phone is lost or stolen. However, I'm quite sure that the risk of damaging or losing a phone is much greater than the risk of crashing a car (at least in the UK and Western Europe). Hence, the price of phone insurance against the price of the phone is so much worse than the price of car insurance against the price of the car. Then, does someone become lower risk the more time and experience with a phone, like no claims, age and sex profiling on car insurance, or is the price of insurance the same whether the customer is a 25 or 50 adult male.
- flachsechs 9y agowell, i'm a successful professional that's been working nearly every day for over 20 years, so... if i lost my phone i would simply buy another one. is this a trick question or something? i'm not going to jump into a swimming pool on purpose, but losing my phone isn't something that concerns me.
- falsedan 9y agoYes, it’s a trick to find entitled consumers who would really benefit from an all-inclusive no-questions instant replacement device protection plan! Just $9.99 per week will give you the piece of mind that you’ve been missing! Just put your phone number, address, and credit card details on your HN bio and one of our prestigious client grooming agents will be personally in touch with you at your earliest convenience…
- wrboyce 9y ago> I'm not going to jump into a swimming pool on purpose New models are waterproof, dive in ;)
- euroclydon 9y agoIs there any way to actually steal an iPhone any more? I think they're just bricks. But, I completely agree with you otherwise. This thing is just too nice to keep in my pocket all day. Plus, I'm too spoiled to appreciate it. It's like the most awesome, user friendly camera known to man, with an onboard computer and phone -- and I'm not sure I care enough to use it.
- baby 9y agoIt's scary at first but I haven't lost or broken mine so far. Fingers crossed.
- mercwear 9y agoMy phone is the piece of equipment that gets the most use throughout the day so having every creature comfort & feature when using it makes sense to me. I'm not sold on the X but the price has almost no impact on my decision to purchase when it comes to phones.
- greglindahl 9y agoI use my phone for enough hours per day that I'm willing to spend quite a lot to get something that might be a little better.
- mercwear 9y agoMy point exactly, if you use the phone for just 1 hour a day and keep it for 2 years then you pay ~$1.36 a day for the hardware. I use my phone for 2-3 hours a day so the cost is probably closer to $0.45/day. It makes perfect sense, even if you tack on Apple care it's still a good value (for me).
- hellofunk 9y agoWell, for starters, to some people $1000 is nothing. After all, there is a watch store down the street from me and all the watches start at $50,000. Some are a quarter million. But there are other reasons too.
- mschaef 9y agoThat's a great question. Given that I have a pile of four generations of smartphones sitting on my desk waiting to be recycled, it's also easy to visualize that brand new $1,000 iPhone X sitting in that pile in a few years time. The new phone looks great, but the marginal improvement over my existing phone doesn't look like it's worth $1,000. (Particularly in light of the opportunity costs involved.)
- tomek_zemla 9y agoFor some it is a status symbol. Ask any teenager how make/model of the smartphone designates their social status at school... It is similar with other items. You can buy (second hand) jeans for $10 and you can buy designer jeans for $1000. Both are suitable to wear in most situations. Some people have no choice. Some don't mind spending (wasting?) $1000 on the high-end version. The features are not always the reason people buy things and this nowadays includes smartphones.
- garethsprice 9y agoMost people don't pay anywhere near to the unlocked retail price of the phone (so they don't consider it to be a $1,000 device), and many have insurance. If I drop my iPhone (which I paid about $100 for out of pocket after rebates/incentives/trade-in/etc), it's a $99 deductible.
- wrboyce 9y agoInsurance?
- eddieh 9y agoI carry my iPhone, iPad, MacBook, Apple Watch, $300 headphones and $200 sunglasses with me everywhere. What's the big deal? I've owned every iPhone from day one and use them without a case and without insurance. I've never had anything broken. I've never had anything stolen either.
- vpresident 9y agoOh, no man. Now you jinxed it...
- eddieh 9y agoHaha, everyone always says that. Ever since the first iPhone and first MacBook Pro...11 years and not a damn thing. Superstitions are really dumb.
- rmrfrmrf 9y agoI used to be like this until I went through 2 iPhone 7s in the span of a month (dropped both of them). Now I've accepted my fate as a loser case-using pleb for my phone :(. Props to you for fighting the good fight, though!
- MBCook 9y agoWord from the hands-on area is that they've fixed the ultra slipperiness issues in the 8 and X aren't nearly as bad.
- CamelCaseName 9y agoThere is a vast spectrum of personal situations where people can easily afford a $1000 phone every month to people who's monthly wage is less than the price of a $100 phone. Different companies target different demographics who have varied preferences and utility functions.
- SadWebDeveloper 9y agoYou are carrying a time bomb, that phone (Nexus 6P) came with so many manufacturing issues that android 8.0 has added a special feature just to allow you to reset your phone in case of bootloop problems.
- eco 9y agoYeah, the 6P has a famously bad battery lifecycle. Many people's moderately aged phones just start shutting off even though it reports 30%+ battery remaining. Google has been pretty good about replacing them if you bought directly from them though and they recently just started giving people brand new Pixel XLs. I assume they are doing this mostly because of an inventory surplus combined with "Pixel 2" less than a month away but it's still nice of them to do it even though these phones are a year out of warranty for a lot of people getting these replacements. Even with the Pixel 2 out they could likely sell the older Pixels for a few hundred bucks.
- wmeredith 9y agoPlenty of people wear watches/jewelry that are worth more than this. My wallet, sans cash, is arguably worth more than $1000 to me if I had to replace everything in it. The value extracted from carrying the thing around is obviously worth more than the risk.
- petra 9y agoFor many, that's the point: to show others(inc. the opposite sex) that you are carrying a $1000 piece of equipment. But people prefer to invent other reasons.
- sailfast 9y agoDo you use a laptop at a coffee shop occasionally?
- dangjc 9y agoYep, but laptops are treated with way more caution and attention. Phones are constantly whipped in and out, left on tables or benches, used around kitchens, toilets, swimming pools...
- moxious 9y agoMany people (particularly women) wear wedding rings worth more than this all the time.
- sparkzilla 9y agoRings are not likely to slip off and break, though.
- KVFinn 9y ago>Why are people comfortable carrying a $1000 piece of equipment that can be dropped or stolen in an instant in their pocket? My Nexus6p takes great pictures, runs everything smoothly, and I don't have to freak out as much if the $350 suddenly vanishes. I think AppleCare+ insurance is a good deal here. I use the phone wherever/whenever and never sweat smashing it to bits. It also means I never both with screen protectors or cases (except for ones that add grip or just look interesting).
- alkonaut 9y agoIf I drop it, It doesn't cost $1000 it costs $100 (at least before this screen type). It won't be stolen as long as it's either in my hand or my front pocket all day (unless I'm mugged). But I have insurance for that. Basically I don't consider it a risk of a sudden loss of $1000. Just parking my car is a risk of a sudden $1000 loss, even with insurance.
- chrisper 9y agoActually it could easily be stolen out of your hand by someone on a bike.
- nickjj 9y agoMy $20 flip phone survived falling 7 feet onto concrete without suffering a scratch without any type of case. I never understood why vendors keep mentioning "thin" and "sleek" in the marketing, when most people end up getting a case which in turn makes it thicker than a 10 year old flip phone.