3 ms·

It's kind of hilarious to hear Apple bitching that when it marks up its phones a ridiculous $100 for $20 worth of memory, it has to share its $80 profit. Neith

It's kind of hilarious to hear Apple bitching that when it marks up its phones a ridiculous $100 for $20 worth of memory, it has to share its $80 profit. Neither of these companies deserves our sympathy. They are two big amoral profit-seeking entities wrestling for money in a way that won't meaningfully affect your life. Whether Apple wins or Qualcomm wins or they split the difference, it's neither justice nor injustice.

briandear 9y ago
What can you do with the $20 worth of memory by itself? That $100 "markup" is because it's part of a great whole -- a whole that took millions to engineer and create. It isn't like Apple is just reselling memory chips. I could buy all the raw materials that go into an iPhone, but that doesn't mean that I personally could make an iPhone. I'm glad to pay a premium because I don't have time to build a phone.
- ianamartin 9y ago
  Not sure why this is being downvoted. The existence of Apple at all today is exactly because people perceive a value greater than the sum of the cost of parts. This isn’t a new idea, and people put tens of billions of dollars behind this concept every fiscal quarter.
  - ananthraghavan 9y ago
    > The existence of Apple at all today is exactly because people perceive a value greater than the sum of the cost of parts. yes and Apple loves that and that's why it makes its phones notoriously hard to repair or upgrade. that's why there are no SD card slots. that's why you have to buy an overpriced Apple exclusive lightning earphones or connector or whatever. everyone is acting like the price of the phone must go up so much if it has higher storage, like there is no other engineering option.
    - ianamartin 9y ago
      I wasn't making a value judgement about whether or not this is a good thing. I was just pointing out that many people do find this a good thing. The product is more valuable than the price of the components to a large number of people. Whether or not that should be the case is better left to a different discussion. But the objective fact is that it's true for a huge number of people, and that provides an incentive for Apple to do more of the same. If people were buying tens of billions of dollars worth of your product every three months, what would you do? Make it worse? Not find ways to make it more profitable? I think you're incorrect about why Apple devices are not easy to repair and upgrade. But we may have to agree to disagree or have a different conversation about that.

briandear 9y ago

What can you do with the $20 worth of memory by itself? That $100 "markup" is because it's part of a great whole -- a whole that took millions to engineer and create. It isn't like Apple is just reselling memory chips. I could buy all the raw materials that go into an iPhone, but that doesn't mean that I personally could make an iPhone. I'm glad to pay a premium because I don't have time to build a phone.

ianamartin 9y ago
Not sure why this is being downvoted. The existence of Apple at all today is exactly because people perceive a value greater than the sum of the cost of parts. This isn’t a new idea, and people put tens of billions of dollars behind this concept every fiscal quarter.
- ananthraghavan 9y ago
  > The existence of Apple at all today is exactly because people perceive a value greater than the sum of the cost of parts. yes and Apple loves that and that's why it makes its phones notoriously hard to repair or upgrade. that's why there are no SD card slots. that's why you have to buy an overpriced Apple exclusive lightning earphones or connector or whatever. everyone is acting like the price of the phone must go up so much if it has higher storage, like there is no other engineering option.
  - ianamartin 9y ago
    I wasn't making a value judgement about whether or not this is a good thing. I was just pointing out that many people do find this a good thing. The product is more valuable than the price of the components to a large number of people. Whether or not that should be the case is better left to a different discussion. But the objective fact is that it's true for a huge number of people, and that provides an incentive for Apple to do more of the same. If people were buying tens of billions of dollars worth of your product every three months, what would you do? Make it worse? Not find ways to make it more profitable? I think you're incorrect about why Apple devices are not easy to repair and upgrade. But we may have to agree to disagree or have a different conversation about that.