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> people have a much stronger connection with the thing they bought rather than optimizing for cost Assuming people want to stay in the iOS ecosystem: Isn’t ch

> people have a much stronger connection with the thing they bought rather than optimizing for cost Assuming people want to stay in the iOS ecosystem: Isn’t choosing the less expensive option (repair) instead of the more expensive option (buying a new iPhone) optimizing for cost?

derefr 9y ago
That’s assuming they weren’t already planning to replace their phone soon. Personally, I’m four iPhone versions behind, and am probably going to wait one more refresh cycle before getting a new phone. But if my phone broke today, I’d just buy the currently-new model and then not buy the one a year from now. Either way is fine with me.
ics 9y ago
If you're going to upgrade every N years/product cycles just to keep up with hardware advancements, then paying for a repair is money spent on a device that will be out of date sooner. Depending on how close/far you are from an anticipated upgrade it might make more sense to reset the clock. My MacBook Pro is from 2011. If the logic board fails, I'll get a new machine without question even though it serves me fine and the repair would be 1/4 or less than a new model of the same tier. If I had an iPhone X and it needed a $500 repair today, I might pay for that if I had no intention of getting the iPhone X 2 or whatever it gets called. If I really wanted the "X 2", I'd start looking at other options whether that's a cheaper iPhone, a special plan from my cell provider, etc. What I'm trying to describe is that rather than calculate what's best based on their own habits, consumers will react based on their gut feeling. Apple marketing definitely has an effect on that feeling but so does the desire to remain within Apple's ecosystem and therefore keep giving them money in one way or another.
hedora 9y ago
Also (especially for laptops), the new option is more about different tradeoffs than better hardware. I use the headphone jack on my 6 plus daily, and don’t want to screw with dongles in my car, or replace my $100+ headphones with non-existent Bluetooth versions. I can’t deal with the new laptop keyboards, so I’ll pay more than the purchase price of a new one for a repair of the old one. (Though, in practice, I’ve found their repairs to generally be quite reasonably priced, and much more convenient/ reliable than any other manufacturer repair service I have dealt with)

derefr 9y ago

That’s assuming they weren’t already planning to replace their phone soon. Personally, I’m four iPhone versions behind, and am probably going to wait one more refresh cycle before getting a new phone. But if my phone broke today, I’d just buy the currently-new model and then not buy the one a year from now. Either way is fine with me.

ics 9y ago

If you're going to upgrade every N years/product cycles just to keep up with hardware advancements, then paying for a repair is money spent on a device that will be out of date sooner. Depending on how close/far you are from an anticipated upgrade it might make more sense to reset the clock. My MacBook Pro is from 2011. If the logic board fails, I'll get a new machine without question even though it serves me fine and the repair would be 1/4 or less than a new model of the same tier. If I had an iPhone X and it needed a $500 repair today, I might pay for that if I had no intention of getting the iPhone X 2 or whatever it gets called. If I really wanted the "X 2", I'd start looking at other options whether that's a cheaper iPhone, a special plan from my cell provider, etc. What I'm trying to describe is that rather than calculate what's best based on their own habits, consumers will react based on their gut feeling. Apple marketing definitely has an effect on that feeling but so does the desire to remain within Apple's ecosystem and therefore keep giving them money in one way or another.

hedora 9y ago

Also (especially for laptops), the new option is more about different tradeoffs than better hardware. I use the headphone jack on my 6 plus daily, and don’t want to screw with dongles in my car, or replace my $100+ headphones with non-existent Bluetooth versions. I can’t deal with the new laptop keyboards, so I’ll pay more than the purchase price of a new one for a repair of the old one. (Though, in practice, I’ve found their repairs to generally be quite reasonably priced, and much more convenient/ reliable than any other manufacturer repair service I have dealt with)