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He knows they can charge anything. When the iPhone X dropped at $999, even as a total iOS person with the money to afford it I scoffed. But I knew they would se

He knows they can charge anything. When the iPhone X dropped at $999, even as a total iOS person with the money to afford it I scoffed. But I knew they would sell like crazy. Apple has a brand beyond any company's wildest imaginations. It could be $2k and people would still want the latest iPhone no matter what, if not just to be seen with it.

aczerepinski 8y ago
I certainly don't care about being seen with a cool phone, but for somebody like me who doesn't want Google tracking my every move, I don't see any alternative to iPhones. So yes, they can charge whatever they want and I don't have a choice.
- satya71 8y ago
  Also, I factor my phone purchases as a per year cost. Apple is still supporting the iPhone 5s. I only have to replace Apple devices every 5 years. At that rate it's about $250 per year, which is better than any high end Android phone. Privacy is the main reason I get iOS devices, but the price is not bad.
  - throwaway427 8y ago
    Yup, I'll have had my 6S Plus for 3 years in December. With a new battery and the new OS it's still a very high end experience. 6S Plus was when they added optical image stabilization, so the camera is still pretty good too. Cost $1k brand new then and I'll probably drop the same $$ or more for a maxed out iPhone whatever in Dec 2019. If only their laptops were this high quality.
    - Moto7451 8y ago
      I'm still working (happily) from my maxed out 2012 11" Air. I put a new battery in it earlier this year and upgraded the SSD last year. You can definitely get longevity out of the laptops. My work undulates between email, text editors, Perl, C#, and whatever I do while SSH'ed into servers. None of that requires much in the way of CPU. Maybe if I was an iOS developer or did some other creative work I'd have a different opinion. The new Air may be enough for me to upgrade (mostly for the Retina Display), but that's mostly because I can rather than because I need to.
    - saagarjha 8y ago
      iPhone 6 Plus had optical image stabilization.
      - throwaway427 8y ago
        I stand corrected.
- caymanjim 8y ago
  You don't think Apple is tracking your every move too?
  - jacobolus 8y ago
    No, they are not. When customers set up a phone Apple presents clear choices about the use of Location Services, Siri, etc., and various types of tracking can be easily turned on or off at any time in the settings. Most people opt in to some amount of tracking, e.g. for getting map directions, and using the internet inherently involves sending data around, but they are all optional. Applications must explicitly request customer permission at runtime to track location, look at contact info, etc., and Apple takes action against apps which collect customer information without authorization or abuse it. Both first-party location/data tracking by Google, and underhanded tracking by third-party apps on Android are pervasive, and more difficult to keep tabs on / opt out of. Of course, the main people tracking your every move with any phone are the phone company, anyone the phone company is selling or providing your data to, and anyone operating a device which can trick your cell modem into connecting to it (“stingrays”).
  - dpkonofa 8y ago
    They're not. You can inspect the network packets being sent from an iPhone (and it's been done) and it doesn't phone home data to Apple outside of iCloud usage and those packets are encrypted.
  - lern_too_spel 8y ago
    They are. Worse, you can't even opt out of it. On an Android phone, AGPS data collection is opt in. On iOS, there is no way to turn it off. On an Android phone, you can set an offline maps app as the default. On iOS, every map link will open in Apple Maps, sending data to Apple in the process. On an Android phone, you can set Signal as your default messaging app. On iOS, any time you click an SMS link, it will open in iMessage, which tells Apple the number you want to SMS and check if that user uses iMessage. Really, anything Apple has said about privacy has been pure marketing for the easily duped.
- MaysonL 8y ago
  Of course, you don't have to pay $1K for a new iphone: you can buy a new iPhone SE 32GB for $140 from Walmart (locked to their captive cellular provider for a year, but still). Or refurbed for $70!
ilovecaching 8y ago
Hell, they'd want it more if it was 2k. That thing must be premium.
threeseed 8y ago
Apple actually could charge $2k. For most people their phone is their only computer, television, ebook reader, camera, watch etc. It's their life. And so if you think your phone delivers you far more value than your car then you can appreciate why Apple is able to push prices up.
- samfisher83 8y ago
  But you can get a phone for 3-500 (xiaomi, oneplus) bucks that would be 90% as good. Samsung phones usually have BOGO deal so you can get them for 3-500 as well.
  - threeseed 8y ago
    Of course. I'm just saying that for most people their phone is by far their most important and intensively used product they own. And so if you need a product like that I am sure you would be willing to absorb higher prices. Which is what people are doing.
  - thecosas 8y ago
    I always hear that there are issues with Android devices getting the latest security updates, etc since there are manufacturer and carrier dependencies. Is that still the case or just urban myth at this point?
    - saagarjha 8y ago
      I believe Android has gotten better about pushing security updates, at least to most flagship phones. But they still lag behind on OS updates.
    - loueed 8y ago
      Cheaper phones rarely get more 2 software updates, and security patches can take years to roll out. This is mainly because manufacturers have no incentive to spend money on patching/updating software that a small number of people use. https://www.statista.com/statistics/271774/share-of-android-platforms-on-mobile-devices-with-android-os/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/271774/share-of-android-... Google is working on a new OS for the pixel which will attempt to solve this fragmented Android issue.
ElBarto 8y ago
I'm OK with Macbook's prices, but not with their abysmal keyboards. I'm not buying another one until that is fixed.
- threeseed 8y ago
  They are on the 3rd generation keyboards now. They are fixed in the sense that they don't break as easily nor are affected by dust etc like previous generations. But if you didn't sort of like the 1st generation I don't think you will like the 3rd, 4th, 5th etc.
  - MBCook 8y ago
    > They are fixed in the sense that they don't break as easily nor are affected by dust etc like previous generations. As far as we know. It’s only been a few months.
- dpkonofa 8y ago
  Man... I love the new MacBook keyboards. I know they're not for everyone but I love the feel of it. Any other laptop I use gets my mechanical keyboard plugged in immediately. The MacBook just feels so damn nice.
  - ElBarto 8y ago
    I like the feel but the feel means nothing if it stops working after a year.
    - dpkonofa 8y ago
      I've had this MacBook for 2 years now and the keyboard is still working. I have a year-old work machine too with the v2 keyboard and it's still working. Maybe I'm just more careful around my expensive electronics than most. Who knows?
      - ElBarto 8y ago
dpkonofa 8y ago
I scoffed at that price too and then realized that I spend more money on way stupider things regularly. My phone is something that I use literally every single day. If I want to continue using it, then I need to pay the price they're asking. So far, I haven't upgraded because my iPhone 7 continues to be a great daily driver. I'm tempted by things on the iPhone XS but not enough to make the jump. Once I do, though, I firmly believe that it'll be worth that price tag. I can genuinely say that I haven't had an Apple product that, in the end, didn't live up to the cost I paid for it and then some. It's the one reason I haven't left the ecosystem (even though I own an Android phone for dev work and a PC for gaming). If the price ever outweighs the utility, I'll just stop buying Apple. There's nothing that's that important that would keep me locked in. If a comparable Android phone comes out that works as well as my iPhone, I'll jump ship but only because the extra cost in no way outweighs what I've spent in iOS apps. I'm not going to keep putting money into something that doesn't work for me. I don't get the people that are just brand loyalists for the sake of brand loyalty. I like Apple products because they're the best for me. Why is that weird for some people?
- auto 8y ago
  "I can genuinely say that I haven't had an Apple product that, in the end, didn't live up to the cost I paid for it and then some." I think this really hits the nail on the head. Granted, this is all anecdotal, and for every positive story I'm sure there is a negative one, and we'll never really have these statistics, but I'd kill to know what percentage of long term Apple users feel this way about their products vs users of other companies. Not counting the Apple II's inherited from my stepdad as a kid, I've had a clamshell iBook that I ran Debian on in high school, a ~2008 Mac Mini that I developed my first iOS game on, an iPhone 3G, 4S, 5S, 7+, a ~2010 and a ~2014 Mac Mini at work, and my 2016 MBP, and every single one is either still in use, or was used basically to obsolescence. FWIW, I don't use the entirety of the ecosystem by any means. I literally don't use iCloud, Apple Music, Siri, and probably a myriad of other tech they offer. And yet, I still get an enormous amount of value out of each product I purchase from them. Full disclosure, I was primarily an iOS dev from 2011-2015, and at least 50% of what I do now is still iOS development.
  - 8y ago

aczerepinski 8y ago

I certainly don't care about being seen with a cool phone, but for somebody like me who doesn't want Google tracking my every move, I don't see any alternative to iPhones. So yes, they can charge whatever they want and I don't have a choice.

satya71 8y ago
Also, I factor my phone purchases as a per year cost. Apple is still supporting the iPhone 5s. I only have to replace Apple devices every 5 years. At that rate it's about $250 per year, which is better than any high end Android phone. Privacy is the main reason I get iOS devices, but the price is not bad.
- throwaway427 8y ago
  Yup, I'll have had my 6S Plus for 3 years in December. With a new battery and the new OS it's still a very high end experience. 6S Plus was when they added optical image stabilization, so the camera is still pretty good too. Cost $1k brand new then and I'll probably drop the same $$ or more for a maxed out iPhone whatever in Dec 2019. If only their laptops were this high quality.
  - Moto7451 8y ago
    I'm still working (happily) from my maxed out 2012 11" Air. I put a new battery in it earlier this year and upgraded the SSD last year. You can definitely get longevity out of the laptops. My work undulates between email, text editors, Perl, C#, and whatever I do while SSH'ed into servers. None of that requires much in the way of CPU. Maybe if I was an iOS developer or did some other creative work I'd have a different opinion. The new Air may be enough for me to upgrade (mostly for the Retina Display), but that's mostly because I can rather than because I need to.
  - saagarjha 8y ago
    iPhone 6 Plus had optical image stabilization.
    - throwaway427 8y ago
      I stand corrected.
caymanjim 8y ago
You don't think Apple is tracking your every move too?
- jacobolus 8y ago
  No, they are not. When customers set up a phone Apple presents clear choices about the use of Location Services, Siri, etc., and various types of tracking can be easily turned on or off at any time in the settings. Most people opt in to some amount of tracking, e.g. for getting map directions, and using the internet inherently involves sending data around, but they are all optional. Applications must explicitly request customer permission at runtime to track location, look at contact info, etc., and Apple takes action against apps which collect customer information without authorization or abuse it. Both first-party location/data tracking by Google, and underhanded tracking by third-party apps on Android are pervasive, and more difficult to keep tabs on / opt out of. Of course, the main people tracking your every move with any phone are the phone company, anyone the phone company is selling or providing your data to, and anyone operating a device which can trick your cell modem into connecting to it (“stingrays”).
- dpkonofa 8y ago
  They're not. You can inspect the network packets being sent from an iPhone (and it's been done) and it doesn't phone home data to Apple outside of iCloud usage and those packets are encrypted.
- lern_too_spel 8y ago
  They are. Worse, you can't even opt out of it. On an Android phone, AGPS data collection is opt in. On iOS, there is no way to turn it off. On an Android phone, you can set an offline maps app as the default. On iOS, every map link will open in Apple Maps, sending data to Apple in the process. On an Android phone, you can set Signal as your default messaging app. On iOS, any time you click an SMS link, it will open in iMessage, which tells Apple the number you want to SMS and check if that user uses iMessage. Really, anything Apple has said about privacy has been pure marketing for the easily duped.
MaysonL 8y ago
Of course, you don't have to pay $1K for a new iphone: you can buy a new iPhone SE 32GB for $140 from Walmart (locked to their captive cellular provider for a year, but still). Or refurbed for $70!

ilovecaching 8y ago

Hell, they'd want it more if it was 2k. That thing must be premium.

threeseed 8y ago

Apple actually could charge $2k. For most people their phone is their only computer, television, ebook reader, camera, watch etc. It's their life. And so if you think your phone delivers you far more value than your car then you can appreciate why Apple is able to push prices up.

samfisher83 8y ago
But you can get a phone for 3-500 (xiaomi, oneplus) bucks that would be 90% as good. Samsung phones usually have BOGO deal so you can get them for 3-500 as well.
- threeseed 8y ago
  Of course. I'm just saying that for most people their phone is by far their most important and intensively used product they own. And so if you need a product like that I am sure you would be willing to absorb higher prices. Which is what people are doing.
- thecosas 8y ago
  I always hear that there are issues with Android devices getting the latest security updates, etc since there are manufacturer and carrier dependencies. Is that still the case or just urban myth at this point?
  - saagarjha 8y ago
    I believe Android has gotten better about pushing security updates, at least to most flagship phones. But they still lag behind on OS updates.
  - loueed 8y ago
    Cheaper phones rarely get more 2 software updates, and security patches can take years to roll out. This is mainly because manufacturers have no incentive to spend money on patching/updating software that a small number of people use. https://www.statista.com/statistics/271774/share-of-android-platforms-on-mobile-devices-with-android-os/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/271774/share-of-android-... Google is working on a new OS for the pixel which will attempt to solve this fragmented Android issue.

ElBarto 8y ago

I'm OK with Macbook's prices, but not with their abysmal keyboards. I'm not buying another one until that is fixed.

threeseed 8y ago
They are on the 3rd generation keyboards now. They are fixed in the sense that they don't break as easily nor are affected by dust etc like previous generations. But if you didn't sort of like the 1st generation I don't think you will like the 3rd, 4th, 5th etc.
- MBCook 8y ago
  > They are fixed in the sense that they don't break as easily nor are affected by dust etc like previous generations. As far as we know. It’s only been a few months.
dpkonofa 8y ago
Man... I love the new MacBook keyboards. I know they're not for everyone but I love the feel of it. Any other laptop I use gets my mechanical keyboard plugged in immediately. The MacBook just feels so damn nice.
- ElBarto 8y ago
  I like the feel but the feel means nothing if it stops working after a year.
  - dpkonofa 8y ago
    I've had this MacBook for 2 years now and the keyboard is still working. I have a year-old work machine too with the v2 keyboard and it's still working. Maybe I'm just more careful around my expensive electronics than most. Who knows?
    - ElBarto 8y ago

dpkonofa 8y ago

I scoffed at that price too and then realized that I spend more money on way stupider things regularly. My phone is something that I use literally every single day. If I want to continue using it, then I need to pay the price they're asking. So far, I haven't upgraded because my iPhone 7 continues to be a great daily driver. I'm tempted by things on the iPhone XS but not enough to make the jump. Once I do, though, I firmly believe that it'll be worth that price tag. I can genuinely say that I haven't had an Apple product that, in the end, didn't live up to the cost I paid for it and then some. It's the one reason I haven't left the ecosystem (even though I own an Android phone for dev work and a PC for gaming). If the price ever outweighs the utility, I'll just stop buying Apple. There's nothing that's that important that would keep me locked in. If a comparable Android phone comes out that works as well as my iPhone, I'll jump ship but only because the extra cost in no way outweighs what I've spent in iOS apps. I'm not going to keep putting money into something that doesn't work for me. I don't get the people that are just brand loyalists for the sake of brand loyalty. I like Apple products because they're the best for me. Why is that weird for some people?

auto 8y ago
"I can genuinely say that I haven't had an Apple product that, in the end, didn't live up to the cost I paid for it and then some." I think this really hits the nail on the head. Granted, this is all anecdotal, and for every positive story I'm sure there is a negative one, and we'll never really have these statistics, but I'd kill to know what percentage of long term Apple users feel this way about their products vs users of other companies. Not counting the Apple II's inherited from my stepdad as a kid, I've had a clamshell iBook that I ran Debian on in high school, a ~2008 Mac Mini that I developed my first iOS game on, an iPhone 3G, 4S, 5S, 7+, a ~2010 and a ~2014 Mac Mini at work, and my 2016 MBP, and every single one is either still in use, or was used basically to obsolescence. FWIW, I don't use the entirety of the ecosystem by any means. I literally don't use iCloud, Apple Music, Siri, and probably a myriad of other tech they offer. And yet, I still get an enormous amount of value out of each product I purchase from them. Full disclosure, I was primarily an iOS dev from 2011-2015, and at least 50% of what I do now is still iOS development.
- 8y ago