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Is it?? My kids aren't teenagers yet but if they were I wouldn't be buying them $400 phones.
by ido 7y ago
Is it?? My kids aren't teenagers yet but if they were I wouldn't be buying them $400 phones.
- NegativeLatency 7y agoGoing to force mine to learn how to use T9
- asdf21 7y agoYeah, you would be... after they begged for the 200th time.
- Lammy 7y agoIt's not entirely unwarranted begging. Personal electronics are the few status items kids/teens own, and while I'm sure every marketing department on the planet loves it, it's still a bad idea to make them visibly outcast by withholding a decent phone.
- Invictus0 7y agoIf the iPhone SE is the difference between being in the out and in groups, then you have much bigger problems.
- asdf21 7y agoYep, exactly. $400 is not unreasonable for the most important communication device, which should be amortized over 2-3 years (and explained to the kid)
- bcrosby95 7y agoAnd/or give them chores and pay them an allowance. Offer a free phone of your choice, or they can save money for whichever one they want. May or may not work though. I have a friend that does this, and one of his kids simply cannot save money. So when there's something he knows that they all want, he buys it for all of them rather than make them save for it.
- ido 7y agoMaybe, but please keep in mind $400 is a different price for the silicon valley developer earning $300k/year vs the equivalent developer in e.g. Berlin earning $80k.
- rchaud 7y ago> it's still a bad idea to make them visibly outcast by withholding a decent phone. Where does it end though? A phone in one thing; what about a video game console, or pricey sneakers or brand name clothing from the top streetwear brands? Rvery day I'm feeling a little more grateful that we had school uniforms where I went. The materialist one-upsmanship was insane even then, but at least for 8 hours/day people weren't walking billboards for "look at how much my parents have spent on me".
- Lammy 7y ago> Where does it end though? A phone in one thing; what about a video game console, or pricey sneakers or brand name clothing from the top streetwear brands? They don’t use those things to talk to their friends. Think of how many things are digital-first or digital-only these days. Their phone is how they literally exist among their peers in society. It is non-optional.
- nxc18 7y agoWhat’s the alternative? You can buy cheap Android but if you go much below $399 you’ll be replacing it a lot more often. iPhones have been shipping with processors a few years ahead of android performance for a while now, and that gives them serious staying power. TCO is very likely lower for even premium iPhone, and this new model is a steal for the specs.
- sangnoir 7y ago> You can buy cheap Android but if you go much below $399 you’ll be replacing it a lot more often. Not true - I've been using using a $100 Motorola G6 for the past 8 months with no issue. I bought it as a "temporary" replacement when I cracked the screen on my $399 X4 which I had used for 2 years with no issue (silly me, with a price that low I decided to self-insure). I ended up using the G6 as my primary phone because it's pretty good phone and does everything a modern flagship can but with expandable storage via microSD - the only downside is that the camera doesn't take amazing pictures
- nxc18 7y agoI’m wondering if I have an unfair bias against android. I think perhaps the ecosystem has evolved in the last few years and it sounds like even the more affordable devices are offering good performance now? I’m going to pick up a G6 and see how it goes.
- scarface74 7y agoI bought my son a Moto G in 2016. It was dreadfully slow. Not just for games, even simple apps. He was glad when he got upgraded to my hand me down 2014 iPhone 6s, in 2018. I had already replaced the battery. If high end Android phones are usually two years behind iOS in performance, can you imagine how bad a low end or midrange Android phone is?
- sangnoir 7y agoMotorola's G-series is midrange at best - so not only was you assertion wrong; but you don't have to imagine what you experienced. Moto's high-end is the X-series, and frankly I saw no speed difference when I switched between the two (I don't play games, so it's possible my G6 has weaker GPU perf & I wouldn't have noticed).
- sangnoir 7y agoDue to Apple's intentional design choices and the psychology of in-groups & out-groups; having a non-Apple phone as an American teenager appears to be a grueling experience, even for the most well-adjusted kids. Group texts mark you out with green bubbles when everyone has blue, and sometimes you wont receive the messages on time. I remember reading how one teen had been assigned a group for schoolwork, and their colleague created a secondary iPhone-only group chat without him.
- jedieaston 7y agoI don't know how much Apple has to do with it, I think most of the problem is that SMS is hot trash and nobody seems too concerned with getting a replacement out network-wide (if AT&T said that they were getting rid of SMS for RCS, Apple would build it into the phone. But due to the fragmentation of the current implementation(s), nobody seems too concerned). Most people don't think about that, they just think green bubble bad, blue bubble good, but this is one of those rare instances where it's actual technical issues causing the hangup.
- lotsofpulp 7y agowhatsapp and signal are also easily available as alternatives.
- ChuckNorris89 7y agoWhy do people in the US limit themselves to SMS or Apple's proprietary messaging platform? That's sounds bizzare to me. In Europe everyone texts on WhatsApp so nobody is left out.
- jedieaston 7y agoThat's interesting, here we use SMS so nobody is left out. You don't have to download an app for it and just about every plan for the last decade has had unlimited texting (or a ridiculously high limit).
- 7y ago
- SenHeng 7y agoTeenagers in Japan mainly use iPhones because of airdrop, letting easily share photos and videos. Few can afford to pay for data caps. The price of the phone is split into 24 payments across the standard 2 year contracts from carriers. Failing that, Apple also offers a 1 year interest free loan. So the price of the phone is already taken out of the equation.
- lotsofpulp 7y agoIn the US, Apple themselves offer an interest free loan for 2 years. The price of an iPhone plus AppleCare is the same whether or not you pay at time of purchase or over the next 24 months.
- deftturtle 7y agoSame here. I'd got an iPhone 7 with 128GB for only $100 used, on Craigslist. I only buy used phones now, and I never spend more than $200. The market is always saturated with used phones, and they work fine. I bought two Sony a7ii cameras and a flash for only $1400, because they were used. Full price new, it would've been 3600. They work great, and I can use my money on other things. I see very few reasons to buy new electronics, especially given the security of an iPhone and how easily they are reset.
- tonyedgecombe 7y agoI feel quite lucky that my children had finished school just before the smartphone really took off.
- Humdeee 7y agoThis must have been mid 2000s. I graduated then as well and only a few kids even had flip phones in school. I also feel quite fortunate.
- scarface74 7y agoWell, we have statistics... I find them hard to believe, but I’ve seen various sources saying 80%+ of teens in the US have iPhones. https://www.sammobile.com/news/samsung-irrelevant-among-u-s-teens-most-own-an-iphone/ https://www.sammobile.com/news/samsung-irrelevant-among-u-s-...
- ido 7y agoYeah but the the US is abnormally iPhone-heavy (I live in Europe).
- JKCalhoun 7y agoPhones get handed down. So whoever has the oldest or most broken phone gets the $400 phone; shift right.