2 ms·

Why? How does the cost of microprocessors and metals decreasing make programming easier?

• pdonis 3y ago
  The cost of iPhones includes the cost of programming them.
  • jrockway 3y ago
    But you're saying that moats wouldn't exist if the phones cost 1 cent? Why? I'm claiming that the cost of the iPhone in that world is from the included software, and the included software is their "moat". Cheap parts doesn't give you a "blue bubble" on iMessage. That's what the end user is paying for.
    • pdonis 3y ago
      > you're saying that moats wouldn't exist if the phones cost 1 cent? Why? Because if iPhones cost 1 cent to produce, the cost of everything that goes into producing them would have to be trivial. Which means any competitor could easily do the same as Apple is doing. Of course that's not the case in our actual world; in our actual world, it would cost a huge amount of money for any competitor to do the same as Apple is doing. But that's my point: that very fact is why it costs Apple a lot more than 1 cent to produce an iPhone. Apple has expended huge costs on developing the product and keeping it ahead of competitors, and those costs amount to a lot more than 1 cent per iPHone. The high price they charge for iPhones is how they recoup those costs. In other words, in the hypothetical I was responding to, Apple could not have done what they actually have done to make the iPhone a high end preferred product. Which means that all the moats that exist in our actual world because Apple did all those things to make the iPhone a high end preferred product, could not exist in that hypothetical world. Does that mean the hypothetical is basically useless in understanding Apple's position in our actual world? Yes. That was part of my point.