7 ms·

I think lots of people here have little understanding how expensive $600 to a stay at home mom or teen is. Getting an iphone says you got middle class money(eve

I think lots of people here have little understanding how expensive $600 to a stay at home mom or teen is. Getting an iphone says you got middle class money(even if it was $12/mo for the next 5 years). There are upper-middle class equivalents of this. Cars come to mind. It is interesting explaining to a middle class person why I have a $100 crappy phone. "My old one broke, and I have 4 of these $100 phones for my wife's company, so I'm using it until I find a good phone with an Aux port". Ease is everything.

cootsnuck 2y ago
I'm just glad I grew up in the era right before smart phones and have always purchased my own cell phones. I'm just too damn grumpy to pay more than like $250 for a phone. I prefer to be on my computer than my phone. But I can understand for people who seldom are on a computer it probably feels worth it to them to pay $500+ for a phone.
lotsofpulp 2y ago
The cheapest iphones have been $400 or $430 for many, many years now. Divided by the number of hours a phone is used, the amortized cost of having something you want is miniscule. This is the thing moms will be taking precious pictures of their kids with, video calling their families on, shopping for themselves and others, and even watching or listening to entertainment. If there’s one thing that people can justify spending more on for more utility, it’s a smartphone. Obviously, I’m not referring to spending $1k more for a 1 TB Pro Max, but spending an extra $500 is going to make sense to many people for purposes outside of showing off.
- resource_waste 2y ago
  >but spending an extra $500 is going to make sense to many people for purposes outside of showing off. If this was true, Apple would not be the major US player. Everything you mentioned doesnt cost $500, it cost $200 on a nexus a decade ago.
  - lotsofpulp 2y ago
    I used Nexus a decade ago, and they didn’t even have simple video calling figured out. There was a new app every month. Also, a Nexus wasn’t $200 in 2014, and in no way was a $200 mobile phone in 2014 as good as a $500 iPhone (or any other $500 phone).
- hulitu 2y ago
  > If there’s one thing that people can justify spending more on for more utility, it’s a smartphone. For a dumb device ? Max 200 €. Browsing the internet on a smartphone is terrible, the GUI is terrible, typing is terrible. DOS level multitasking. Spying machine. No way i will pay more for this.

cootsnuck 2y ago

I'm just glad I grew up in the era right before smart phones and have always purchased my own cell phones. I'm just too damn grumpy to pay more than like $250 for a phone. I prefer to be on my computer than my phone. But I can understand for people who seldom are on a computer it probably feels worth it to them to pay $500+ for a phone.

lotsofpulp 2y ago

The cheapest iphones have been $400 or $430 for many, many years now. Divided by the number of hours a phone is used, the amortized cost of having something you want is miniscule. This is the thing moms will be taking precious pictures of their kids with, video calling their families on, shopping for themselves and others, and even watching or listening to entertainment. If there’s one thing that people can justify spending more on for more utility, it’s a smartphone. Obviously, I’m not referring to spending $1k more for a 1 TB Pro Max, but spending an extra $500 is going to make sense to many people for purposes outside of showing off.

resource_waste 2y ago
>but spending an extra $500 is going to make sense to many people for purposes outside of showing off. If this was true, Apple would not be the major US player. Everything you mentioned doesnt cost $500, it cost $200 on a nexus a decade ago.
- lotsofpulp 2y ago
  I used Nexus a decade ago, and they didn’t even have simple video calling figured out. There was a new app every month. Also, a Nexus wasn’t $200 in 2014, and in no way was a $200 mobile phone in 2014 as good as a $500 iPhone (or any other $500 phone).
hulitu 2y ago
> If there’s one thing that people can justify spending more on for more utility, it’s a smartphone. For a dumb device ? Max 200 €. Browsing the internet on a smartphone is terrible, the GUI is terrible, typing is terrible. DOS level multitasking. Spying machine. No way i will pay more for this.