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$599 still feels like they're setting whatever price they can get away with. It's been 20 years, why don't we have sub $500 new iPhones yet?
by 1970-01-01 8mo ago
$599 still feels like they're setting whatever price they can get away with. It's been 20 years, why don't we have sub $500 new iPhones yet?
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- joezydeco 8mo agoIt's a luxury brand. You don't sell cheap and risk losing the people that are happy to pay $1400 for a new iPhone.
- NetMageSCW 8mo agoIt’s not a luxury brand, it is a quality brand. There is a difference.
- joezydeco 8mo agoSo is Mercedes-Benz. But they don't sell a $20,000 commuter car.
- NetMageSCW 8mo agoNo, Mercedes Benz is definitely a luxury brand. They don’t want to sell to everyone. Apple (Steve Jobs) has explicitly stated that as one of their goals.
- lotsofpulp 8mo agoToyota is a quality brand, Mercedes is a luxury brand.
- tencentshill 8mo agoIt’s not a quality brand, it is a luxury brand. There is a difference.
- slaw 8mo agoMercedes-Benz sells commuter cars in Europe. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercedes-Benz_A-Class https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercedes-Benz_A-Class
- orangepanda 8mo agoAnd this is the Mercedes-Benz commuter car I want to see more of. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercedes-Benz_Citaro https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercedes-Benz_Citaro
- kube-system 8mo ago> The Mercedes-Benz A-Class is a car manufactured by German luxury automaker Mercedes-Benz "luxury" is more of a marketing and product positioning term, it doesn't really have anything to do with engineering or quality practicalities
- FuriouslyAdrift 8mo agoLast time I was in the Ruhr (okay 20 years ago), C-classes were used as taxi cabs. So basically equivalent to a caprice classic in the US.
- cromka 8mo agoOh but they do: https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_Automobile https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_Automobile
- charcircuit 8mo ago>aimed at producing Smart-badged cars The brand is "Smart".
- AmbroseBierce 8mo agoThe keyboard-doesn't-trigger-the-tapped-key-sometimes brand, just awestruck at their quality https://ios-countdown.win/ https://ios-countdown.win/
- alwillis 8mo ago> It’s not a luxury brand, it is a quality brand. There is a difference. It’s an attainable luxury brand. There aren’t many products that a high school kid has in common with billionaires, superstar athletes and movie stars—the iPhone is such a product.
- stephenboyd 8mo agoThe iPhone SE was only $400.
- dmix 8mo agoI'd argue that is worth the money if you're going to be using a phone every single day of their life. People will drop a few hundred on fancy shoes and wear them once a month, but they treat phones as cheap commodities.
- haritha-j 8mo agoAgreed, but its more the fact that you get a lot more peace of mind tossing around, and otherwise treating without too much care, a cheaper device. Risk of drops, theft, forgetting etc. are pretty high for something that I use every day. But then I'm a broke PhD student, so perhaps my views will change one day.
- mrweasel 8mo agoLast time I complained about the pricing of the iPhone, people pointed out that inflation included the prices wasn't to far of from the original iPhone. Still, I don't care that the phones are faster, have larger screens, better camera, FaceID, AI, are thinner light and what have you. The iPhone design peaked in 2015, from there they could just have release the same phone year after year, making it cheaper and cheaper and I'd still be happy with it. The prices are, in my mind insane, and I'll be buying used, but those are also overpriced.
- unsupp0rted 8mo agoNo, they couldn’t, because then the company would stop existing due to lack of sales.
- nancyminusone 8mo agoBell System released about 10 models over 110 years, worked out just fine for them.
- BoorishBears 8mo agoAnd now you see why they want to grow their services business so badly
- massysett 8mo agoYeah, because it had a government-sanctioned monopoly. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingsbury_Commitment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingsbury_Commitment
- thebigman433 8mo ago> Still, I don't care that the phones are faster, have larger screens, better camera, FaceID, AI, are thinner light and what have you. The iPhone design peaked in 2015, from there they could just have release the same phone year after year, making it cheaper and cheaper and I'd still be happy with it. This obviously isnt relevant generally though, this is not how the general public feels at all.
- lenerdenator 8mo agoBecause they know people will pay it.
- ortusdux 8mo agoCan mess up the price ladder!
- JohnTHaller 8mo agoGlobal crazy tariffs, supply chain issues, and RAM and storage shortages due to AI hype betting. Also greed.
- gbear605 8mo agoTaking inflation into account, a $599 iPhone in 2026 would have been $380 in 2007. Given that the actual launch price in 2007 was $499, that's a pretty hefty drop.
- thatfrenchguy 8mo ago$499 with carrier subsidy too
- Dylan16807 8mo agoIt didn't take much longer to get a 3G for that price with no subsidy.
- Dylan16807 8mo agoA technology doodad getting 25% cheaper in real terms over 15-20 years is about as far opposite as you can get from a hefty price drop.
- DVassallo 8mo agoIt's also 10000% more capable too.
- Dylan16807 8mo agoAnd OP wants a model that's somewhat less than a 10000% improvement.
- array_key_first 8mo agoSure, but new computers are 100,000x more capable and 1/10th the cost. If we look back far enough, it's 1/100th the cost. We could do better.
- gbear605 8mo agoSure, it hasn’t crashed like the prices of televisions, or like computers did in the 80s and 90s. But it’s still meaningfully cheaper and of course much more capable (the original iPhone didn’t even launch with an App Store!).
- tech234a 8mo agoAt least they increased the base storage to 256GB
- layer8 8mo agoThe first SE in 2016, which wasn’t very far from flagship at the time, was only $399. It was a steal.
- HauntingPin 8mo agoAccounting for inflation, that's $542. And considering how much everything, including phones, costs nowadays, $600 seems like a steal to me too. I was expecting a much higher price for what I'm seeing on that page.
- onesociety2022 8mo agoI’m pretty sure they determine the price upfront and then figure out what bells and whistles they can ship without eating into their margins. Their goal is to hit a certain average selling price across their massive user base when they upgrade their old phones. They are not going to jeopardize that by releasing an attractive cheap iPhone. For the people who really don’t want to spend a lot, obviously the easiest option is to just buy an older iPhone or keep your phone for longer. My partner doesn’t care about having the latest tech. So first I use a phone for 3 years and then they use it for another 3 years. We essentially get 6 years of life out of it (Apple is good about releasing software updates for 6 years).
- asdff 8mo agoThere is no market for it in US at least since carriers control that selling couple year old iphones for free or close to it.
- pibaker 8mo ago> feels like they're setting whatever price they can get away with. This is just a free market for any product works. No? Why do software engineers ask for six digit salaries? Because they can get away with it — someone is willing to pay for it.
- Daz912 8mo ago>Why do software engineers ask for six digit salaries? Because they can get away with it No you see it's their RIGHT to demand an exorbitant salary – because that's 'what they're worth' and what the market will bear Unfortunately they're less charitable when the shoe is on the other foot.
- crossroadsguy 8mo agoYou asked for it. Now sit back and relish the ripe comments from fruitopologists.
- mixmastamyk 8mo ago$900 is the new $600 </trump>
- jesterson 8mo agoWhat can sub $500 amount get you nowadays? Just a fancy dinner, or a couple of regular ones.