11 ms·

I think everyone lost their damn mind, possibly during Covid. New iPhones used to be $199 and when they went to $299 the decision was seriously questionable.

• hakimg 1mo ago
  The original iPhone cost $500 and adjusting for inflation that is about $800 today. I don't remember phones costing $300 since before the smart phone era. Even Walkman phones cost $500 in the early 2000's.
  • ponector 1mo ago
    Many android phones are under $300, not iPhones obviously.
  • haburka 1mo ago
    You do know the modern smartphone is the most technologically advanced consumer good that has ever existed? Like at no point in history has there ever been something so small, complex and intricate in the hands of so many people. The new iPhone is going to be very expensive - it’s a luxury item and marketed like that. They can definitely make phones for $300 and you can buy a smartphone that is more powerful than the original iPhone for $50. It probably will be a bit slow running modern apps but it may possibly still be workable for a while.
    • NoidFonsense 1mo ago
      It fundamentally has the same capabilities as the original iphone. You can browse the web, check your emails, watch movies, play simple games. The only difference is that now you can play graphicially intense desktop-style games, but no one really does that. And also it has some sattelite phone functionality. The cameras are also better, the battery life is better, but it all doesnt fundamentally change the way you use it. The complexity over last year's smartphone is unnessisary. Now that everyone in the world is basicially required to use a smartphone, the only way for big smartphone to make more revenue is to sell each consumer more smartphone per smartphone.
      • preg_match 1mo ago
        You're correct. Ultimately 99% of the stuff you do on a phone is identical to 10 years ago. I know exactly 0 zero phone gamers. I do know some who play, like, the pokemon trading card game. Cameras have improved, but less than you think. Most of the improvement is in low-light, but in well lit scenes we actually sort of peaked 10 years ago. It's gotten slightly worse now, believe it nor not. But you can't legitimately run a phone from 10 years ago, because while everything is the same, the software uses 100x as many resources. That sort of tricks people into thinking "oh it must be doing so much more!" But... is it? Think back. Instagram 10 years ago, YouTube 10 years ago. Yeah... it's basically the same. Some argue they've regressed. I'm sure we've more than 10x the code size, but nobody sees that. Web browsers have also gotten much more complex, but again, you won't notice it. We have a lot more fringe web APIs like webusb but like... the regular web browsing experience for 99% of tasks is identical.
        • NoidFonsense 1mo ago
          I think there have been some niceities in web apis like webgpu, websocket, webrtc, PWAs. But they are limited in weird ways, and the fingerprinting has never been worse
  • poulpy123 1mo ago
    800$ for a total novel technology vs 1800$ for a small iteration of the technology. I don't think so many people in the world can afford that.
    • whoisrosh 1mo ago
      right, the subsequent model went down in price, so it doesn't make sense to compare with the first iPhone
• MYEUHD 1mo ago
  > New iPhones used to be $199 With a 2-year contract with your carrier in which you pay the cost of the phone gradually each month
• sumek83 1mo ago
  they did, significants parts of it, and "during Covid" is ongoing https://www.cbc.ca/radio/quirks/long-covid-brain-1.7171918 https://www.cbc.ca/radio/quirks/long-covid-brain-1.7171918
• squeegeeninja 1mo ago
  The $199/$299 prices were never real. Those were on carrier-subsidized plans.
• whywhywhywhy 1mo ago
  Look up the figures for inflation, your money is worth a fraction of what it was before COVID, then we have component shortages on top of that.
• the__alchemist 1mo ago
  > Now they cost like a used car, everyone buys $1000+ iPhones without batting an eye, insane. It appears you haven't attempted to buy a used car lately either. Details vary, but in the US, generally you are looking at $6k floor for a running car.
  • eahm 1mo ago
    > It appears you haven't attempted to buy a used car lately either. Ah! Fair.
• eigenspace 1mo ago
  I get more value from my smartphone than I used to, and I upgrade it less often. The photos I take with it are genuinely precious to me, and I'm more than happy to shell out 800-1000€ every 3 years so as long as yhe cameras keep getting better. I have zero interest in folding phones though. Theyre less durable and have worse cameras so im sitting this fad out.
• some_random 1mo ago
  The only time iPhones were $199 was when they were subsidized by lock-in contracts, they were never actually that cheap.
• ricardobeat 1mo ago
  Your feeling is right, but you got the numbers wrong. In today's money, they used to be around the $400-$700 range. Now they start at ~$1000, which is insane; especially considering a last-gen, extremely performant laptop with a 5x larger screen and battery can be had for those $700.
• Daishiman 1mo ago
  People used to buy new phones every year or 2 because the technology differences were enormous. Nowadays a 4 or 5 year-old phone is perfectly usable and you're not really missing out on anything. That changes the economics of phone manufacturing, ultimately you're still paying about the same for an equivalent measure of time using the phone.
• preg_match 1mo ago
  Surprise! Used cars are no longer 1000 dollars. If you want something that's not an absolute beater, as in ~150,000 miles, that's three grand baby. You can probably find something for 1000 dollars at 200,000+ miles with body damage but... probably shouldn't buy that.
  • milkytron 1mo ago
    I think if towns and cities want to be more economically resilient (both privately and publicly) they really need to think about reducing car dependency. Although, implementing such changes are generally unpopular for those that are already car dependent.