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Ask Slashdot: Why Would Anyone Want To Spend $1,000 on a Smartphone?
Last month, Apple CEO Tim Cook said the $1,000 sticker price for the base model of iPhone X, the latest flagship smartphone from the company which goes on sale next month, is "a value price for the technology that you're getting." An anonymous reader writes: I simply don't understand why anyone would want to spend such amount on a phone. Don't get me wrong. Having a smartphone is crucial in this day and age. I get it. But even a $200 phone, untethered from any carrier contract, will let you install the apps you need, will allow you to take good pictures, surf the web, and listen to music. That handset might not be as fast as the iPhone X or Samsung's new Galaxy Note 8, or it might not be able to take as great pictures, but the difference, I feel, doesn't warrant an additional $800. The reader shares a column: When considering a purchase, comparing the value a product will add to our lives, and its cost is wise. Subjective perceptions affect how we value possessions, but let's consider the practical value of how we use smartphones. Smartphones aren't used for talking as often as the phones that preceded them were. In fact, actual "phone" use ranks below messaging, web surfing, social media and other activities that dominate smartphone usage. Furthermore, statistically we use only six core apps regularly. [...] My point is, smartphones have't changed all that much relatively speaking. Sure they're bigger, faster, more powerful and have awesome cameras. But the iPhone X is fundamentally the same device the earlier iPhones were, and provides the same basic and sought after functions. It's a glass-covered rectangular slab mostly used for messaging, web-surfing, music and social media activity. An individual's perception of self, financial resources, desired or actual social position and love for tech will likely play a role in his perception of the value of a $1,000 smartphone.
Really it's not a massive jump from the competition. Which is not to say I'm going to buy one, but I'm also not buying a new Samsung.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
I think for those who really like Apple and Samsung the convenience of having an $800-1000 phone isn't an issue. Most people fold it into their bill so there isn't a perception of its cost since they are used to paying obscenely high bills and the "rental fee" is essentially at 0% interest.
I prefer the $200-$300 price point and am currently using a LeEco Le Pro 3 which is zippy enough and I prefer being able to flash my own ROM than being fashionable, but most people just want something that works without relearning a new platform.
By pretty much any objective measure, high-end hyper cars like the Bugatti Veyron aren't worth the cost. There are very few places you can use their top speed, and they don't bring much of anything to the automotive experience beyond blistering speed.
But people still buy them, despite their amazing prices tags.
The iPhone X is the same thing: it's a luxury smart phone. With it Apple is finally, FINALLY, experimenting with moving beyond the iPhone. It ditches the home button and replaces Touch ID with Face ID. It's an experiment, which may be a better justification for calling it the iPhone "X" than the "tenth anniversary" reason. Yes, I know they say it's X as in "ten." But X as in "experimental" makes better sense.
And in that case, if you want to buy the latest, highest end, most pointless version of the iPhone - this is the phone for you! Will there be an iPhone 9 that's an incremental upgrade to the 8? I'd bet there will be. Will there be an iPhone X2 (or XS?) that tries to resolve the inevitable issues with the iPhone X? I'll bet there will be!
Experimental phones like the iPhone X are a good thing. They let smartphone manufacturers try out new, possibly dumb, ideas on people willing to pay for it. Features are frequently brought to luxury cars first, and then the ones that work the best and improve the average driving experience the best slowly make it down to cheaper and cheaper cars. The same thing happening in phones is a good thing.
No, you should not buy the iPhone X. No one should. But those who want to pay a lot of money to be beta testers for Apple's next-gen phone designs can, and if they want to, there's no harm in letting them.
Opinion presented as fact.
You can drive a Honda that will get you from A/B, but you can also drive a BMW. BMW cost 2x to 5x a Honda.
Admittedly I bought a Note 8, but I would argue it is a more functional device when compared to a iPhone X, but I know that is subjective. It was nearly $1,000 (I believe $960). But I did get about $400 off by trading in my old phone, plus selling off the "free gifts" I got with the Note 8.
These are neat devices and a lot of people are really excited by them. I'm not one, but I spend crazy money on other things (tequipment.net...) that I don't actually need, so I understand. This isn't some big deal that needs a lot of naval gazing; if not having a $1000 phone makes you insecure then the problem is you. If the people you spend the time of your life with judge you based on your phone that's basically you're fault too.
Maw! Fire up the karma burner!
No reason whatsoever.
it's just a $50,000 toyota?
why buy expensive sneakers?
why buy $800 graphics cards since you can play games with much cheaper cards?
Because when people like something they are suckers for upselling
Why would anyone want to buy a Tesla when a Honda Civic will get you where you want to go for 1/3 the price?
Why would anyone want to buy a MacBook Pro when an Acer will do the job for 1/4 the price?
Why would anyone want to buy a Gucci handbag when a Walmart knockoff will carry your stuff for 1/10th the price?
Why would anyone want to buy a steak at Morton's when Waffle House will sell you one for 1/10th the price?
Why would anyone read SlashDot when you can get better news anywhere else on the planet?
Different strokes for different folks, plain and simple. Some people value a particular feature a lot more than others. Some people have more cash to burn than other people. It's why the world produces an array of products. Apple will still sell a brand new iPhone 7 for 1/2 the price of the iPhone X.
For the target market of the iPhone X, the smartphone is their most used possession by a large margin. Considering how people buy tons of (expensive) crap they don't use, I can see how one might rationalize $1k for a smartphone, even with less expensive (and suitable) alternatives available.
Lifestyle choices.
The smartphone has become a part of our everyday life, it's now possibly more influential than a PC, games console or any other device we use. Have you taken a stroll on a busy city street lately? 90% of everyone is either talking on, or looking at a mobile phone of some sort, either browsing the news, keeping in touch with their friends, gaming, or texting (sms, chat, snap, twitter etc...)
People use it to take pictures, look for recipes, look for a restaurant nearby, recommend a store, look for the lowest prices and compare, laugh at other peoples social messages, videos or whatnot - even as a portable television set.
All that taken into consideration - smartphones are now so common, that you can (and will probably) have 100$ smartphones available to you that will perform ALMOST (and in some case better or) as good as one of the expensive high end type brand phones, I know - I got one, and it was bought for a 100$, came out of the factory this august - and sported the latest operating system Android Nougat 7. Came with a 4 core processor, 3D accelerator, Bluetooth, Double Wifi network, 4G, Lte, 3G etc, even an NFC reader to pay the bills or check out cards, and a 5.5 inch screen with almost borderless edges, crazy thin too.
But again - it's a lifestyle choice. If you want the latest iPhone - you WANT the latest iPhone, or an "Edge" model (as the competing opposing brand with Android OS instead), that's the way it is. You'll be able to talk about it at work, at school - get your friends attention, and before you know it - half of your friends have it, and you're downloading the apps of your choice together.
Some people purchase IKEA furniture, nothing wrong with that - some others purchase a brand that is 10 x as expensive, may even be inferior quality wise - but it doesn't matter - because it's a LIFESTYLE choice.
But sure, I agree - I don't think it's worth 1000$ to me either to have a phone that's a little glossier, 10% faster etc. so I'd rather pay a 10th for mine and enjoy all the same features, and I do. That's MY lifestyle choice.
What this world is coming to - is for you and me to decide.
is there any other reason really?
Wheel of Time: Book by Book and Sumview (summary review) Bigdady92 style: http://bigdady92.blogspot.com/
The answer is the same answer since the 1980s: access to easy credit. That is why housing, cars, etc are so expensive as well.
The iPhone 8+ is $799. So the *real* question is "Why would anyone spend $200 more for their smartphone?" Framing the question is less dramatic (but more realistic) terms makes the answer much more obvious: because it's not a lot of money for most people, so if they like it, it's not a big deal. $200 more on a phone spread over 2 years is about $8 per month. So for the price of one Starbucks coffee every other week, you can have a fancier phone. Big fucking deal.
Coming up next on Dumb Ass Questions from the Internet, "Why would anyone spend $X on a car when other cars exist for $Y?" -- because no one has given that question a moment's thought in the past 100 years and it needs to be discussed NOW. :-/
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
When you look at your computing devices, which one do you use more? MANY people use their smartphone FAR more in terms of time per day than their laptop. In fact, for many people it is THE primary computing device in their lives. People have no problem spending $3500 for a Macbook. Looking at it from the standpoint above, paying 1K for a smartphone if it's my primary computing device in regards to time used per day does not seem that crazy.
TBH I would not pay that much for either smart phone. But Millions will ;) !!!!
Apple says "The iPhone Is Guaranteed to Last Only One Year, Apple Argues in Court"
the short answer is that for some being first to have a new product is important, and worth the additional cost. Add in the "Apple" brand and I'm sure the $1,000 iPhone will sell just fine.
the problem is that "value" is almost always subjective. Is $1,000 "too much" for a cell phone? maybe. then the question becomes who decides whether it is or isn't (e.g. free markets vs price caps)
a lot of research has been done on "behavioral economics" which is one direction this conversation could take.
the shorter version is to just say "De gustibus non est disputandum"
It ain't what they call you. It's what you answer to. http://mylyceum.us/
Also: Liking having the latest thing.
For some people, having the "in" thing is important.
I agree that, functionally speaking, a 400$ smartphone isn't much different than a 1000$ one, it's mainly "human things" (what I already said) that makes it different.
"I simply don't understand why anyone would want to spend such amount on a phone... the difference, I feel [emphasis added], doesn't warrant an additional $800."
Well there you go. Some people REALLY REALLY want their phones to work REALLY fast, or have REALLY NICE screens, or take fucking AMAZING pictures, and for THEM, it's worth it. It's not rocket science.
I'm sure you own at least ONE thing that I don't give a shit about that I would not have spent as much money on as you did. Want me to write an article on how I don't understand that different people like different things?
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
It's the Bigger Dick theory. Keeping up with the Jones theory. Finally but not the least Theory...The Smeagle Theory also known as fan boy theory... All of these theories have one thing in common, more money than brains.....
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- Ben
Cheaper phones can be excellent or not. Paying a few hundred dollars more doesnâ(TM)t by you features worth that much more but it does by you no surprises and complete satisfaction that no other purchase would have been more satisfying.
It used to be a saying that nobody was ever fired for buying IBM. Sure that Wang or Digital or Prime computer might possible have had better specs for less saving the company a bunch of money but then the VP wanted to add inventory tracking to the payroll function and wang didnâ(TM)t have an integrated mag stripe reader for the warehouse. You are fired. Should bought IBM.
Peace of mind brings satisfaction.
For many people, perhaps not you , $1000 isnâ(TM)t a lot for a device you will touch 500 times a day. Why not just buy the best ?
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Rather than asking why someone would pay over $1,000 for the latest iPhone (an established product as a leader in the cellphone market), one could ask why anyone ever paid over $10,000 for the gold Apple Watch "Edition" when that came out? Why do people pay multiple hundreds of dollars for the latest pairs of sneakers, when a $60 pair of New Balance tennis shoes is most likely every bit as good?
Apple products are recognized as "premium" in today's marketplace, no matter how legitimate you think that really is. That means higher earning people take an interest in what they're selling. Those people can easily afford $1000 or a little more to have the flagship cellphone offering that keeps them in the iOS "ecosphere" -- able to run all the apps they purchased in the past, etc.
Personally? I can afford to buy the new iPhone X if I really wanted to. I'm not rich, by any means, but I'm probably in the low end of the "upper middle class" (thanks to being married to a woman who works full-time in a career job similar to my own). I doubt I'll upgrade at all though, since I purchased the 7 Plus in the 256GB RAM configuration when it came out - and it meets all of my needs.
As a few people pointed out already though? These days, a lot of people use their cellphone more than almost any other electronics device they own. If you judge "value" based on how much you use something -- $1,000 or so might make it a bargain. It always amazes me when I think of how many separate gadgets I can eliminate because of my smartphone. Not that long ago, I would have had a separate MP3 music player, alarm clock, pocket calculator, flashlight, ruler or measuring tape, notepad, camera, camcorder, guitar tuner, tape recorder ... not to mention all the paper coupons I would have clipped in lieu of digital alternatives. These days, the phone even substitutes for carrying credit cards in a wallet.
People think that this great gadget makes them hip and irresistible, and they would spend even more. I mean, look at the cars some men buy just to impress women and look at what some women invest in cosmetics and "body enhancements" just to impress men.
This has noting to do with the phone itself, or Apple would have gone bankrupt a while ago.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
The writer of the 'article' doesn't seem to understand a few things.
1) The entire 'luxury goods' industry exists. Long after $5 quartz watches were introduced, you can still buy yourself a $25k Rolex and enjoy it. Fancy plates and real silverware don't function any differently than Corning Ware and Oneida. Yet they still exist.
2) Think of how often a typical cell-phone using person uses his/her phone. How many times a day does said person interact with his/her phone? Two thousand?
http://www.businessinsider.com...
Based on that, if you have the phone for two years and it's valueless after that (which is not the case), then to a lot of people it's worth spending extra money on a 'premium' device that works a lot lot better than cheaper devices that are slow and you have to reboot constantly. That's only $0.0004 (or 0.04 Cents) per touch different than a cheap cell phone. Or, $1 per DAY. For someone that uses his cell phone a lot, $1 per day to have a reliable device that will be quick and snappy and not need rebooting constantly, that's enough.
3) Some people just like having the latest and greatest gadgets. That's fine.
In short, the OP doesn't understand how anyone would live different than the way he is living now.
Not entirely but they make more money on the parts for the iPhone than they make on all their other phones.
So really Samsung is the only choice weighted by $$$
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Any phone costing over $500 becomes increasingly a combination of a top-notch computing device and mobile communicator and a camera rivaling high-quality point and shoot models. For those of us who take 5-10k pictures per year, this is crucial, and the difference is astonishing and not to be undersold.
I guess web, music and photos are crucial to millenials. Or maybe they don't understand what crucial really means.
#DeleteFacebook
It can't be found via reason and analysis -- or imposed.
If it could, planned economies would work.
Why would anyone spend $1,000 on a video card?
Why would anyone spend $100,000 on a car?
Why would anyone spend $500,000 on a house
The same arguments the summary makes could be applied to all of them; the cheaper versions of each provide the same functions. There will be those who can easily justify the price tag, and those who wouldn't assign them the same worth.
When you're talking cars that high end the majority are investments for rich people. The cars rarely get driven and spend their time in a garage. How many people daily drive their Veyrons?
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
That is, nothing costs x units, instead, it costs y% of your salary.
If you make $10,000 a year than even $100 for a smart phone is a ridiculous expense. 1% of your salary is too much.
If you make $100k a year, than $200 for a smart phone makes sense. It's about 0.5% of your salary.
There are clearly enough people making $1,000,000, then $1,000 is just 0.1% of your salary and it makes sense to spend that much on a smart phone.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
For people who use their smartphones extensively every day, upgrading can make sense. Put your money where you put your time. If you're on a two-year cycle, then the cost of the new $1000 phone works out to $1.37/day over the two-year lifespan, which isn't crazy.
Of course, there are less expensive options, and if they work for you, go for it. Just don't be a jerk and tell everyone else that they're wrong to buy something just because it's not right for you.
Why does a cropped, "distressed" t-shirt sell for GBP 455 (about $600)? https://www.farfetch.com/uk/sh...
Not because of all its "valuable features", or because it has anything unique or attractive about it. No, such fashion items command high prices because they are rare, identifiable, and expensive.
And that's why the iPhone and other Apple gadgets can be sold for such high prices. They allow their owners to feel that they are (for the time being, at least) one up on other people - especially their family, friends and work acquaintances.
I am sure that there are many other solipsists out there.
Exactly so.
I am sure that there are many other solipsists out there.
Do you pay over $100 a month for cable tv and internet? Do you spend over $1000 a month for a place to live? Do you spend over $100 in car insurance and or payments? How frequently do you use your mobile phone compared to these other things? How much is that costing you over 3 years? $50 over 3 years is $1800, so what are your priorities? The $700 tag is less than 10 years of inflation on the original price of an iPhone. You can make relative comparisons, but ultimately this is the same irrational approach that makes a $1000 price tag seem overpriced. If you want to produce professional level media with your phone, a $300 step up seems perfectly reasonable to me. If you just like taking a bunch of nice pictures, an 8 with 256GB is probably better for you... About to try a $15 a month MintSim plan on my iPhone 8, and if it works I'll be getting second unlocked iPhone 8, and I'll probably be paying less than the author of the article pays for their overall phone usage.
Most people at that price are payment buyers. $1000 is only $42/month over a 24 month contract. So providers will charge them $50-$60/month and try to hook them with the damage warranty and call it good...
I think this question presupposes that spending $1,000 on a smartphone is foolish. I don't think such judgmental view is reasonable, after all almost any employed first-world citizens could save $1000 over phone's expected multi-year lifetime. So such purchase, by itself, is not putting anyone into debt.
Instead, I like to view this through "Thank you early adopters!" Someone is willing to shell out all this cash to fund R&D into battery and charging, screen, and wireless data link technologies. This will translate into better electric cars and appliances, better screens, more robust network connectivity for everyone. So if you purchased one of these - thank you!
My phone isn't a phone, it's a camera. I take thousands of pictures and videos on it every month (which is my my current media storage space is approaching 2 terabytes). I want the best camera I can buy to carry around with me. And by carry around, I mean small enough to fit into my jeans pocket. Anything thicker than 3/8" is too big. Of course my camera can do other things like text and surf the www, but those are just side benefits to it's true purpose.
But, on the other hand, as long as they willing hand over their hard earned dollars, who am I to object? For all you know they might be laughing at me for spending 500$ on a Brondel Swash 1400. instead of using Scott. While at the same time Igarashi San will be looking down on me for settling for this cheap thing that does not even have bluetooth, without any internet connectivity, without even the most basic of perfumery options.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
anybody spend $xx on yy?
People spend more money than they strictly need to on lots of stuff. TVs, cars, furniture, houses to name a few.
And the answer is usually simple: People like nice things. People like different nice things. Some people really like a $1000 phone. Some people really like a $5000 PRS guitar.
Why do you even need to ask?
Expensive cell phones existed before, e.g. base price of the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 is $930. Why is it Apple's entry into >$900 base price that justifies this handwringing?
... for a modern update of the Note 3.
I've been using the same sm-n9005 since its release, and while I have no desperate need to upgrade, I would be willing if an appropriate replacement were available.
An appropriate replacement has:
- A user-replaceable, removable battery
- Unlocked bootloader
- Expandable storage
- Amoled screen
- Temperature, barometric pressure, and humidity sensors
- Full IMU, GPS
- 4-6gb RAM
- Unlocked bootloader
That is, in fact, simply a list of the features of my current device, which came out at the end of 2013! There is currently nothing else on the market I can buy to replace it with, without sacrificing something. Manufacturers: please release a real flagship phone so I can buy it!
A government is a body of people notably ungoverned - AC
Why would anyone spend 50.000 bucks on car that rusts from day one, just to be stuck in traffic between 2 1500 bucks used Fords.
Perhaps it has better seats?
If you live on top of a mountain somewhere and spend your time doing yoga and eating mushrooms, you probably don't need a smartphone. You have enough to think about while you shit. For the rest of us, not having a smartphone means being a second (or lower) class citizen.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
The same reason anybody would buy an item that satisfies more than the minimum specification. No, the iPhoneX (or Galaxy 8) is not going to run any of your core apps substantially better than a basic $200 android unit, but a substantial portion of the population will find that the overall user experience is better- bigger and better screen, wireless charging, bigger internal storage, easier to unlock, better camera, etc. You might also ask why anybody buys a $30,000 car when you can buy a new stripped down Mitsubishi Mirage that will get you to work for $10,000.
I'd also point out that the real cost of owning a smartphone is the service. I pay $80 a month for my unlimited data plan- that's almost $2,000 over the two-year period I tend to stick with one phone- more than double cost of the fanciest hardware.
This isn't a difficult question, and there are plenty of answers. An easy one is that its a status symbol and mere possession of it sends various signals about being wealthy or affluent, which is true of almost any new high-end device. That isn't the only reason though as there are some people who simply like to have the newest gadgets even if they don't represent a good value proposition because they're just replacing last years newest gadget. There are also some that are likely using a smartphone that is 4 years old at this point and like to use a strategy of buying the latest and greatest so that it will be supported for another 4+ years before buying a new device.
Not sure why they'd be resistant to call it a toy. It's a relatively cheap toy. Boats, cars, RVs, hunting cabins (hell, hunting rifles), paintball equipment, ski equipment, sports gear, camping, season tickets, vacation, pools, Christmas light displays, etc, etc... all can quickly make an iPhone look like pocket change.
I suppose there are people who will claim that the above are also "essential". Anyway, no judgement here. I spend money on stuff that people would call stupid, too. Just not smart phones.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
Now consider the value the device will bring to your life in the context of the projected replacement date of "not guaranteed beyond a year"...
Show me on the 1st Amendment bobblehead where the moderator touched you...
I'm having a hard time choosing between spending my $1000 on an iphone or this.
https://www.theguardian.com/te...
I guess I have more money than sense.
I love my phone, but it's definitely not crucial in this day and age. I could get along without it. One guy I know in his late 20s was still rocking a semi-broken flip-phone the last time I saw him this past summer. It couldn't receive texts, but it could send them. He just left flyover country for a pretty good paying Silicon Valley job, so that may have changed, but for the past decade he did just fine, as does a very large percentage of the population now.
The author obviously hasn't met any poor people, or lived out in the country. He might as well have said, "Having off-street parking is crucial in this day and age..."
Velociraptor = Distiraptor / Timeraptor
Meh. I once spent $1400 on a video card for a computer. Some people are phone enthusiasts. Unless they don't have the money, to those people there is no price that is "too much."
I hate people who ask rhetorical questions like this. Not "Convince me to spend $1,000 on a phone", but "I'm not willing to spend $1,000 on a phone, what's wrong with me?" Why do you even care? That's the entire point of having different price points, some people only want a $350 phone, some people only want a $25 flip-phone. In fact, you can get by without any phone at all.
I own a car which cost $17k when new. While I sometimes think maybe I should have gotten something a bit more roomy and comfortable, there's no way I'd want to spend $100k and more on some fancy vehicle. The fact that some other people do doesn't matter at all - they can go ahead and spend their money however they please, I don't need to justify what they spend on their vehicle for myself.
i am the guy that has the older phone, i dont spend big bux on the newest smartphone edition, i am the guy that goes to amazon or ebay and buys the previous generation phone that is basically new but old stock that never got sold when it was the new phone a couple years ago
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
Why pay all that money for a Honda when a Hyundai gets you there just the same? Why does BMW exist as a company? Lamborghini, right out. Nissan Leaf is fine if you care uniquely about electric, we do not need Tesla. Speaking for myself, I'd take the Tesla any day of the week, even though it is 2x or more the price.
Trying to bin complex devices by marketing feature lists just doesn't work when you go through those feature lists line by line and examine implementation and how well it suits your purposes and desires. How well those things were implemented really matters a lot and determines how much we're willing to pay.
I don't know if complete satisfaction can be found outside of anything you are meant to spend more than a day with.
And talking in absolutes is pointless. What the OP means is that generally the iPhone 8 is going to be a no-surprises quality, durable, stable mobile device.
You are welcome. The next time someone says "EVERYONE loved the new blah blah blah movie" you'll know they don't literally mean everyone.
I suppose it might be possible to come up with a phone that would be worth $1,000 to me, but I can't imagine what that would be like. Maybe if it gave great handjobs or something.
Furthermore, statistically we use only six core apps regularly.
I want to know where I can find these six core apps. In my experience, most apps still only use a single core, so...
Some people just have to have the 'latest and greatest', for whatever reason, and that reason doesn't have to be (and very often is not) anything practical.
I've never felt bad about buying things I use. I feel crappy that I spent $200 on an industrial CO detector only to determine I did not have a CO leak then never use it again. When I spend $1,000 on a smart phone that I use literally every hour of every day for such a wide variety of tasks they are too many to enumerate here ... I don't feel so bad.
doesn't have to be (and very often is not) anything practical.
What's not practical about an iPhone? Maybe you are confusing practical with affordable.
Easy to justify if it is their primary PC. I wouldn't spend that much, but that's just because I prefer having a desktop. If I didn't it'd be easy to justify it plus some Bluetooth keyboards or whatnot.
Bullshit.
I hear you. Now Macs are popular again but 8-9 years back when Macs were minuscule part of PC market some of us suspected the Appstore was just an excuse to sell MacBooks to iOS developers.
A significant marketshare of Macbooks was those who bought it to develop Apps and the second largest was probably contractors working at Apple (Everyone was mandated to use a Mac even if they were coding Java)
**Life is too short to be serious**
if you say so.
I keep hearing this Meme - For the price of Starbucks. Not everyone who buys smartphones buys overpriced coffee. Why is something known to be overpriced and useless used to justify something else?
**Life is too short to be serious**
You 200USD smartphone is probably made by a Chinese manufacturer like Huawei or Lenovo with a terrible post-sales support. They give you barely any security updates, and they often give just one major Android version software update. This means than when your 200USD smartpohne is slightly more than a year old, it won't be receiving any OS updates, meaning your OS security patch level will be seriously outdated.
On the other hand, if you buy an Apple smartphone, it's pretty much guaranteed that you will be receiving update for something like at least four years. (Apple does not promise this, but look at the history. Four years old iPhone 5S is still running the latest OS)
Does your $1000 phone make you money? Does it even make you enough money to pay for itself? Or is it just a perpetual black hole for your money every month for overpriced dataplans so you can watch movies, or porn, or play games, or whatever it is you actually use it for? Name five things you use it for that aren't entertainment or something totally non-essential, five things that are practical and useful and preferably make you money or provide a real service (NOT ENTERTAINMENT!) that equates to money; I bet you can't.
I don't think the anonymous reader quoted in the summary is correct. My wife has a $230 phone from LG and it sucks, the past 2 weeks we've been talking about replacing it. At first it was "okay" but it just went downhill.
The user experience on the 200-300 android phones REALLY isn't comparable unless you want to show what a bad android phone looks like in relations to a normal phone.
The disk space on those are usually 16 or 32 gb which *would* be okay if android let you move to SD card[1] and the amount of memory is just barely able to handle the current Android OS and multitasking apps, around 2gb +/- 500mb. The cameras are usually more than a few generations old and the quality of pictures range from "okay" to "wow that sucks." We have noticed that when disk usage fills up the phones auto-downgrade the picture..so it gets even worse depending on how full your tiny internal drive is. At no point are the pictures ever on par with current or 2nd gen.
[1] Before anyone says that you can move apps to SD Cards, not really. Android will allow you to "move" them but when the apps update the apps are installed back to the internal drive.. Some apps aren't even allowed to move at all, and others will allow you to move some but not 100% of the program data. (we are also talking about stock ROM's)
But, no one holds a gun to your head to buy these over priced objects of instant gratification. Build costs of even the most expensive "flagships" is still in the 200-300 dollar range, but they "command" upwards of $1,000.00? Yeah, marketing, R&D bla bla bla, but still the price is too high. Their profit is way out of whack. But, if people want to spend THAT much, I'm not going to stop them. Not my money. Why are they so high? Because people are "willing" to pay that much. Oh, they will play it off saying I only "lease/rent" my phone. They would rather make payment after payment after payment for a phone? "But I get the latest technology". Ummm...other than a gimmick here and there, the smartphone has really not "evolved" more than what Apple came up with in 07. It's still a rectangular slab of glass, plastic and metal, with a battery, touch screen & camera. In the past 3-4 years, the only "improvements" have been in processor speed, graphics, & perhaps the camera. Coming from the android side, the apps all work on anything past 4.3 or 5, for the most part. People do not even come close to hitting the barrier as far as the processor goes. Other than the benchmark geeks, wanting to say mine is faster than yours, most people run 1 app at a time. They do pretty much the same thing on all of them. Facebook, twitter, talk, text, video, web, and music player. Even if they tried to do this at the same time, they wouldn't overwhelm the processor, let alone the graphic. As for the camera, stuffing more megapixels into such a TINY smartphone sensor is only good for a couple things. 1. Just makes it easier to zoom/crop into a photo 2. Introduces crosstalk/noise from having the signal wires THAT microscopically close to each other, requiring the camera software to try and mask it which results in a poor photo, which the software will try to fix. 8-10 megapixels, is effective for an A3 (ledger) size print. Who prints photos from a camera phone? Dual lenses, are just another gimmick that in real terms is just that...a gimmick. "but it gives you bokeh background blur like a dSLR". Yeah, and if I stick racing stripes & a spoiler on a front wheel drive car, I'll have a race car! Smartphones, got taken over by the "fashion industry". How many times do you hear or see some company say, we hired designer X, to design our smartphone. Ummm...how many different ways can you design a rectangular slab of metal, plastic and glass? Also, the bad buzz word now is "ugly bezels". Why? That term was coined by the same designers as a reason to get rid of the mechanical buttons (added costs), and to increase the screen size, but keep the footprint smaller. Then there is the COLOR thingy. Everything has to have a "stylish" color that is "sexy" or "hot". And what do 99% of the people do once they buy these overpriced gadgets? Slap an "ugly" cover on them, to protect them, so, what's the use of having all of these fancy colors, if you can't see them in the first place? Until the fashion types, hipsters, trendy types with their fedoras, skinny jeans, black frame glasses get bored, and move on, the price of phones will probably continue to move UP. I find the best price/deal on phones is wait for a new model to be released, then buy last years "next best thing". The last two times I've done that, I got it for around 1/2 of what it was when announced. Also, you typically get the END of production, not the beginning of production, and older more stable OS and don't have to put up with the glitches. "But, you won't get updates" So? Does it work? Does it run the apps correctly? Is it stable? Then other than security patches...who cares.
I have to say that some cheap phones such as Huawei Honor 6X orLenovo Moto G5S Plus have gone a long way and offer pretty much everything would want to have for a price that's under 250USD:
The only thing I'd miss on these two phones would be a USB-C connector because I already started getting rid of micro-usb cables.
You bought the wrong cheap phone:
https://ask.slashdot.org/comme...
Cheap phones, like Moto G5S Plus give you 4GB RAM/64 storage, which is a package costing like 250USD. There are also cheaper phones with "only" 32GB of storage, and frankly that's still plenty for most people. I have plenty apps installed on my tablet with only 16GB of storage. Several browsers, system utilities, and pretty much all streaming apps, although no games.
Unless you're in a financial situation where you're peeing in gold-plated toilets, there's no way the latest iPhone is worth $700 more than a Galaxy Note 4 (~$300 on eBay).
What really mystifies me is why some people fork out a lot of money based on a smart phone's camera. I would much rather buy a reasonably-priced smart phone like the GN4, which still takes pretty acceptable pictures and video. That would leave me six or seven hundred bucks that I could put into higher-quality glass for my mid-range DSLR, which blows the doors off anything a smart phone is capable of...even Apple's newest offering.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
It's not about spending another $800 on the phone. $800 isn't $800. $800 is just a number. $800 is what else you can do with the same $800. If you don't spend it on the phone, what else can you do with it.
There are an incredibly large number of people in this world who have nothing else to do with those $800. For example, there's someone in my household. Our mortgage is already covered. Our food and entertainment already covered. Insurance and car already covered. We already travel 45 days each year. We already have bikes and kayas.
When those $800 have no other use, then those $800 have the same value as $0.
For me, I spend $60 on a tiny phone, and I'm happy. I'd rather spend my $940 on a day off of work. Or two. But there's someone else in my household who has nothing else to do with her $800.
Yup, she's buying it. She thinks it's money well-spent. She thinks it's fun.
A Rolex watch costs far more, does far less.
And yet the Rolex is the lowest cost premium watch on the market. Common people like us often buy them. If you want a really exotic watch you will have to pay far more than the Rolex price.
Nobody is complaining about the cost of these watches. These watches that do practically nothing for their owners. Why complain about this iPhone?
...omphaloskepsis often...
A smartphone is as crucial as, say, a car or a washing machine. Though it depends on the situation.
Internet access is becoming essential. At least in some countries, they are talks about making it a basic right, like electricity and clean water, and making some official procedures internet-only. And for some people, especially the poorest, a smartphone may be their only way to access it.
Considering you are posting on Slashdot, you probably own a computer and a home internet access, and maybe the same thing at work. And your activity most likely doesn't require you to be online at all times. In other words, you have the privilege of not needing a smartphone.
It is the same as a city dweller saying that a car is not crucial. He is most likely right. In fact, in some cities, owning a car is actually undesirable. But that's forgetting that if you live in the suburbs, not having a car is inconvenient, and it is basically impossible if you live in the countryside.
Why would a buck invest 1000's of precious calories into building antlers? They are necessary for fighting off other bucks, but only required to be a modest size. Too big and they become a liability of their own. Of course, that huge rack out there on display is sure to get the does, so show off that prowess in calorie gathering and get the iPhone X!
I used to wonder what was so holy about a silent night, now I have a child.
A bottle for $2.95 makes you just as drunk! Madness!
Does your $1000 phone make you money?
Don't be dumb. How many of your possessions earn you income directly? If you are really claiming that one should only own such things you're an alien and should avoid trying to communicate with the humans.
Does your toothbrush make you money?
Does your dog make you money?
Does your lawnmower make you money?
sheesh.
Name five things you use it for that aren't entertainment or something totally non-essential
I bet you can't.
Challenge accepted. Here's 12 boss.
1. Work email
2. Work instant message
3. Communication w/ my family
4. Driving navigation
5. Depositing checks
6. 2-factor auth or various accounts including work
7. Online purchases from mainly Amazon (and no they aren't entertainment products always)
8. Uber / Lyft
9. Control of my home automation (lights, thermostat, locks, etc)
10. Viewing of my security cameras
11. Workout program / fitness tracker
12. Location tracker for my son's phone
No, he presents facts too:
I guess web, music and photos are crucial to millenials. Or maybe they don't understand what crucial really means.
I just don't get this reflexive "bah millenials" stuff. Do you not see how much you have just turned into the old guy who shakes his fist at the children?
Are you seriously telling me that you can live a normal western life without access to the internet? That a normal existence can be had without music? They're not crucial like food, water & shelter, but come pretty soon after that, otherwise what actually is the point of life without the fun things?
I still use an iPhone 4s because it has retained its battery capacity over all those years. If I had confidence that the iPhone X would last equally as long I might consider it. Sort of like buying a pair of Alden shoes, you can wear for decades with simple resole. Over time its more cost effective than buying $80 shoes every year at DSW. That said my 4 year old MBP already needs a battery replacement for the "glued" in batteries. No more MBP's for me. The cost is not in line with the expected lifespan. For something that expensive, the consumable components like batteries should be user replaceable or removable.
To pay more than 150-200 bucks for a smartphone is just patently stupid. Don't claim that you somehow "need" it because that's bullshit. You want it so others will be envious of you.
The Samsung Galaxy Note costs $1,000+ for a while now. No one bats an eye, to borrow a relevant phrase from The Dark Knight. Earlier this year there was a $1,200 pre-order for a smartphone, site unseen. No giant reaction there. But, to continue the relevant phrase, nobody panics when things go according to plan. As soon as something doesn't, like the i-phone costing more, everybody loses their minds! Or rather has a stupid opinion piece. But that's all this is, something not going according to plan, there's no other story here.
Does your $1000 phone make you money? Does it even make you enough money to pay for itself? Or is it just a perpetual black hole for your money every month for overpriced dataplans so you can watch movies, or porn, or play games, or whatever it is you actually use it for? Name five things you use it for that aren't entertainment or something totally non-essential, five things that are practical and useful and preferably make you money or provide a real service (NOT ENTERTAINMENT!) that equates to money; I bet you can't.
Can tell you've never had to be on call with an IT career.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201222
13. Remote into the server to fix something while on call.
We generally buy $200 phones, but I got a Nexus 6P on a good sale and the camera quality is miles ahead of my wife's newer Moto G5+. It's not that they couldn't make a $200 phone with a better camera, it's that they don't as incentive to buy the flagships. Sorry kids, we had crappy polaroids and you get out of focus Moto photos.
Real geeks use whatever they want to use and couldn't care less what the smug wannabe technorati on /. thinks.
Of all the physical posessions I have the three top things I spend the majority of my time interacting with are:
1. my bed
2. my laptop
3. my smartphone
It's the third most important thing I can buy from a quality of life standpoint when it comes to raw hours. I don't want to spend hours a day annoyed by my phone. A couple hundred bucks as a one time fee. (less if deprecation and re-sell is taken into account) is completely worth it for even a slightly better experience.
http://notanumber.net/
TOY vs. TOOL is a matter of perspective
Honestly, $640 should be plenty for any smartphone. Let's just set that as a hard cap.
1 and 2: Does your company pay for your phone and service? No? Then why are you giving that to them for free? Make them pay for it.
No but they do pay me a lot. Enough that it's not worth my time or theirs to figure out for what % of my $30 cell phone bill I need to be reimbursed.
Anyway, more of the same from you and not worth it to respond. On all points you've just backed out and tried to make a different argument or resorted to a feeble attempt at trolling. I recommend thinking through things before you start your rants next time and it won't be so embarrassing.
And you didn't even post as AC so your brilliance is immortalized here for all to see. Grats.
Does your $1000 phone make you money?
Don't be dumb. How many of your possessions earn you income directly? If you are really claiming that one should only own such things you're an alien and should avoid trying to communicate with the humans.
Does your toothbrush make you money?
Does your dog make you money?
Does your lawnmower make you money?
My toothbrush helps me avoid a lot of expensive dentist bills.
Pets' effect on lowering stress probably also save on medical expenses - maybe at least a wash?
My lawnmower paid for itself in less than one summer of not paying for lawn service - 13 years ago, so every year since has been money in my pocket.
So maybe not earn income, technically, but avoid expenses, certainly.
Now, my home theater? Gaming computer? Not so much. :)
Baa.
They're retarded.
Lets be honest Morton's is a superior steak.
The above comment was moderated as "Troll". Just sayin
"Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
--- Jerry Garcia
That's what crucial means. Also, you don't need a smartphone to access the Internet. Desktop computers and laptops still exist and they're still better than smartphones.
#DeleteFacebook
i think most people are expected to buy the iphone 8 - but some people may needthe processing pawer of a macbook pro in their phone (with the pro app support in iOS) - in their phone. professional photgraphers and musicians may need a notebook processor in their phone - now they can have one.
for the rest of ya peasants, get back to the iphone 8, cause the X aint for you.
you know, like increasing the GDP, providing jobs, etc, maybe?
I'd argue though that the work-related points kind of imply that your phone in fact does generate an income for you. In a way.
One thing I know, and that is that I am ignorant...
Okay, I'm not rich and $1,000 is a lot of money. But am I the only one who can remember when supposedly cheap PCs and laptops cost just as much, and these were gadgets that didn't even have a fraction of the computational power of even the cheapest iPhones and Samsung phones. Consider the Apple II or the original IBM PC which, even in the less inflated dollars of their time (late 70s to early 80s), already cost over a $1,000! So it seems our definition of cheap deflates while our expectation of what a gadget can do inflates.
20% of the work will get you 80% of the results, and the last 80% will only give you the remaining 20%. The question is how much value you put on the Apple logo, the fact of owning a flagship device and how much you need state of the art technology for your day to day use. Most of it is very subjective, but consumerism in rich country is not that much about satisfying our basic needs, and a lot about the satisfaction of getting the product we grew to desire. Most products on the market are not purely rational choices, even if peoples needs differ, but they may feel like a better choice depending on emotional choices like brand fidelity, a special interest for this product or even peer pressure. As long as you don't go bankrupt and don't struggle to feed your kids because of this, there is not much handle here for judgment.
Yes, that is what the saying used to be. That is no longer valid.
It used to be that quality costs money and sometimes you still get what you pay for, but it becomes less and less the case. Cheap becomes better in quality and expensive becomes less.
I have bought Armani shirts where the buttons fell out and I have bought cheapo-no-name shirts where this was not the case. 25 times the price? Sure, cheapo lasted three years instead of 10, so 7 times the price.
Bought a DVD player for 400 that broke within a year, replaced it with one for 40 that still works 10 years later.
Sure,you can buy the phone with the most gadgets, but if you only use it to update Facebook, you do not NEED the best. It is a waste of money. And 1000USD for a device is just as much as 1000USD for a device you touch 10 times pers day.
Practicality and price have nothing to do with it. It is the perceived need that has been important since the emperors new clothes.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
There is always a market for those who want to signal their wealth. Think expensive watches, thousand dollar purses and such. None of these are required, quite suitable alternatives are available at a fraction of the price, so really the whole point *is* the price and what it implies about the owner.
I find them harder to fit in my shirt pocket, to be honest, which means I'm very often at one place and my laptop and desktop at another place.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
This is where the free market comes into effect. If people want to spend $1000 on a phone, it will succeed. Based on previous discussions every year on "Why would you spend so much on a phone" there are ample people out there that will pay that price for a phone.
This isn't health care. Apple doesn't make chemo drugs for kids. They make an optional commodity and can charge whatever they want for it. The decision is entirely in the consumers' hands.
"I'm a humble person really,
I'm actually much greater than I think I am"
Yeah? I recommend you stop lying to yourself why you 'have to have' a smartphone when you clearly don't NEED one -- and you're just representative of a whole crowd of people who just like SHINY THINGS and don't care how you're getting screwed over in the process. Don't even give a shit what you think of me or what I have to say because I goddamned well know I'm right.
Or, to put it a little more bluntly, "why the fuck not?"
Job's genius was realizing that *looking* like you could drop a lot of money on a phone without blinking is a powerful motivator. Certainly, a few people are capable of resisting that, but realistically, compared to the millions and millions who aren't, who cares?
I think the real question here is who is Apple really targeting with a $1k phone? A kilobuck phone is in the weeds for Apple's main demographic. People who routinely drop a couple kilobucks per month on lunch and dinner aren't going to blink at a thousand dollar handset, especially if the acquisition cost is obscured in a monthly price plan that is only a couple hundred bucks per month at most. What's two hundred bucks per month to these people? It's less than two lunches and dinners at the club, period. Not a big deal at all. According to a recent Nobel prize winner in economics, humans make those kinds of comparisons *all the time* when making purchase decisions, and companies like Apple ruthlessly exploit it. Neuroscience for the win. :)
You can't buy a bad iPhone. Apple doesn't make them. There's value in getting something you know is good, as opposed to something that might be good.
First, you don't know that. Lots of people deliberately buy phones with more storage. That's money spent that doesn't improve the phone in any other way, and confers no additional status (if you think phones are status symbols). Obviously, they're not satisfied with 32GB, and it isn't plenty for them. There are also people inconvenienced by the storage limit who don't buy the extra storage.
Second, something that's applicable to "most people" isn't applicable to all people. Obviously, a $1K phone isn't appropriate for all people, so the question is whether it can be worth it to some people. Generalizing about "most people" completely misses the point.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
Yeah?
Yeah.
and you're just representative of a whole crowd of people who just like SHINY THINGS.
Maybe. But I'd rather be that than a bitter husk of a man.
I goddamned well know I'm right.
Well, that's all that matters in life now isn't it? Good for you.
Why would a dog lick its balls?
This comment is my opinion and does not represent an official position of Donald Trump or others I do not work for
Big boss, Homer's brother allowed him to do whatever he wanted. So he developed a very expensive monstrosity. That's what we have here with the new Iphone.
Sad thing is people probably can't wait to buy it for stuff they'll never even use.
LOL I'm a 'bitter husk of a man', am I? No, I'm scoffing and laughing at you overgrown children with your pricey toys because you're ridiculous. You wander through the world staring at your phones and walk right into stationary objects, how hilarious is that? If you lose your shiny toy or the battery is dead, you're like heroin addicts who didn't get their fix fast enough, actual withdrawal symptoms. Pathetic, comical, laughable. Fools.
LOL I'm a 'bitter husk of a man'?
Heh. I quote,
You wander through the world staring at your phones and walk right into stationary objects, how hilarious is that? If you lose your shiny toy or the battery is dead, you're like heroin addicts who didn't get their fix fast enough, actual withdrawal symptoms. Pathetic, comical, laughable. Fools.
Well, touche.
When I switched from a dumbphone to a smartphone the price was instantly justified because I was able to use VOIP when I ran out of minutes and I was able to cancel my cable internet and tether the phone into my home wifi network. (this plan no longer exists). For my first few years of smartphone I was saving money every single month.
I use my phone for work all the time. As other have said I have VPN RDP and SSH.
I have used to use my phone to automatically pirate media from a few public wifis on my way to work. Allowing me to have a cheaper internet plan and save on media.
I use my phone in place of a walkman, camera, camcorder, book, and television while riding public transit. Meaning that I'm able to partially reclaim value from travel time that would be wasted.
My phone vibrates whenever it sees the towers near my home or work. This means I never miss my stop no matter how I'm traveling.
My phone is a portable hard drive.
If I stand in line an hour to talk to some bureaucrat and he thinks he's gotten rid of me for the day by asking for my tax returns and utility bills. I'm not going home I can email that shit to him in a minute.
If I get stuck in line I have numerous goals and lists I can start working though, written up on my pc and sync'd automatically. I can pick projects up where I left off and start working on any of them. All my chores, paying bills, I can study. I have EdX on my phone, I get a certification and it only costs me the quality time I spend following my wife around when she's shopping. Shit magically gets done.
In addition to my PC, laptop, media computer, and e-reader it is another way to access my media. I've made it personal policy to remove as much physical media as I can.
It's my alarm clock and my flashlight.
It can give me directions, then I can look at a live update of the bus and train schedules to decide if I want to take a bus, train, uber, or rent a nearby bike or automobile that I unlock with my phone. It's usually cheaper and faster to get around than owning and maintaining a car or bicycle of your own.
It's undeniably a very useful device and all my smartphones have cost me between 60 and 120 dollars.
Demanding that your phone be used for something essential is a bit silly. I'm sure most of your resources go to things other than utilitarian eating, shitting, breathing, and staying out of the elements.
I use mine in place of a car so it's pretty useful and fairly essential to my lifestyle.