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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?"
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.
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.
"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.
Well, the other reason is that $1000 seems like a lot, but it's really not. Lets suppose that you use your phone for 2 years before you get a new one. The hardware is going to cost you $1.40/day, whereas you're probably paying $2-$3/day for service, and $5-$10 per day for coffee.
For something one uses every day, an item which serves as a watch, alarm clock, entertainment hub, GPS, communication hub, camera, calculator, news source, weather report, traffic report, fitness tracker, journal, to-do list, etc., etc., etc. is well worth $1.40 every day. That's not say that one costing under $1/day can't do all those things just as well, but trying to save $0.50 per day can be done pretty easily a number of other ways. If an extra $0.50/day is a deal-breaker, you're going to save far more just switching to a pre-paid service than you will buying a cheaper phone.
The daily cost of owning a phone pales in the face of how much it can do, and how much time and energy it can save. Avoiding traffic jams and accidents, finding out if somewhere is open before driving there, keeping a list of groceries handy so you don't over-buy "just in case", etc., etc. I bet the grocery list alone pays for itself for me - it's just too easy to throw $20 worth of crap into the cart that I don't need.
$1000 seems like a lot, but if you told me 15 years ago I could have a mobile computer the size of my hand around at all times, connected to the internet, playing videos, games, taking high quality photos, and providing sat-nav, I'd have happily canceled my $1000+ computer building plans and jumped on that offer.
If you re-phrase this, "Why would anyone want to spend $1000 on a computer?", I bet we all could come up with really good reasons. Even if it changes to, "Why would anyone want to spend $1000 on ANOTHER computer?", I bet we all could still come up with some good reasons. These aren't flip-phones we're talking about here. Integrated computer and monitor which replace a solid dozen previous tools and items. Why is that not worth spending $1000 on? I think we've collectively forgotten how utterly amazing technology has gotten.
Velociraptor = Distiraptor / Timeraptor
Real geeks use whatever they want to use and couldn't care less what the smug wannabe technorati on /. thinks.