Buying the iPhone 5C instead of 5S is like buying last year MacBook Air or Pro for only $100-$200 cheaper than this year model. And with a plastic case instead of aluminum. Would you buy it? Of course not!
No it is not. It is like buying last years Macbook Air or Pro for $150 to $400 dollars cheaper (assuming the Macbook Air starts at $999). I might take that deal. Many people buy the following year's model cars at the end of the year even after new models are released. This is because you get a discount on the previous year's model cars. The discount is not crazy either. Ten to fifteen percent. That is about the same you are getting with the iPhone. Except in this instance, the iPhone based on the previous year's tech is packaged differently with some slight improvements. For what it is worth, the iPhone 5 is still a premium handset in terms of performance.
Ah, THAT explains where that other image came from.
Can I just say **** Businessweek for that cover story headline. Instead of just presenting the interview with Cook and Co. we get bullshit editorializing. Of course that headline just wreaks of a rhetorical question, and with the article itself being all about Android it's as if Businessweek is saying "yes Apple you should be worried". What a waste of getting access to Apple execs. :rolleyes:
Apple managed to reduce the iPod concept to the super-cheap iPod shuffle. I guess it's a lot easier to do that with a music player than a phone/computer/camera/video player/music player/etc.
No it is not. It is like buying last years Macbook Air or Pro for $150 to $400 dollars cheaper (assuming the Macbook Air starts at $999). I might take that deal. Many people buy the following year's model cars at the end of the year even after new models are released. This is because you get a discount on the previous year's model cars. The discount is not crazy either. Ten to fifteen percent. That is about the same you are getting with the iPhone. Except in this instance, the iPhone based on the previous year's tech is packaged differently with some slight improvements. For what it is worth, the iPhone 5 is still a premium handset in terms of performance.
Yep. Read AnandTech's iPhone 5S review and in a lot of the benchmark tests the 5/5C out performs other flagship devices.
Buying the iPhone 5C instead of 5S is like buying last year MacBook Air or Pro for only $100-$200 cheaper than this year model. And with a plastic case instead of aluminum. Would you buy it? Of course not!
Can't wait to see in a couple weeks how wrong you are!
Buying the iPhone 5C instead of 5S is like buying last year MacBook Air or Pro for only $100-$200 cheaper than this year model. And with a plastic case instead of aluminum. Would you buy it? Of course not!
We're techies. Newbies and android refugees would love the C.
No, I do
No, I don't think switching to a plastic case would save $150. But using last years tech in a plastic case would certainly be $150 cheaper if not more.
I feel that Apple is being unnecessarily greedy with the iPhone 5C.
The iPhone 5S is a bargain.
If you have the extra $100, get the 5S. If not, get the 5C. In either case, it's a win-win for Apple. As for being greedy, if you don't like it, don't buy it.
No it is not. It is like buying last years Macbook Air or Pro for $150 to $400 dollars cheaper (assuming the Macbook Air starts at $999). I might take that deal. Many people buy the following year's model cars at the end of the year even after new models are released. This is because you get a discount on the previous year's model cars. The discount is not crazy either. Ten to fifteen percent. That is about the same you are getting with the iPhone. Except in this instance, the iPhone based on the previous year's tech is packaged differently with some slight improvements. For what it is worth, the iPhone 5 is still a premium handset in terms of performance.
No you wouldn't buy it. Because you forget one thing, the PLASTIC CASE! You wouldn't buy last year Macbook Air with a plastic case! Never! Didn't Apple had until a few years ago a cheap plastic MacBook, and they get rid of it? I'm wondering why...
Buying the iPhone 5C instead of 5S is like buying last year MacBook Air or Pro for only $100-$200 cheaper than this year model. And with a plastic case instead of aluminum. Would you buy it? Of course not!
You don't understand consumers like Apple understands consumers. A great device is just 50% of the appeal. It's about the ECOSYSTEM. Apps, ways to connect, ways to enjoy (and even to create) content.
The iPhone is a great-looking, reliably-functioning, well-made *gateway* to that ecosystem, known for unmatched User Experience. iOS is iOS.
Make a slightly cheaper iPhone with current hardware, make them in different colours, make them look great, ship em with iOS 7, and you've got . . . SALES.
It's genius. Yet so simple. Like all genius.
Blow up the iPod to several times the screen size. Call it the iPad. Create a new category of apps for it. Turn the industry on its ear almost overnight.
I love it when I here Apple is "Greedy" or "Apple Tax"
Greedy is a perspective one holds on somebody else's behavior. You can't call another wrong because his opinion differs with yours.
It is not that Apple is over priced it is that the competition is in a race to the bottom for 5% profit or less per unit.
Baloney. The competition got wiped out by iPhone, until iPhone many of these companies where very profitable. As it is Samsung is the only company effectively competing (stealing from) with Apple and they have good margins. The likes of Nokia, RIM and Motorola did not race to the bottom at all, rather they had the rug pulled out from beneath them and landed flat on their faces.
Apple does not fall for the pressure of the competition to compete for "junk".
Nobody is asking Apple to make junk, I'm not sure where this idea comes from. The point here is that Apple doesn't benefit t in the long term from excessively high margins.
I here how people talking about there 3rd or 4th generation back device like the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4s with the latest iOS 7 on said device and how happy they are.
Do you hear that about Samsung, Black Berry or HTC?
Nope and why not? HTC and RIM are both on the ropes and so beaten that they can hardly get viable product out the door. Samsung just doesn't care.
That alone speaks VOLUMES about the quality of Apple devices.
Actually it says nothing, many of these companies, that is RIM, HTC, Nokia, Motorola and whomever simply missed the boat when Apple showed the world what the world really wanted in a smart phone. Before iPhone, products from RIM and Motorola where held in high regard. These companies where destroyed not by Apples quality but rather by functionality that they simply couldn't duplicate. Overnight the iPhones operating system invalidated the approaches used by all of these companies. Let's face it iPhone ones hard ware wasn't breathtaking in hardware and neither where the 3G series.
So when fan boys are ripping Apple for not producing a device designed to last 2 years or less take into account they are only doing so because the product they use on a daily basis is no where to quality level that Apple produces.
Margins have zero impact on how long a device lasts in this business.
I believe you can't copy quality because if you are copying some other companies product in the first place you already have a lack of innovation or creativity and are always following and never leading nor will you ever.
Quality is something that is built in, functionality gets copied. If you reword this to use functionality instead of quality I'd be tempted to agree with your points.
Think of it this way, back in the day the functionality of the PC BIOS was copied. The quality of those efforts varied widely. More interestingly, these efforts to copy functionality did lead to a lot of innovation, yeah they followed IBM for a bit bent that didn't last forever. Nor did IBMs PC business for that matter.
Look at all phones in the last 4-5 years, 75% of all the true inovation has come from Apple and the 5s in no different with real useable fingerprint tech and complete 64bit.
Yep which justifies the stiff margins on the flagship model. This discussion is more about the pricing of the 5c than anything.
Now with in the next 6 months every MFG and Android will offer the same specs but again it will not be as fluid and polished like Apple products because..... they will be copying instead of leading.
No it will suck because they are running Android
Done with my rant, thanks for reading...flame away
Nobody is going to flame away but I have to point out that you have misconceptions about the concept of quality. Quality does not go away just because you shave a few percentages off your margins. Further Apple did not destroy most of the cell phone market with quality, at least not with the initial iPhones and the first few iOS releases. They beat the hell out of the market with functionality that nobody could match. This is huge with respect to understanding why Apple has been able to stay ahead for so long, all that functionality rolled into a pocketable device was a massive game changer.
Buying the iPhone 5C instead of 5S is like buying last year MacBook Air or Pro for only $100-$200 cheaper than this year model. And with a plastic case instead of aluminum. Would you buy it? Of course not!
Sometimes I can't tell if comments like this are parody or not.
Seriously, you are missing the entire appeal of the 5C. It has nothing to do with price, and it has nothing to with specs. Apple saw that there were people who wanted a color phone. Personally, I don't get it, but there are lots of people who jump at the chance.
People on tech sites always mis-assess Apple products when they are announced, because they think like techies and not like general consumers. Next time you see someone with an iPhone on the street ask him or her if the phone has an A5 or an A6, and how much RAM it has.
Sure, we know that stuff. Your average consumer couldn't care less, and has no idea what most of that stuff means anyways.
And to be honest, you're high on meth if you think Apple won't sell a quadrillion of these things.
Cool photo, and it's good that they're presenting as a team. Too much focus on Cook just invites the "he's not Steve Jobs" comments that anyone with a brain know are true, but irrelevant.
I think they could do themselves a favour by dropping the "junk" comments though. Feature phones have their place, and they're not junk just because they can't do Core Animation. A lot of cell phone users need a phone, they don't need a computer in their pocket, so cheaper non-smartphones meet their need fully. Describing those phones collectively as junk just makes Apple execs look elitist, and a bit trashy at the same time.
"Nobody is asking Apple to make junk, I'm not sure where this idea comes from. The point here is that Apple doesn't benefit t in the long term from excessively high margins."
Define "excessively high". Starbucks makes high margins on every cup of coffee it sells. Can they last?
The avg customer doesn't care about margins. They only care if the device does what it wants it to do.
If any premium brand came out with a lost cost alternative it would sell not only in emerging markets but in all markets. Tim is completely correct in straying from this path as it starts the race to the bottom. Very few companies can turn back. The Ferrari Dino and Porsche 914 come to mind because I am a car guy.
Hey I care but the fact remains Apple makes a massive profit on each iPhone sold. Right now they basically sell everything they make which means they are under no pressure to adjust prices. That is good for now but being greedy is never perceived well in the long run.
Here I'm not saying that Apple needs to offer up a dirt cheap limited quality iPhone, rather I'm saying that something like iPhone5c needs to be priced with more reasonable margins. High margins should be reserved for flagship models.
On the other hand I have just installed iOS 7 on my iPhone 4 and iPad 3 and all I have to say is nice job Apple! ????????????????. Obviously both pieces of hardware are getting on in age but even so performance is not that bad at all. The only problem I have with Apple is that they need to focus on functionality. Many apps got a facelift but not the sort of functionality improvements they need. Looking at Notes in particular and Contacts too. On the other hand moving the text input cursor around has never been this good.
What I'm trying to say is that iOS and Apples stewardship of the platform is certainly worth a little extra Apple "tax". So better margins than the industry standard is good. However so good that you start to look greedy isn't so good.
Quality supersedes your perception of 'greed'. As the rest dive into the pool of junk, Apple soars!
Comments
Buying the iPhone 5C instead of 5S is like buying last year MacBook Air or Pro for only $100-$200 cheaper than this year model. And with a plastic case instead of aluminum. Would you buy it? Of course not!
No it is not. It is like buying last years Macbook Air or Pro for $150 to $400 dollars cheaper (assuming the Macbook Air starts at $999). I might take that deal. Many people buy the following year's model cars at the end of the year even after new models are released. This is because you get a discount on the previous year's model cars. The discount is not crazy either. Ten to fifteen percent. That is about the same you are getting with the iPhone. Except in this instance, the iPhone based on the previous year's tech is packaged differently with some slight improvements. For what it is worth, the iPhone 5 is still a premium handset in terms of performance.
Can I just say **** Businessweek for that cover story headline. Instead of just presenting the interview with Cook and Co. we get bullshit editorializing. Of course that headline just wreaks of a rhetorical question, and with the article itself being all about Android it's as if Businessweek is saying "yes Apple you should be worried". What a waste of getting access to Apple execs. :rolleyes:
Apple managed to reduce the iPod concept to the super-cheap iPod shuffle. I guess it's a lot easier to do that with a music player than a phone/computer/camera/video player/music player/etc.
Inexpensive is not spelled with a "c"
Buying the iPhone 5C instead of 5S is like buying last year MacBook Air or Pro for only $100-$200 cheaper than this year model. And with a plastic case instead of aluminum. Would you buy it? Of course not!
Can't wait to see in a couple weeks how wrong you are!
Who cares. Apple already has the neganalysts attacking it.
So only Jobs can say that thought?
We're techies. Newbies and android refugees would love the C.
If you have the extra $100, get the 5S. If not, get the 5C. In either case, it's a win-win for Apple. As for being greedy, if you don't like it, don't buy it.
https://mixpanel.com/trends/#report/ios_7/from_date:-2,to_date:0
No it is not. It is like buying last years Macbook Air or Pro for $150 to $400 dollars cheaper (assuming the Macbook Air starts at $999). I might take that deal. Many people buy the following year's model cars at the end of the year even after new models are released. This is because you get a discount on the previous year's model cars. The discount is not crazy either. Ten to fifteen percent. That is about the same you are getting with the iPhone. Except in this instance, the iPhone based on the previous year's tech is packaged differently with some slight improvements. For what it is worth, the iPhone 5 is still a premium handset in terms of performance.
No you wouldn't buy it. Because you forget one thing, the PLASTIC CASE! You wouldn't buy last year Macbook Air with a plastic case! Never! Didn't Apple had until a few years ago a cheap plastic MacBook, and they get rid of it? I'm wondering why...
Nice way to create even more anti Apple sentiments. Not very smart this Cook. He's not even original.
Who gives a hoot. Do you think the anti-Apple sentiment will go away if they act like a bunch of nice guys? Get real.
Glad to see them showing some guts, for a change. Let's hope that they stick with it, and that it also gets reflected in their advertising strategy.
Buying the iPhone 5C instead of 5S is like buying last year MacBook Air or Pro for only $100-$200 cheaper than this year model. And with a plastic case instead of aluminum. Would you buy it? Of course not!
You don't understand consumers like Apple understands consumers. A great device is just 50% of the appeal. It's about the ECOSYSTEM. Apps, ways to connect, ways to enjoy (and even to create) content.
Think of it this way, back in the day the functionality of the PC BIOS was copied. The quality of those efforts varied widely. More interestingly, these efforts to copy functionality did lead to a lot of innovation, yeah they followed IBM for a bit bent that didn't last forever. Nor did IBMs PC business for that matter. Yep which justifies the stiff margins on the flagship model. This discussion is more about the pricing of the 5c than anything. No it will suck because they are running Android
Nobody is going to flame away but I have to point out that you have misconceptions about the concept of quality. Quality does not go away just because you shave a few percentages off your margins. Further Apple did not destroy most of the cell phone market with quality, at least not with the initial iPhones and the first few iOS releases. They beat the hell out of the market with functionality that nobody could match. This is huge with respect to understanding why Apple has been able to stay ahead for so long, all that functionality rolled into a pocketable device was a massive game changer.
That is what innovation is all about. Not just slapping out junk that works, sort of (to repeat).
Nice way to create even more anti Apple sentiments. Not very smart this Cook. He's not even original.
"We don't ship junk."
Nice way to create even more anti Apple sentiments. Not very smart this Cook. He's not even original.
Original? wtf stupid comment is that? What should he do be the first CEO to wear a clown makeup. Oh wait, leona helmsley did that.
I like these comments. Like folks troll CEO and financial news before buying a phone.
Buying the iPhone 5C instead of 5S is like buying last year MacBook Air or Pro for only $100-$200 cheaper than this year model. And with a plastic case instead of aluminum. Would you buy it? Of course not!
Sometimes I can't tell if comments like this are parody or not.
Cool photo, and it's good that they're presenting as a team. Too much focus on Cook just invites the "he's not Steve Jobs" comments that anyone with a brain know are true, but irrelevant.
I think they could do themselves a favour by dropping the "junk" comments though. Feature phones have their place, and they're not junk just because they can't do Core Animation. A lot of cell phone users need a phone, they don't need a computer in their pocket, so cheaper non-smartphones meet their need fully. Describing those phones collectively as junk just makes Apple execs look elitist, and a bit trashy at the same time.
Define "excessively high". Starbucks makes high margins on every cup of coffee it sells. Can they last?
The avg customer doesn't care about margins. They only care if the device does what it wants it to do.
I think they could do themselves a favour by dropping the "junk" comments though. Feature phones have their place…
Apple doesn’t make feature phones, nor are they trying to. They’ve made no comment as to feature phones; they’re talking about smartphones.
Again, Apple made no comment as to those phones. Stop the FUD. Maybe even read the page title, for heaven’s sake.