The exact same thing happened with computers. 1994 a $5000 computer had no network card, no modem, no 3d graphics, no cd, etc. Every year the price dropped, more memory, more storage and the newest gizmo was now included and it cost less than the year before.
My work issued blackberry 8330 has a video camera. And that's like the cheapest bb around
I honestly have no idea how your expectation that double density, double capacity NAND, assuming the same space if available for the 16GB and 32GB model iPhones is the same price year over year. On top of that, I have no idea what your comment about a Blackberry has to do with a 15 year old computer. None of it is making any sense to me as to why you are certain that Apple can double everything(?) in the iPhone while keeping it at the same price point.
Quote:
Originally Posted by al_bundy
and the iphone 3g is cheaper than gen1
The R&D was probably completely, mostly or at least partially paid for with the original iPhone. That would bring the price down per unit. Besides that the iPhone 3G had almost all the same internals as the original device expect for a capacity bump, GPS chip and 3G radios. If you buy an iPhone today you are getting the CPU, RAM, LCD, etc from a 2 year old iPhone so it’s a safe assumption that the cost did drop, but with the different business models (subsidization v. profit-sharing) I don’t know how you are certain of it.
Furthermore, if your theory about computer tech was true then the price of Macs model-over-model wouldn’t have increased with so many revision changes. Especially with the last major revision. You should probably consider the marketing aspects here, too; if Apple is to introduce a lower-tier iPhone platform then they very well may price the higher-tier more than they do now to help differentiate them… with better components and more features to justify the price hike, of course.
It will take a few years for other phones to catch up in app functionality
Edge iphone sold very poorly with it's high price and the 3g sold due to the apps. Even then blackberry still outsold the iPhone 3g due to price. I remember years ago win ce phones had a lot more features than every phone our there. But with $400 - $500 price tags very few people bought them
And there is the Sony example. Release the best console out there with a ridiculous price and end up in last place. And watch your exclusive games dry up as developers flee to microsoft.
Anyone catch the xbox news today? Huge install base and microsoft seems to have woken up. Apple will have tough competition next few years
Three years' contract is just too long. Who wants a commitment that lasts for almost a third of a decade? Also, a 'cheapo' iPhone would be pretty expensive for 99USD on a three year contract. Apple might be playing with us. There is just too much manipulation with these iPhone and next-year netbook-like devices. Or the MB Air, for that matter!
Actually that $99 CAD with a three year contracts. Those in the Great White North pay a bit less initially than we do, but Rogers/Fido requires three year contracts instead of AT&T's two.
I hope like hell the iPhone doesn't go cheep! I like it being exclusive I don't want everyone and their brother having the same phone as me. I want them to remain jealous because their to cheep to pay for the jesus phone. Grrr
I hope the 4 gigger is for other countries and get the 32 and 16.
Oh and I am hoping that bezel is a frosted (sand blasted) chrome like every other aluminum product Apple makes. If this would be the case then with the matt back the phone would almost perfectly match my iMac.
From what I can tell from those pictures floating around the chrome logo and all the other stuff is not polished silver like on the current handset.
Actually that $99 CAD with a three year contracts. Those in the Great White North pay a bit less initially than we do, but Rogers/Fido requires three year contracts instead of AT&T's two.
Canadian phone companies usually offer the three year contract if you want the phone for no money up front, and still offer no contract/one yr/two yr plans if you want to pay up front for the handset.
The Rogers/iPhone deal is the only one I've seen here so far that has the mandatory 3 yr contract, AND expects you to pay up front.
Well, there can be a benefit to having a scaled down, cheap phone that no one wants. The adds can say "Get an amazing iPhone for only $49 (with contract)" and it could bring in to the stores folks who want a iPhone, but can't see paying more up front. Then when they get in the store: "well, that is a good phone, but for just XXX$ more you can have more memory and a faster processor and..." Cha ching--you sold a 200$ iPhone (with contract) to someone who never would have entered the store to spend that kind of money...
That has not been Apple's game in the past, but an argument can be made that it would work well in the cell phone arena...
I don't think all 4 models will be sold in US. The cheapest one is for countries with limited infrastructure or Communist Gov. +)
Brazil, Iraq, Thailand and Poland - countries, where a cheaper iPhone would open floodgates - just to name a few - do not have communist governments. Cuba, North-Korea and China have, but I don't think that the first two are relevant to Apple. Central and Eastern Europe either and they have very good infrastructure to accommodate an iPhone. In fact, some countries are far superior to the UK or the US, when it comes to 3G.
Oh, and despite some electoral institutions and whatever Gordon Brown wants us to believe, Britain has a communist ruler elite. With fourth of the population on waiting list for social housing and great social tension, I wouldn't call it a rich country, either. Yes, they (we) have the GDP and the population, but they are just meaningless statistics. The quality of life is nowhere near to Greece, which has a lower average income. So much about social issues! Now, I want to talk about iPhone.
I want a reasonably priced one for my trip to New York in September!
On pay-as-you-go, presently, the 8GB version costs £350. That is around 570 USD. On a monthly contract, it starts from £30 for 18 month. I felt bad, when I bought my new 2.4GHz MacBook and a refurbished MacBook Air. I also felt bad, when my girlfriend bought the 2.53 GHz MacBook Pro. But we purchased them and we are fairly happy. However, I just couldn't bring myself to buy an iPhone yet. For me, a smaller and cheaper iPhone would be a great product. I wouldn't mind 4GB. I want the main features and not concerned with storage as long, as the product itself is comparable to the competition. After all, my very first Mac was a white plastic one - a budget machine for Apple, expensive for me at the time but it introduced us to Mac OS X.
It will take a few years for other phones to catch up in app functionality
Edge iphone sold very poorly with it's high price and the 3g sold due to the apps. Even then blackberry still outsold the iPhone 3g due to price. I remember years ago win ce phones had a lot more features than every phone our there. But with $400 - $500 price tags very few people bought them
And there is the Sony example. Release the best console out there with a ridiculous price and end up in last place. And watch your exclusive games dry up as developers flee to microsoft.
Anyone catch the xbox news today? Huge install base and microsoft seems to have woken up. Apple will have tough competition next few years
APPLE started in the phone biz with very tough entrenched competition .
And apple has re-defined the market . al you seem to be striving to find some doom about apple's phone future.
APPLE is at the very early stage in its phone life cycle . . And already it has accomplished amazing feats . App store etc etc . It is wonder other companies are also inventing great phones .
Well over 30 million have sold so far. And give it 4 more yrs and apple will sell 100 million more. Yet the iphone is not for every body al .
The big fight coming is over data bandwidth.
Msft has lost millions of dollars on the x box .
They have had incredible hard ware problems .
The xbox can do some amazing things now .Its even a netflix player for your TV.
I hope like hell the iPhone doesn't go cheep! I like it being exclusive I don't want everyone and their brother having the same phone as me. I want them to remain jealous because their to cheep to pay for the jesus phone. Grrr
I hope the 4 gigger is for other countries and get the 32 and 16.
Oh and I am hoping that bezel is a frosted (sand blasted) chrome like every other aluminum product Apple makes. If this would be the case then with the matt back the phone would almost perfectly match my iMac.
From what I can tell from those pictures floating around the chrome logo and all the other stuff is not polished silver like on the current handset.
agreed agreed agreed
I want the iPhone (and Mac) to remain unique and exclusive
Amazing how many people don't read the article. The information is from Canada. Apple does make products specific to certain countries. Apple even makes better products for Japan than they do for the US (PowerBook 550c, PowerBook 2400c, Color Classic II, to name just a few). It is quite possible that Canada and their customers requested a 4GB model, and it won't be offered in the US.
What's with the moron that thinks his shit is golden? "I want the iPhone to be exclusive so cheap people can't buy it." Give me a break! Based on his amazing spelling skills, I doubt the spoiled little brat even paid for it. He probably cried like a little wussy until Mommy bought it for him. Apple products are not exclusive, many people own Apple products. But with your head so far up your ass, you would never know it.
The iPhone 3G actual cost is more than the first model, just subsidized by AT&T. You are paying $15 more a month ($10 increase for data, $5 increase for messaging) than the original iPhone plan. Your plan is an additional $360. Without a plan, the 3G phone is $499/$599. I paid $499 for my 16 GB iPhone, which is $100 less than the actual cost of the iPhone 3G.
Average 1st Gen iPhone basic AT&T plan is $60/month, $1,440 for 24 months
Average 2ng Gen iPhone 3G basic AT&T plan is $75/month, $1,800 for 24 months
Not much of a difference when you add the prices up. However, if the iPhone 3G was not subsidized by AT&T, the iPhone 3G is more expensive than the 1st gen by about $460.
a lot of people support a tax system with a lot of small taxes from many sources to hide the true level of taxation. and a lot of people will gladly pay a monthly payment but when you break it down they will cry about a few items even if the total is still the same
same thing with cell phones. i remember a time when every phone required a 1 year contract. around 2002 or 2003 it went to 2 year contracts because there was a big jump in features for almost every phone. since then it's been stable with new phones costing $0 to $299 and then going free with a 2 year contract 2 years after initial release
the few phones i've seen for more than $299 in the last few years were very poor sellers even though they had a long list of features. original iphone included, as Apple cut the price drastically a few months after release. MS originally released OTA mailbox sync back in 2003 but all the phones that supported it were like $500 and Blackberry outsold in this market even though you had to pay a lot of money for the BES server. for some reason people wanted cheaper phones even though the cost was probably more with blackberry than WinCE/WinMo
the few phones i've seen for more than $299 in the last few years were very poor sellers even though they had a long list of features. original iphone included, as Apple cut the price drastically a few months after release.
Altho Apple has cut the price drastically to boost sales, the revenue it gets per iPhone sold hasn't changed much.
The original iPhone was not subsidized up front by AT&T, thus, the high price to the consumer of $499 and $599. Instead, AT&T agreed to pay Apple a portion of the service fee every month (estimated to be $5-8), the same way RIM gets a fee for its Blackberry service from AT&T.
When Apple lowered the price to the consumer to $199/$299 for iPhone 3G, the cell carriers made up the difference in an up-front subsidy, but stopped paying the monthly fee to Apple. The exact amount of the subsidy is not public, but it's estimated (using Apple's revenue numbers) to be about $375 per phone.
If Apple starts selling a phone for $99, that would be the subsidized price, and Apple would still get another $250-350 from the carrier for it (dependent on the cost of the required cell plans).
Comments
Apple better not price the 32gb at $399. Or they will open themselves up for another whippin like they got in the 1990's.
If the 32gb is more than $299 come next week I'm going to buy a return 16gb 3g and wait until microsoft or palm comes out with something.
New xbox features announced today are nice
why wait just leave
The exact same thing happened with computers. 1994 a $5000 computer had no network card, no modem, no 3d graphics, no cd, etc. Every year the price dropped, more memory, more storage and the newest gizmo was now included and it cost less than the year before.
My work issued blackberry 8330 has a video camera. And that's like the cheapest bb around
I honestly have no idea how your expectation that double density, double capacity NAND, assuming the same space if available for the 16GB and 32GB model iPhones is the same price year over year. On top of that, I have no idea what your comment about a Blackberry has to do with a 15 year old computer. None of it is making any sense to me as to why you are certain that Apple can double everything(?) in the iPhone while keeping it at the same price point.
and the iphone 3g is cheaper than gen1
The R&D was probably completely, mostly or at least partially paid for with the original iPhone. That would bring the price down per unit. Besides that the iPhone 3G had almost all the same internals as the original device expect for a capacity bump, GPS chip and 3G radios. If you buy an iPhone today you are getting the CPU, RAM, LCD, etc from a 2 year old iPhone so it’s a safe assumption that the cost did drop, but with the different business models (subsidization v. profit-sharing) I don’t know how you are certain of it.
Furthermore, if your theory about computer tech was true then the price of Macs model-over-model wouldn’t have increased with so many revision changes. Especially with the last major revision. You should probably consider the marketing aspects here, too; if Apple is to introduce a lower-tier iPhone platform then they very well may price the higher-tier more than they do now to help differentiate them… with better components and more features to justify the price hike, of course.
why wait just leave
It will take a few years for other phones to catch up in app functionality
Edge iphone sold very poorly with it's high price and the 3g sold due to the apps. Even then blackberry still outsold the iPhone 3g due to price. I remember years ago win ce phones had a lot more features than every phone our there. But with $400 - $500 price tags very few people bought them
And there is the Sony example. Release the best console out there with a ridiculous price and end up in last place. And watch your exclusive games dry up as developers flee to microsoft.
Anyone catch the xbox news today? Huge install base and microsoft seems to have woken up. Apple will have tough competition next few years
Three years' contract is just too long. Who wants a commitment that lasts for almost a third of a decade? Also, a 'cheapo' iPhone would be pretty expensive for 99USD on a three year contract. Apple might be playing with us. There is just too much manipulation with these iPhone and next-year netbook-like devices. Or the MB Air, for that matter!
Actually that $99 CAD with a three year contracts. Those in the Great White North pay a bit less initially than we do, but Rogers/Fido requires three year contracts instead of AT&T's two.
That's too many models. Apple usually keeps it to 2 or 3 models to reduce costumer confusion.
I don't think all 4 models will be sold in US. The cheapest one is for countries with limited infrastructure or Communist Gov. +)
I hope like hell the iPhone doesn't go cheep! I like it being exclusive I don't want everyone and their brother having the same phone as me. I want them to remain jealous because their to cheep to pay for the jesus phone. Grrr
I hope the 4 gigger is for other countries and get the 32 and 16.
Oh and I am hoping that bezel is a frosted (sand blasted) chrome like every other aluminum product Apple makes. If this would be the case then with the matt back the phone would almost perfectly match my iMac.
From what I can tell from those pictures floating around the chrome logo and all the other stuff is not polished silver like on the current handset.
Go ahead and try to buy your individuality.
Actually that $99 CAD with a three year contracts. Those in the Great White North pay a bit less initially than we do, but Rogers/Fido requires three year contracts instead of AT&T's two.
Canadian phone companies usually offer the three year contract if you want the phone for no money up front, and still offer no contract/one yr/two yr plans if you want to pay up front for the handset.
The Rogers/iPhone deal is the only one I've seen here so far that has the mandatory 3 yr contract, AND expects you to pay up front.
Well, there can be a benefit to having a scaled down, cheap phone that no one wants. The adds can say "Get an amazing iPhone for only $49 (with contract)" and it could bring in to the stores folks who want a iPhone, but can't see paying more up front. Then when they get in the store: "well, that is a good phone, but for just XXX$ more you can have more memory and a faster processor and..." Cha ching--you sold a 200$ iPhone (with contract) to someone who never would have entered the store to spend that kind of money...
That has not been Apple's game in the past, but an argument can be made that it would work well in the cell phone arena...
Isn't bait and switch illegal?
Isn't bait and switch illegal?
It's only bait and switch if they claim not to have the advertised cheaper model and offer instead a more expensive substitute.
Just trying to steer you towards a more expensive model when the cheaper one is actually available is not bait and switch and it is not illegal.
I don't think all 4 models will be sold in US. The cheapest one is for countries with limited infrastructure or Communist Gov. +)
Brazil, Iraq, Thailand and Poland - countries, where a cheaper iPhone would open floodgates - just to name a few - do not have communist governments. Cuba, North-Korea and China have, but I don't think that the first two are relevant to Apple. Central and Eastern Europe either and they have very good infrastructure to accommodate an iPhone. In fact, some countries are far superior to the UK or the US, when it comes to 3G.
Oh, and despite some electoral institutions and whatever Gordon Brown wants us to believe, Britain has a communist ruler elite. With fourth of the population on waiting list for social housing and great social tension, I wouldn't call it a rich country, either. Yes, they (we) have the GDP and the population, but they are just meaningless statistics. The quality of life is nowhere near to Greece, which has a lower average income. So much about social issues! Now, I want to talk about iPhone.
I want a reasonably priced one for my trip to New York in September!
On pay-as-you-go, presently, the 8GB version costs £350. That is around 570 USD. On a monthly contract, it starts from £30 for 18 month. I felt bad, when I bought my new 2.4GHz MacBook and a refurbished MacBook Air. I also felt bad, when my girlfriend bought the 2.53 GHz MacBook Pro. But we purchased them and we are fairly happy. However, I just couldn't bring myself to buy an iPhone yet. For me, a smaller and cheaper iPhone would be a great product. I wouldn't mind 4GB. I want the main features and not concerned with storage as long, as the product itself is comparable to the competition. After all, my very first Mac was a white plastic one - a budget machine for Apple, expensive for me at the time but it introduced us to Mac OS X.
It will take a few years for other phones to catch up in app functionality
Edge iphone sold very poorly with it's high price and the 3g sold due to the apps. Even then blackberry still outsold the iPhone 3g due to price. I remember years ago win ce phones had a lot more features than every phone our there. But with $400 - $500 price tags very few people bought them
And there is the Sony example. Release the best console out there with a ridiculous price and end up in last place. And watch your exclusive games dry up as developers flee to microsoft.
Anyone catch the xbox news today? Huge install base and microsoft seems to have woken up. Apple will have tough competition next few years
APPLE started in the phone biz with very tough entrenched competition .
And apple has re-defined the market . al you seem to be striving to find some doom about apple's phone future.
APPLE is at the very early stage in its phone life cycle . . And already it has accomplished amazing feats . App store etc etc . It is wonder other companies are also inventing great phones .
Well over 30 million have sold so far. And give it 4 more yrs and apple will sell 100 million more. Yet the iphone is not for every body al .
The big fight coming is over data bandwidth.
Msft has lost millions of dollars on the x box .
They have had incredible hard ware problems .
The xbox can do some amazing things now .Its even a netflix player for your TV.
9
The cheapest one is for countries with limited infrastructure or Communist Gov.
So are you saying it will be sold in the Us?
I hope like hell the iPhone doesn't go cheep! I like it being exclusive I don't want everyone and their brother having the same phone as me. I want them to remain jealous because their to cheep to pay for the jesus phone. Grrr
I hope the 4 gigger is for other countries and get the 32 and 16.
Oh and I am hoping that bezel is a frosted (sand blasted) chrome like every other aluminum product Apple makes. If this would be the case then with the matt back the phone would almost perfectly match my iMac.
From what I can tell from those pictures floating around the chrome logo and all the other stuff is not polished silver like on the current handset.
agreed agreed agreed
I want the iPhone (and Mac) to remain unique and exclusive
agreed agreed agreed
I want the iPhone (and Mac) to remain unique and exclusive
Why, though. It is one thing not to want Apple to compromise on quality, profitability or general excellence simply for the sake of market share.
It is another thing entirely to want them to keep sales low just so you can smirk to yourself in the mirror...
What's with the moron that thinks his shit is golden? "I want the iPhone to be exclusive so cheap people can't buy it." Give me a break! Based on his amazing spelling skills, I doubt the spoiled little brat even paid for it. He probably cried like a little wussy until Mommy bought it for him. Apple products are not exclusive, many people own Apple products. But with your head so far up your ass, you would never know it.
and the iphone 3g is cheaper than gen1
The iPhone 3G actual cost is more than the first model, just subsidized by AT&T. You are paying $15 more a month ($10 increase for data, $5 increase for messaging) than the original iPhone plan. Your plan is an additional $360. Without a plan, the 3G phone is $499/$599. I paid $499 for my 16 GB iPhone, which is $100 less than the actual cost of the iPhone 3G.
Average 1st Gen iPhone basic AT&T plan is $60/month, $1,440 for 24 months
Average 2ng Gen iPhone 3G basic AT&T plan is $75/month, $1,800 for 24 months
Not much of a difference when you add the prices up. However, if the iPhone 3G was not subsidized by AT&T, the iPhone 3G is more expensive than the 1st gen by about $460.
a lot of people support a tax system with a lot of small taxes from many sources to hide the true level of taxation. and a lot of people will gladly pay a monthly payment but when you break it down they will cry about a few items even if the total is still the same
same thing with cell phones. i remember a time when every phone required a 1 year contract. around 2002 or 2003 it went to 2 year contracts because there was a big jump in features for almost every phone. since then it's been stable with new phones costing $0 to $299 and then going free with a 2 year contract 2 years after initial release
the few phones i've seen for more than $299 in the last few years were very poor sellers even though they had a long list of features. original iphone included, as Apple cut the price drastically a few months after release. MS originally released OTA mailbox sync back in 2003 but all the phones that supported it were like $500 and Blackberry outsold in this market even though you had to pay a lot of money for the BES server. for some reason people wanted cheaper phones even though the cost was probably more with blackberry than WinCE/WinMo
and the iphone 3g is cheaper than gen1
the few phones i've seen for more than $299 in the last few years were very poor sellers even though they had a long list of features. original iphone included, as Apple cut the price drastically a few months after release.
Altho Apple has cut the price drastically to boost sales, the revenue it gets per iPhone sold hasn't changed much.
The original iPhone was not subsidized up front by AT&T, thus, the high price to the consumer of $499 and $599. Instead, AT&T agreed to pay Apple a portion of the service fee every month (estimated to be $5-8), the same way RIM gets a fee for its Blackberry service from AT&T.
When Apple lowered the price to the consumer to $199/$299 for iPhone 3G, the cell carriers made up the difference in an up-front subsidy, but stopped paying the monthly fee to Apple. The exact amount of the subsidy is not public, but it's estimated (using Apple's revenue numbers) to be about $375 per phone.
If Apple starts selling a phone for $99, that would be the subsidized price, and Apple would still get another $250-350 from the carrier for it (dependent on the cost of the required cell plans).