"Carriers currently buy iPhone 4 at around $625 and then most offer it to their subscribers starting at $199, with the balance of the cost subsidized against a two year contract. Carriers in some countries sell the device closer to its actual price or unlocked at full price"
This is such crap and you have written it over again. Most offer it for $199USD? bullshit, 2 carriers do. In some countries it costs even more? Well of course but in some countries any iPhone you want is $0 on a 2yr contract.
Thanks for calling this out, this is really a pet peeve of mine. In almost all countries, what you pay for an iPhone depends on which plan you sign up for and how good a customer you have been in the past. Period. That mostly varies between 0 and $500.
That Market share/profit graph is just astonishing. Making me think all those whining from other company (Netgear included) is just pure jealousy and out of depth misjudgement on their part. Seeing that high of a profit margin for lower than a third share is an achievement that only a good and well-designed product with matured supporting eco-system can generate.
Quote:
Originally Posted by djsherly
Will it come with a file to whittle down my fingers in order to use it?
As the article have mentioned, if there will be indeed a smaller phone, you wouldn't need to use your finger to operate the phone at all time. Voice regonition by Siri would be use instead. Plus, have you tried using the iPod nano? Touch screen, small form and yet operable. Granted, there won't be much use to most apps out there but remember this is a phone first and foremost. It's lower cost so don't need all the features of it's big brother. This is Apple trying to capture Nokia's low cost button phone in the emerging/3rd world market and for older people who don't really have much a need for the latest games only to perhaps receive photos and setting up reminders.
Quote:
Originally Posted by frugality
Technology comes full circle?
Ha ha ha. Funny dude!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Archos
That's why Apple doesn't sell an iPod nano that older people can't see or manipulate, or potentially even hear well.
Quote:
Originally Posted by franktinsley
I could see this with maybe a non-retina display at the same size but with almost nothing around the screen. Home button would be replaced with a gesture and the voice control would be much more advanced and also available in the iPhone 5.
Voice recognition, cloud storage, improved notification and NFC definitely. No serious reading stuffs
There's a lot of market for a lot of things. Apple wants to get in the cheap affordable phone market why not and it makes sense. Apple probably will get in the 4"+ market also. Concerns over fragmentation, I'm sure they'll figure out and find a way to make sure all apps will work fine across all versions. I think it's the right time for them give more choices to consumers like they do for the iPod. Different people have different needs, want, and taste.
I do think MobileMe will be free but I think they'll also offer premium service for it with more storage.
iPhone 4, 16Gb Model, Portugal, Vodafone (identical prices on the other two carriers)
No contract price: 599€ (811$ USD)
Two Year contracts
459€ and 15€/Month, (621$ USD)
359€ and 30€/Month, (486$ USD)
259€ and 60€/Month (350$ USD)
So:
"Carriers currently buy iPhone 4 at around $625 and then most offer it to their subscribers starting at $199, with the balance of the cost subsidized against a two year contract. Carriers in some countries sell the device closer to its actual price or unlocked at full price"
Makes some sense to me…I really hope Apple makes a smaller and cheaper iPhone, that way I might finally get rid of my Android HTC!
Hey Apple. Don't focus on another smaller phone. Finally make one that has a removable battery for once. That is truely my biggest problem with iPhone design. I have the special tools to remove one but shouldn't have to. Probably voids the warranty doing it yourself anyway.
...is MobileMe. Who cares if they make a bigger or smaller phone. If they do some people will buy some people won't.
MobileMe, however is Apple's product that has been in hiding. I use and love MM. My files are everywhere, along with my contacts, email, calendars, etc. I pay for it and I am glad to. It is always up and ad free.
I have felt for a long time that MM would become iOS for Mac. You would be able to install apps, etc. I was proven wrong with Lion. I now think MM will be your storage for the Mac and iOS. This means that iOS will link into MM to view files, sync contact, sync audio, etc. When it comes to the Mac, MM will not only link but have a saved repository of MM. This will allow you to work offline as well as have a two way backup system.
MobileMe as it is today will be free (sans iDisk). MobileMe with iTunes, iPhoto/Aperture, some sort of Backup system, and iDisk will cost you.
"Carriers currently buy iPhone 4 at around $625 and then most offer it to their subscribers starting at $199, with the balance of the cost subsidized against a two year contract. Carriers in some countries sell the device closer to its actual price or unlocked at full price"
Makes some sense to me?I really hope Apple makes a smaller and cheaper iPhone, that way I might finally get rid of my Android HTC!
Ever consider that maybe the carriers in Portugal are trying to make a profit?
Those of you screaming that such a move makes no sense aren't seeing the bigger picture here...
A smaller phone, as one earlier poster said, a 'feature phone' that works primarily as a phone and an ipod and can serve as a wireless tethering device for an ipad makes perfect sense.
Lots of people have both an iphone and an ipad; why duplicate the functionality of the ipad in the iphone when you don't need it if you already have an ipad?
For those of you who don't want to carry two devices, you don't have to; just buy the larger full featured iphone.
But for those people who already carry an ipad with them most of the time, again, why have that feature duplication, the extra weight, bulk, cost, etc. of a full size/featured iphone when you're already carrying an ipad with you most of the time?
It also opens up the lower cost market to Apple, giving them an opening to lead people to buy the full size device or an ipad.
This story originated from Bloomberg so I am cautiously optimistic especially if it allows T-mobile and sprint have the Iphone without a contract. Hopefully the end result is a 4G Iphone nano.
That Market share/profit graph is just astonishing. Making me think all those whining from other company (Netgear included) is just pure jealousy and out of depth misjudgement on their part. Seeing that high of a profit margin for lower than a third share is an achievement that only a good and well-designed product with matured supporting eco-system can generate.
I wonder how much of that profit margin is because of the reduced number of models. There are so many variants of phones by any given company that the development costs must be horrendous, and you wouldn't be able to get the per-unit volumes high enough on custom parts to get a good component price. Parts might have a marginal cost of pennies a piece, but you still have to pay down tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars per mold or die for each part, multiply that out to a hundred custom parts per phone, for dozens of phone models, and a given phone might only be available for sale half a year to a year.
Quote:
Originally Posted by frugality
Technology comes full circle?
I think that is the lead designer of the first cell phone. I've seen a video interview, seems like an interesting person.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Andykemp
Hey Apple. Don't focus on another smaller phone. Finally make one that has a removable battery for once. That is truely my biggest problem with iPhone design. I have the special tools to remove one but shouldn't have to. Probably voids the warranty doing it yourself anyway.
By the time the battery goes bad, you probably won't have a warranty anyway.
Quote:
Originally Posted by REC
You guys all seem to be missing the point. That Siri natural language searching stuff is really, really cool.
It looks interesting. Oddly enough, that technology might make composing text messages not annoying, though part of the reason I text message at all is the main recipient has horrible reception.
And if it's acceptable to shrink down the iPhone UI and it's still usable, there should be no more arguments about making a smaller sized iPad, either.
The point is that a 7" tablet does not meet the experience of a tablet. An iPhone "nano" would not be an iPhone. The screen size would be too small. It would give the user a different more limited experience.
I am skeptical. The article says that the source says it's a prototype. I am sure it's one of many that were looked at and discarded. It will erode Apple's aggregate margins relative to quantity sold. It is not obvious to me that an extra $100 or so (amortized over 24 months, i.e.,~4/month) matters all that much to most subscribers.
The MobileMe part of the story, on the other hand, may be true. Given how poor the service is currently, it can only get better. Frankly, it's not clear to me that it would be a great selling point even if it were given away in its current form.
This story originated from Bloomberg so I am cautiously optimistic especially if it allows T-mobile and sprint have the Iphone without a contract. Hopefully the end result is a 4G Iphone nano.
Why are you 'cautiously optimistic' because it originated in Bloomberg?
I am skeptical. The article says that the source says it's a prototype. I am sure it's one of many that were looked at and discarded. It will erode Apple's aggregate margins relative to quantity sold. It is not obvious to me that an extra $100 or so (amortized over 24 months, i.e.,~4/month) matters all that much to most subscribers.
RE concerns over aggregate margins: the same concerns were raised about the iPod mini/nano/shuffle categories. Didn't seem to hurt there!
RE amortized costs: consumers seem to be inordantly sensitive to initial cost and inordantly insensitive to term costs. It is stupid, but it is the case even with smart consumers (at least here in the USA--I can't speak for other societies).
If they come up with a phone that carriers will give away with contract that they can make a decent profit on, it will be huge! (I have faith that Jobs is still closely involved so I'm assuming that it will only be released if it is "magical.")
Quote:
The MobileMe part of the story, on the other hand, may be true. Given how poor the service is currently, it can only get better. Frankly, it's not clear to me that it would be a great selling point even if it were given away in its current form.
Here the Holy Grail would be to come up with something that makes users not feel like they need enough storage on their device to hold all their pics and songs. If they can make MM access/storage seemess to the clueless, it will finally be what Apple wants. I don't know how close they are to that, but I'm sure that is where they want to be!
Will it come with a file to whittle down my fingers in order to use it?
This, and it would open the door to further fragmentation of the iOS platform when it comes to apps. Already there are some apps that require an iPhone 4 or iPad due the need of the A4's processing power. The number of apps that work with all the flavors of iPhone/iPod_Touch/iPad running iOS 3.x+ is already diminishing.
It would suck to get an underpowered, cheap A4-based phone that might only have App "support" for the latest apps for only a year or two.
Comments
"Carriers currently buy iPhone 4 at around $625 and then most offer it to their subscribers starting at $199, with the balance of the cost subsidized against a two year contract. Carriers in some countries sell the device closer to its actual price or unlocked at full price"
This is such crap and you have written it over again. Most offer it for $199USD? bullshit, 2 carriers do. In some countries it costs even more? Well of course but in some countries any iPhone you want is $0 on a 2yr contract.
Thanks for calling this out, this is really a pet peeve of mine. In almost all countries, what you pay for an iPhone depends on which plan you sign up for and how good a customer you have been in the past. Period. That mostly varies between 0 and $500.
Will it come with a file to whittle down my fingers in order to use it?
As the article have mentioned, if there will be indeed a smaller phone, you wouldn't need to use your finger to operate the phone at all time. Voice regonition by Siri would be use instead. Plus, have you tried using the iPod nano? Touch screen, small form and yet operable. Granted, there won't be much use to most apps out there but remember this is a phone first and foremost. It's lower cost so don't need all the features of it's big brother. This is Apple trying to capture Nokia's low cost button phone in the emerging/3rd world market and for older people who don't really have much a need for the latest games only to perhaps receive photos and setting up reminders.
Technology comes full circle?
Ha ha ha. Funny dude!
That's why Apple doesn't sell an iPod nano that older people can't see or manipulate, or potentially even hear well.
I could see this with maybe a non-retina display at the same size but with almost nothing around the screen. Home button would be replaced with a gesture and the voice control would be much more advanced and also available in the iPhone 5.
Voice recognition, cloud storage, improved notification and NFC definitely. No serious reading stuffs
I do think MobileMe will be free but I think they'll also offer premium service for it with more storage.
No contract price: 599€ (811$ USD)
Two Year contracts
459€ and 15€/Month, (621$ USD)
359€ and 30€/Month, (486$ USD)
259€ and 60€/Month (350$ USD)
So:
"Carriers currently buy iPhone 4 at around $625 and then most offer it to their subscribers starting at $199, with the balance of the cost subsidized against a two year contract. Carriers in some countries sell the device closer to its actual price or unlocked at full price"
Makes some sense to me…I really hope Apple makes a smaller and cheaper iPhone, that way I might finally get rid of my Android HTC!
MobileMe, however is Apple's product that has been in hiding. I use and love MM. My files are everywhere, along with my contacts, email, calendars, etc. I pay for it and I am glad to. It is always up and ad free.
I have felt for a long time that MM would become iOS for Mac. You would be able to install apps, etc. I was proven wrong with Lion. I now think MM will be your storage for the Mac and iOS. This means that iOS will link into MM to view files, sync contact, sync audio, etc. When it comes to the Mac, MM will not only link but have a saved repository of MM. This will allow you to work offline as well as have a two way backup system.
MobileMe as it is today will be free (sans iDisk). MobileMe with iTunes, iPhoto/Aperture, some sort of Backup system, and iDisk will cost you.
iPhone 4, 16Gb Model, Portugal, Vodafone
No contract price: 599? (811$ USD)
So:
"Carriers currently buy iPhone 4 at around $625 and then most offer it to their subscribers starting at $199, with the balance of the cost subsidized against a two year contract. Carriers in some countries sell the device closer to its actual price or unlocked at full price"
Makes some sense to me?I really hope Apple makes a smaller and cheaper iPhone, that way I might finally get rid of my Android HTC!
Ever consider that maybe the carriers in Portugal are trying to make a profit?
A smaller phone, as one earlier poster said, a 'feature phone' that works primarily as a phone and an ipod and can serve as a wireless tethering device for an ipad makes perfect sense.
Lots of people have both an iphone and an ipad; why duplicate the functionality of the ipad in the iphone when you don't need it if you already have an ipad?
For those of you who don't want to carry two devices, you don't have to; just buy the larger full featured iphone.
But for those people who already carry an ipad with them most of the time, again, why have that feature duplication, the extra weight, bulk, cost, etc. of a full size/featured iphone when you're already carrying an ipad with you most of the time?
It also opens up the lower cost market to Apple, giving them an opening to lead people to buy the full size device or an ipad.
Makes perfect sense.
Ever consider that maybe the carriers in Portugal are trying to make a profit?
Of course they are. But they also happened to make Portugal, the country that sells "the most expensive iPhone 4's" :S
That Market share/profit graph is just astonishing. Making me think all those whining from other company (Netgear included) is just pure jealousy and out of depth misjudgement on their part. Seeing that high of a profit margin for lower than a third share is an achievement that only a good and well-designed product with matured supporting eco-system can generate.
I wonder how much of that profit margin is because of the reduced number of models. There are so many variants of phones by any given company that the development costs must be horrendous, and you wouldn't be able to get the per-unit volumes high enough on custom parts to get a good component price. Parts might have a marginal cost of pennies a piece, but you still have to pay down tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars per mold or die for each part, multiply that out to a hundred custom parts per phone, for dozens of phone models, and a given phone might only be available for sale half a year to a year.
Technology comes full circle?
I think that is the lead designer of the first cell phone. I've seen a video interview, seems like an interesting person.
Hey Apple. Don't focus on another smaller phone. Finally make one that has a removable battery for once. That is truely my biggest problem with iPhone design. I have the special tools to remove one but shouldn't have to. Probably voids the warranty doing it yourself anyway.
By the time the battery goes bad, you probably won't have a warranty anyway.
You guys all seem to be missing the point. That Siri natural language searching stuff is really, really cool.
It looks interesting. Oddly enough, that technology might make composing text messages not annoying, though part of the reason I text message at all is the main recipient has horrible reception.
And if it's acceptable to shrink down the iPhone UI and it's still usable, there should be no more arguments about making a smaller sized iPad, either.
The point is that a 7" tablet does not meet the experience of a tablet. An iPhone "nano" would not be an iPhone. The screen size would be too small. It would give the user a different more limited experience.
The MobileMe part of the story, on the other hand, may be true. Given how poor the service is currently, it can only get better. Frankly, it's not clear to me that it would be a great selling point even if it were given away in its current form.
This story originated from Bloomberg so I am cautiously optimistic especially if it allows T-mobile and sprint have the Iphone without a contract. Hopefully the end result is a 4G Iphone nano.
Why are you 'cautiously optimistic' because it originated in Bloomberg?
While not a well publicized fact, Dick Tracy had very wide wrists. But those who put a Nano on their wrists might be a harbinger of things to come.
I am skeptical. The article says that the source says it's a prototype. I am sure it's one of many that were looked at and discarded. It will erode Apple's aggregate margins relative to quantity sold. It is not obvious to me that an extra $100 or so (amortized over 24 months, i.e.,~4/month) matters all that much to most subscribers.
RE concerns over aggregate margins: the same concerns were raised about the iPod mini/nano/shuffle categories. Didn't seem to hurt there!
RE amortized costs: consumers seem to be inordantly sensitive to initial cost and inordantly insensitive to term costs. It is stupid, but it is the case even with smart consumers (at least here in the USA--I can't speak for other societies).
If they come up with a phone that carriers will give away with contract that they can make a decent profit on, it will be huge! (I have faith that Jobs is still closely involved so I'm assuming that it will only be released if it is "magical.")
The MobileMe part of the story, on the other hand, may be true. Given how poor the service is currently, it can only get better. Frankly, it's not clear to me that it would be a great selling point even if it were given away in its current form.
Here the Holy Grail would be to come up with something that makes users not feel like they need enough storage on their device to hold all their pics and songs. If they can make MM access/storage seemess to the clueless, it will finally be what Apple wants. I don't know how close they are to that, but I'm sure that is where they want to be!
Will it come with a file to whittle down my fingers in order to use it?
This, and it would open the door to further fragmentation of the iOS platform when it comes to apps. Already there are some apps that require an iPhone 4 or iPad due the need of the A4's processing power. The number of apps that work with all the flavors of iPhone/iPod_Touch/iPad running iOS 3.x+ is already diminishing.
It would suck to get an underpowered, cheap A4-based phone that might only have App "support" for the latest apps for only a year or two.
It would suck to get an underpowered, cheap A4-based phone that might only have App "support" for the latest apps for only a year or two.
It would still be better supported than Android phones!
Besides, when people are getting the "free" phone option, do you really think they are worrying about app support beyond two years?