Barclays: Nobody Wants to Buy a $1,000 iPhone

Zepher said:
I can't recall ever paying more than $200 for a phone. All of my phones I've had since 1995 have been subsidized, so they were either free, $50, $100, or $200.
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Yeah, but the full price of the phone is built into the cost of your plan. Nothing is free.

That is why we should always compare the full retail pricing of phones.
 
TordanGow said:
This^

On top of that I'm not willing to spend $600 on a damn phone. I look around and think to myself, "are these people out of their minds?". Phones are disposable electronics with relatively short lifespans. I send texts, make calls, check email, use GPS, and snap a few pictures. I could give less than a crap about having the newest "just because" or as a status symbol. In fact, for most people I consider it a negative status symbol. If you are constantly getting new phones needlessly the status it tells me is that you likely are a mix of these traits: vain, financially handicapped, or lacking in fiscal judgement. None of these are admirable personal qualities.

Outside of malfunction or this bull-crap non-replaceable battery designed obsolescence, I don't replace my phone until it needs to be replaced. I paid ~$120 for my Honor 5x almost 2 years ago and I have no intention of replacing it until I have to. A phone is a tool, and unless a new tool is substantively better in function, then it doesn't warrant fiscal expenditure for replacement.

Protip: to make your battery have a significantly longer lifespan, charge it to 80% instead of 100% and recharge at ~25%. This should approximately triple the usable lifespan of your battery. Of course if you are traveling or whatnot and need 100%, then charge it to full, but for normal use stick to the above guideline.
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Nice post. I think the battery percentages will depend on individual designs though but it's a good general rule. Li-Ion doesn't like to be discharged heavily as lithium can migrate to the anodes and cause shit to fail.

Do remember when I was a teenager and saved up for the new flagship motorolla v3i. It was about 450USD from memory, not long after launch. That was considered an expensive and flash phone then (they made a bit of a comeback in recent years as people realized how thin and awesomely simple they are) so to see them heading towards nearly 3x the price is pretty hilarious. Sure, more tech, but let's be honest, you're being taken to the cleaners because you can't do maths.
If you need it subsidised, you probably shouldn't be buying it anyway.
 
schoolslave said:
Premium device, premium price.
Not sure why people are confused?
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More expensive than a laptop or good tablet which is a metric ton more powerful and will last longer than two years.

Now why am I confused?
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
Yeah, but the full price of the phone is built into the cost of your plan. Nothing is free.

That is why we should always compare the full retail pricing of phones.
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the plan doesn't change price if I bring my own phone or get one subsidized. And it is cheaper than most carriers for a single line of service.
 
People are brain dead I swear ............ you've never had to spend a lot of money on a phone. You don't have to spend a lot of money on service. It's cheap as dirt. You people aren't looking hard enough.

First of all, ATT, Tmobile, Sprint and Verizon all resell their service to MVNO's ... "Mobile Virtual Network Operators" ... if you are using Metro PCS ... you're using Tmobile ... if youre using Project Fi you're using Sprint, Tmobile and one other recently added carries. So on and so forth.

Ever heard of Straight Talk? Yeah .. you're using ATT. And guess what, you get like 8 or 9GB's of data at LTE speeds for only $40 dollars or $45.

If you guys have to have the latest and greatest phones then you're always going to be spending the most money and there is nothing no one can do to help you money wise.

The last 2 year contract phone I had was a Razor V3 Clam Shell Rose Red and I had that phone for 4 years before it fell apart on me.

There are a ton of high end phones out there you can get for $350 - $400 dollars. Custom roms, all the latest bells and whistles. In fact, some guy just ripped out Googles Pixel Camera app and no you can use it on any high-end phone. You don't even need a Google Pixel now for it's awesome camera.

$1000 dollars for a phone sounds ..... sickening .......
 
SixFootDuo said:
People are brain dead I swear ............ you've never had to spend a lot of money on a phone. You don't have to spend a lot of money on service. It's cheap as dirt. You people aren't looking hard enough.

First of all, ATT, Tmobile, Sprint and Verizon all resell their service to MVNO's ... "Mobile Virtual Network Operators" ... if you are using Metro PCS ... you're using Tmobile ... if youre using Project Fi you're using Sprint, Tmobile and one other recently added carries. So on and so forth.

Ever heard of Straight Talk? Yeah .. you're using ATT. And guess what, you get like 8 or 9GB's of data at LTE speeds for only $40 dollars or $45.

If you guys have to have the latest and greatest phones then you're always going to be spending the most money and there is nothing no one can do to help you money wise.

The last 2 year contract phone I had was a Razor V3 Clam Shell Rose Red and I had that phone for 4 years before it fell apart on me.

There are a ton of high end phones out there you can get for $350 - $400 dollars. Custom roms, all the latest bells and whistles. In fact, some guy just ripped out Googles Pixel Camera app and no you can use it on any high-end phone. You don't even need a Google Pixel now for it's awesome camera.

$1000 dollars for a phone sounds ..... sickening .......
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Yeah, the wifey and I are on Page Plus Cellular (Verizon network) pay-as-you-go plans. My total bill for the year is ~$70, the wifey's is around $100 a year. We're outliers though, neither one of us use cellular data (turned off on the phone). And the phones (Moto E) were $39 each on sale! We basically just use them as phones and only use texting when required (infrequent). If I want an app, I just enable WIFI at home and download it that way so there's no charge.
 
DigitalGriffin said:
More expensive than a laptop or good tablet which is a metric ton more powerful and will last longer than two years.

Now why am I confused?
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Is a phone a laptop or a tablet?
I thought this article was about the price of the iphone not the macbook or ipad.
 
schoolslave said:
Is a phone a laptop or a tablet?
I thought this article was about the price of the iphone not the macbook or ipad.
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Exactly it's not a tablet or laptop. It's less capable with the exception of making phone calls.

You can get a pretty decent Motorola phone with better camera $500 and still have money left over for an iPad mini.
 
Is anyone surprised? No one wants to blow that much money on a phone. Some will blow that much. Apple charging a lot for a phone, also not a big surprise. Pretty normal for them to charge $100 more for their phones over a competing phone. I'm not a fan of the overcharging for storage, cause they give you no way to expand storage.
 
TordanGow said:
Just remember that you need to make your final payment on time, not even one day late, otherwise you pay back interest on the whole 5 years. I have a habit of paying everything a week early anyways just to avoid mistakes and so forth, and I assume you are "on the ball" as well, but just in case, it's something to be aware of.
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They don't do that on a car loan, as they will just repossess the car if you don't pay :eek:
The 1st month I setup a monthly auto bill pay for the next 5 years, so even if I'm in the hospital it gets paid.

For other zero interest deals, I always pay the amount off the month before, just in case (oops, you are one day late so you own us an additional $2000)
 
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