
Ask HN: Why is Apple still releasing 16 GB phones? - JTon
Is it really just cost of components? Especially when you can now record in 4k. It defies all of my current logic. Would love to hear some additional theories.
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tankerdude
Contextual pricing perhaps? Kind of akin to this:

[http://www.marketingwords.com/blog/psychology-pricing-
produc...](http://www.marketingwords.com/blog/psychology-pricing-products-
services/)

Snippet from the classic experiment: For instance, a small popcorn would be
$3.50. A medium-sized bucket of popcorn would be $7.50 and a large would cost
$8.00. The mindset here is that “for only 50 cents more” you can get a much
larger portion of popcorn. The same is true for fountain drinks at gas
stations. Small = $.99. Medium = $1.49. Large = $1.59. Which sells more?
Almost always the large for “just 10 cents more.”

~~~
tedmiston
Also called framing - [http://whywereason.com/2011/10/14/the-price-of-framing-
ancho...](http://whywereason.com/2011/10/14/the-price-of-framing-anchoring/)

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coldtea
Because people still buy them. It's that simple.

For a parent buying for a smaller kid, a business/organization buying for its
employees, or a senior citizen who just runs a few apps, it's ok.

It's obviously not for people wanting to record videos in 4K (or record videos
in general -- lots of older people only record a few minutes or so a year,
some grandchild's birthday or such).

If you do that a lot, you get a higher end model.

~~~
tedmiston
I disagree.

If entry level were 32 GB, many people would buy that.

However, anyone who's owned an iPhone before knows that 16 GB is far too
little to hold even a small collection of songs, photos, apps, etc. By
removing the 32 GB model and making entry level 16 GB, they cause most of us
to bump up to the 64 GB instead --> $$$.

~~~
tobylane
I have what I'd call a considerable, varied and growing collection of apps,
plus many albums and a full photostream on 16GB. I only run out of space when
I have a lot of photos at the same time as a silently downloaded update. Both
are easily solved within 10 minutes.

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trengrj
I just had a look at the storage on my iPhone and saw I had used 4.9 GB on a
64 GB phone. I'm sure that Apple has data showing that this type of usage
makes up a decent percentage of users.

Not sure why I use so little. I take photos but generally use streaming music
services rather that have a large collection of mp3s. Also I find the screen
too small to watch movies.

~~~
gravypod
I agree. The average use case for a phone does not involve shooting a movie
and such does not need 4TB space on it. It's ridiculous that people are
complaining that apple makes a product that is too small for their use case.

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skygazer
In recent years, Apple doubled iPhone storage levels while keeping prices the
same: the middle tier 32gb became 64, and the high end 64gb tier became 128 --
however, the 16gb remained untouched. There is no longer a 32gb offering. I
think this is telling.

If Apple had doubled the 16gb to 32, then many of the prior middle tier
purchasers would now be drawn to Apple's cheapest tier, and Apple would lose
that revenue, $100 per unit. At the same time, those that feel stifled by the
16 have more incentive to upgrade to the 64, at the same price as the prior
32.

Why is this still the case, years later? I think the issue is that 32gb
remains the sweetspot for more than half of the potential customers, and if
they offered it, their low end product will cannibalize their mid tier sales
and cost them billions.

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smacktoward
It lets Apple run ads that say "iPhone 6S: starting at $649."

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rajacombinator
There's a lot of people for whom 16GB is sufficient.

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Khaine
Because the iPhone is sold worldwide, and this makes it more affordable for
the middle class of India, China, and other developing nations

~~~
erbdex
Indian here. The middle class sticks with Moto E/G here. The upper middle
class goes with an iPhone 4S/5S and even Nexus and OnePlus One.

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skorecky
It's a pushed to get more users to rely on iCloud. This still sucks though
because you can't store apps in the cloud and it nice to have music locally
(though Apple Music seems to cache) when riding on the subway / dealing with
AT&Ts poor connections.

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CyberFonic
A lot of consumers have no idea how much storage is required per picture or
per minute of video. So they just see the price tag and buy the cheapest to
get admitted to the iClub.

It happens all the time at parties. People try to take a photo, there is no
room and they ask "What's wrong?". Their eyes glaze over when I try to explain
how all those pix on their phone are using up the storage. Then they suggest
deleting a couple SMS messages .... as if :-(

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kleer001
Another reason: Because those chips are still cheap and being made. I'm sure
if 8GB would work with iOs they'd sell those too. But then again I'm not a
phone manufacturer, that's just an educated guess.

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DarrenMills
It may exist only to push the consumer to a higher price. 16GB is a low-
friction pain point that pushes many people into to an option with more
profitable margins for Apple.

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mod
I just bought an 8gb Android phone. It does have a microSD port, but I don't
expect I'll need to use it.

Maybe some people use phones differently than you.

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emocin
businesses might not want their employees putting 125gb of music or photos or
games on the phones they provide.

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allsystemsgo
Obviously people still buy them, otherwise they wouldn't continue to sell
them.

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ratfacemcgee
opposite of the anchor price, i guess?

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lessthunk
get users addicted; when it's too painful you buy a bigger more expensive
phone.

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ashwn
i think @tankerdude has it right...easy $100

