Just FWIW, Anandtech didn't use "affordable" they used "lower-cost alternative" which is quite true.
But more to the point, the market is going to need some way to internalize business models here. Fundamentally, Apple's only guaranteed source of revenue right now for any given phone is the price of the phone itself. Maybe users get some apps too, maybe they get services, but at this stage in lifecycle of the devices a lot of people are happy with the apps they have and paid updates are infrequent, and it's an important point that the iPhone doesn't depend on subscriptions nor is Apple dependent on selling you. So the sticker price must to some extent encompass most of the life cycle of the phone, including 5-6+ years worth of OS updates (iOS 12 supports the iPhone 5S, released in 2014).
How much is it worth to have a cutting edge device where retail embodies 100% of the required costs, and the manufacturers financial incentives are reasonably well aligned with that of the owner? Can the market actually handle this vs devices where many of the costs are hidden/externalized? It's going to be an interesting question over the next few years. There has been a certain amount of pushback on the XS/XS Max pricing, but at the same time a lot of people at least claim to care about incentive alignment. It's hard to say exactly how that will play out if Apple finds upfront pricing is too hard for many to swallow even if per-month or similar personal info selling would be.
Adjusted to inflation, the iPhone 4S was 722$. XR is 749$(not 800 by the way). 27$ difference, not too bad considering the technology is superior in every way to the 4S.
Adjusted to inflation, the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X was over $9000. XR is $749(not 800 by the way). $8251 difference, not too bad considering the technology is superior in every way to the DynaTAC 8000X.
As someone who used to like getting the latest and greatest by Apple their current prices baffle me. Or perhaps I'm the oddball that doesn't use my phone enough to warrant spending that much money.
As a price-conscious Corolla purchaser, I don't really care if Bugatti's latest highest-end car costs $2 or $3 million dollars. It's not what I'm buying.
There are also many more additional services that someone in the Apple ecosystem has access to vs. when the 4S came out, which can account for a portion of that $27 marginal difference.
Example (that I serendipitously learned about recently): free (!!!) workshops in Apple stores that you can learn advanced techniques for things like video editing on iPad, among other things.
If you add AppleCare, aggregate that cost over 24 months and sell the handset at the end it’s a good investment. I don’t sell at the end but give my wife’s and my used handsets to the kids and they get two more years out of them.
Total expenditure is less than $100/month for 4 good spec iPhones that run our personal and business lives entirely is a damn good deal.
SIM contracts are approx $90 + broadband is $70 a month as a comparison.
Don’t Americans have home insurance that covers devices?
My home insurance has both ‘all risk’ and ‘out-and-about’ optional coverage. Turning them both on raises my home insurance from ~€6 to ~€13, but it means all my stuff is insured everywhere, for every incident.
The only downsides are a €100 deductible and a per-incident cap of €2000 for electronic devices, which means that if I drop into the canal with my phone and my laptop I might not get completely made whole. Still great though, and beats the hell out of insuring all my expensive stuff separately.
I'm not aware of homeowners insurance that has a separate deductible for personal electronic devices. People typically have a deductible of $1000 or more for their homeowners claims. Also, if you ever make a claim, your rates will go up and you will be unable to switch carriers for about 5 years as no one will insure you if you had a recent claim.
I have the card and did the repair. I took it to the Apple store, got a repair quote, and then uploaded it to the benefits website. They sent me a check without me even repairing it yet.
It's about 4x what I'd ever consider spending on a phone. But so what? Apple has decided not to pursue buyers like me. They will sell their $800+ phones, and make money, and employ a lot of people.
It's a loan with no interest (meaning you actually keep the interest). It's a better deal than buying one cash since you can invest the money you are not using.
AFAICT, the most common installment plan is carrier-based and usually not a loan, the payments total up to the same as buying it outright at the beginning.
Some people are still using the old analogy of Phone. When it has replaced your Camera, Internet Communicator, Gaming, etc.
Every single bit of tech inside the phone were more expensive, partly so because of rising wages in tech industry. Which I suppose most people on HN are benefiting from.
In what world is $800 an affordable price point?