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Apple CEO Tim Cook Says Financing iPhone X Can Work Out to Cost of Just a Few Nice Coffees Per Week

What I really learned from this thread is that some people really take their coffee seriously - on the level of wine aficionadoes who are way into it.

I never got into coffee so my thinking is this: I just got the 7+ 256 gig last year, it's about a year old now and serves its purpose well. I'll hold onto it and pay it off (5 more payments left!) and keep it another year. By then the prices for this new tech will go down somewhat. Or not.
 
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I’ve always hated that type of reasoning. I know how much $1000 is, thank you. It’s a lot no matter into how small of increments you arbitrarily want to break it down. Anyway exactly what point am I supposed to take away from this? That many people already spend $1000 per year on things that they may or may not need? So why not just double it? Or are you asking people to cut out coffee to buy your product?
 
dumastudetto said:
The iPhone X can take vastly superior photos. It can do AR. It has better battery life, a better screen, can handle all that iOS 11 can throw at it, and has better security with Face ID. We shouldn't ignore iPhone X is breathtakingly gorgeous too.

Yeah your iPhone 6s is pretty much the same as my iPhone X. :rolleyes: Wanna trade?
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I highly doubt the photos are vastly superior. Incrementally better? Sure. Do agree the iPhone 6s does not have portrait mode and bokeh. Don't agree with better battery life. iphone 6s handles ios11 just fine. Better display? Agree. But again, 6s is not bad either. Looks better? Yes, if you can get over the notch.
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dmylrea said:
I know a few people that make more money than God, and to be honest, they don't work very hard. Smart, yes. Hard, no.
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Well, if you can work smarter, why work hard? I wish I was that smart.
 
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Tim is indirectly admitting he knows the iPhone X is too expensive for the majority of current iPhone users. This is just the first step, comparing the cost of installments, something people rarely had to do in the past for their phones, to something else people spend their money on every day and making it seem like it's not so bad. Next step will be discounts by third-party retailers on the X by the spring with the final step being the reduction of prices by Apple itself on the successor to the X next year. Think current iPhone 8 prices or close to it.
 
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dumastudetto said:
Why is it so bad?

I often budget my business expenses in such a way. Money comes in monthly, and I set aside amounts for each item that may only come due next quarter, or next year.

As long as you can make the numbers work, and you stick to the budget plan it works just fine.
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I know that works fine. I guess the point I was trying to make is people don't do that and fail to look at the overall cost.
 
johnmed said:
Nonsense. I have the 7, the wife has a 6S. Nothing wrong with the 6S, and it still has a headphone jack!
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It's crazy to still be using wired headphones.
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jonnyb098 said:
I know that works fine. I guess the point I was trying to make is people don't do that and fail to look at the overall cost.
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Oh I don't disagree a lot of people have issues with sticking to budgets.
 
Never underestimate the spender and their talent at spending lots. Apple is just taking advantage of that by delivering a quality product worth spending lots on.
 
I hear people, organizations and companies saying this all the time, but it's not like we have infinite cups of coffee to give up.

You know where you can save a ton on your budget? EATING OUT. Limit yourself to once every week or two and you'll save mountains of cash. You'll likely end up healthier too.

Want more tips?
  • Go internet only and do streaming instead of paying for cable.
  • Want to cut your cell bill in half? Look into T-Mobile, which is faster with better coverage in many areas now and often run special deals.
  • Want to save 20-30% on your heating and cooling bill? Smart thermostat.
  • Get a smaller pet instead of a dog or cat to save on the vet and food.
  • Shop around for new home/auto insurance.
  • Carpool or use public transportation. Biking to work is also nice if you live in a good area for that.
  • Buy a used car instead. Put money into savings and buy that used car with cash.
  • Stop watching so much TV on the weekend and start doing freelance or consulting work on the side.
  • Put some money into something simple like Wealthfront (or similar), which has an app that makes it really easy to invest money that grows at a steady rate over time.
  • Look for any special discounts and combine as many as possible. You can often do this when switching phone plans or companies, changing insurance (you can also get discounts for things like home security systems, sprinklers, combined auto, etc), iCloud storage and Apple Music split amongst a family, etc.
  • Look for a cheaper grocer in your area. Something like an Aldi in the U.S. where you can often find many high quality groceries at a discount. Even if you only find half of the stuff you need you'll save money.
  • Mow and trim your own yard. It's good to get some exercise and fresh air, and if you consistently follow a simple regimen three times per year you'll have a greener yard than all your neighbors with their crappy, expensive paid services. Newer self-propelled and electric systems also make it less of a noisy chore.
Budget all of this. Use Excel or Numbers in combination with something like Mint or You Need a Budget that lets you view your financials at a glance and develop limits for spending categories and set up alerts. Organize everything into spending categories in your spreadsheet and list out all the recurring expenses. Don't forget to budget for the unexpected, and put that money into savings if you don't spend it each month. In addition, set aside a dedicated amount to save and invest, and make sure you take advantage of any matching retirement contributions if your work offers that. Total up these categories and see what you have left over. Then calculate your average income. Subtract and you'll know how much you have leftover to split between various sources such as discretionary spending, savings, investments, retirement, vacations, car savings, or whatever goal you have set. Then you can develop projections and test against those projections in the future to evaluate the performance of your budget and see where you need to make improvements and develop financial discipline.

I catch a lot of crap from my family because they don't know how to budget. They don't understand how I can have the nice things that I have. They get really jealous and sometimes lash out. I tried to teach them. They didn't listen. I'm not a financial planner and have no training in this area, but hopefully this helps someone else on these forums.
 
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He’s right. I have a latte machine and make 2 cups everyday (wife and I). If I were buying 2 cups a day locally, that’s $10. Over a month that’s $300.

I don’t spend nearly that much by brewing at home even factoring the cost of quality beans and A2 milk.
 
vmachiel said:
Well he’s not wrong. People get bend out of shape because of the price, and over the price of apps. But they’ll happily spend it on coffee, which you piss away in a couple of hours.

Just make coffee at home/work. Solved.
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The sad thing is, the phone will be thrown away in 2 years from now. Surely there's a wonderful social aspect of meeting with friends and going for coffee and chats until some ignorant fool takes out their iPhone and drifts over to social media world ;) ;)
 
Sheza said:
The problem is that everyone uses this comparison for their pay monthly services.

So much so that I’m probably ‘paying’ for 20 coffees a week or something. Ulysses, 1Password, the list goes on... and now Apple?
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Tim Cook announces new iPhone financing program: iPhones for iNternal organs. We’ll do an even trade for an iPhone X 64 GB for a kidney. If you want 256 GB we’ll need an ovary or prostate thrown in.

Conversely, for just one pint of blood per week you can finance a new iPhone X.
 
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Everyone always makes this argument (Tim Cook implicitly, people on the forum explicitly, also a financial advisor I once knew). “If you cut out buying coffee from expensive places and made it yourself you’d be fiscally responsible and better position to [buy an expensive phone] [save for retirement] [etc.]”

You drink drip coffee and grind your beans at home and think: “pay Starbucks to do the same?!” Or you look at frappuccinos and think “ugh that’s an abomination and outrageously priced.”

But what about those of us that like a good, classic espresso, espresso macchiato, or cappuccino, pulled by a good barista with appropriate equipment and well-frothed milk.

You can’t say that’s not “standard coffee” (all of Europe does it, after all...), but it’s not so easily done at home, either.
 
neutralguy said:
When you start justifying the price of a iphone to a commodity like coffee, you are already on the wrong side of value proposition. Tim should know that.
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Smartphones are just about a commodity now. They all do pretty much everything most users want them to do, and have enough processing power to do it well.

I mean, I watched that whole iPhone X intro - the main selling points were 1) it's really pretty; and 2) you can turn yourself into a talking poop emoji when communicating with other iPhone X users.
 
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dumastudetto said:
His point is iPhone X is affordable for everyone if they really want it. The choice is yours.
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Comparing an every other day purchase to a multi-year commitment. I get it, he's trying to break down the cost to an immediately digestible figure. Remove 390 enjoyable coffee shop moments over 2.5 years to get the small capacity iPhone X (that actually makes it seem like a tremendous sacrifice).

By the same token I could finance a motorcycle on an even longer term loan by avoiding my recurring iPhone cost. Its an equally relevant analogy in the other direction. I don't ride a motorcycle in order to afford my iPhone.

At the end of the day it's simply a matter of priorities.
 
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redscull said:
I like my phone. I love my coffee. I brew it at home each morning. 8oz of fresh espresso plus 8oz of vanilla milk plus 4oz Irish Cream. It’s the reason I get out of bed.
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See, you brew it at home and mix it yourself. That's how it's supposed to be done. You are not spending $5 on a large coffee every day. How people spend so much money on a damn coffee is beyond me.
 
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