Just a guess, but I think the people complaining about the price would complain even more about having to wait a couple of months to get what they want now.
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Apple is ripping us off
- Thread starter EatingApples
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Just a guess, but I think the people complaining about the price would complain even more about having to wait a couple of months to get what they want now.
So you can agree with me that in 2016, it is ludicrous that Apple still sells devices with base memory of 16gb. Even 32gb is questionable for a $600 device. If Apple is only going to have 2 memory options, it should be 64gb and 128gb. The fact of the matter is that Apple is trying to steer people toward the 128gb model by having a very limited base model. They did the same thing with the 16gb, 64gb, 128gb options previously to steer people to at least the 64gb model. Now they are taking it a step further.
because the only alternative to apple is windows or even worse android I spend the extra money it costs.
Meh, why not just go a step further and completely remove the bottom tier if that was really their game. One less SKU would save tons of money too.
TrueBlou
macrumors 601
If I remember rightly from setting up my dads iPhone 6, it something a bit over 12Gb out of the box.
Like you say some of that's down to the way memory works. But it's not a lot of space whatever way you look at it. It's 11.5Gb more than my dad and people like him will ever need though. So each to their own I suppose.
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How dare you sully this good thread with mention of such things 😉
Because the bottom tier gets all the people that have to have the newest iPad but can't afford the higher end model. Same reason Mercedes Benz sells a $29k cla model car despite most of their cars selling for $45k+.
rui no onna
Contributor
128 GB is roughly 119 GiB after factoring for NAND spare area/GB-GiB disparity. That said, the space/partition allocated for the OS and/or cache appears to differ by capacity.
Sure. Then you'd have less people buying so Apple would have to increase prices even more to make up for lower demand. I reckon Apple is aware of their demand elasticity curve in order to maximize profits/sales. 😛
Fozziebear71
macrumors 6502a
The only way they can rip you off is if you purchase something you don't believe is worth what you paid for it. Even then I would argue that you weren't ripped off because it was your decision.
TrueBlou
macrumors 601
Well yes and no, I agree that for people like us and likely the vast majority of users on here it sounds like and is a ludicrously low amount of memory. M
For people like my dad, my father in law, brother and sister in law, wife and many others it's plenty.
I always buy my wife a high capacity iPhone, but she really doesn't need it at all. I buy it because it's what I'd buy. Heck she and the people I've listed above and many others could cope with 8Gb. My dad only just gave up his 8Gb iPhone 4 and there was over 3Gb of free space on it.
So I do see why Apple thinks it's a relevant option. But if it was me in charge, I'd ditch it and replace it with 32Gb. But that's just me.
What Apple is doing is strategic. They invest countless dollars researching the prices that they use for their devices. The memory options are purely to push people towards the higher end model.
Think of it this way also,
If the base model $600 iPad goes on sale, it will likely be marked down to $549 or even $499. Apple pays pennies more to make 32gb versus making a 16gb model. Apple knows that the market is saturated and that people will be waiting for sales. Apple will still get away with getting $499 for the iPad Pro 9.7" and make a big profit rather than having a base model at $499 that drops to $450 or even $420 on sale.
The same applies to the 12" model. By starting it at $799 base model, even on sale they are making $699.
Then for all the people that want more memory than 32gb, the only other option is $150 more.
Count Blah
macrumors 68040
Not with 4K video recording. How long of a video does it take to fill up a 16G device? 8 minutes?
Sheza
macrumors 68020
It's been said many times that the 16GB iPhone SKU exists to seriously tempt people to get the 64GB model. It's psychological.
TrueBlou
macrumors 601
But then you're assuming that every one of the hundreds of millions of people who have the ability to record that 4K video use it. I know some who don't.
Odd as it may seem there are people who buy these devices not because of all of the bells and whistles. But because it's a well built, reliable and most importantly, easy to use device.
They make calls, send texts and maybe use email or other light tasks. I know people who use it as a phone. Just a phone, nothing else. They like the experience and simplicity but care not for anything else.
Who are we to say they should have to buy a more expensive device just because it's what we think it should be.
If Apple ever replace the 16GB without raising the price, fair enough. That's a fine replacement, welcomed by a majority I would imagine. But still ignored by a great many who don't care.
I don't agree with a lot of the take it or leave it attitude towards Apple pricing that some here seem to have, but the 16GB pricing argument to me is just silly. I know plenty of people that don't need more than 16GB. Typically folks that do everything online and don't take a lot of photos or video. Just because some of the people here wouldn't buy one doesn't mean it isn't a valid base model.
It's not really about price, but feeling that Apple nickels and dimes, but still charge a premium. When you compare the iPad Pro keyboard to the surface keyboard you realize this.
TrueBlou
macrumors 601
Exactly, that's my point. The base model exists for a reason. And exists in the form it does for a reason. Apple sell plenty of them, if they didn't it would have been changed.
i agree, 16 gb exists for a reason and from what I remember from the stats they sell PLENTY of 16gb models- iphones and iPads.
I for one have never recorded a single video on my iphone in years, let alone 4k. I have 20-30 photos total; most is in the cloud as I dont need them on the phone sitting there.
My storage is mainly apps and app cache.
I for one have never recorded a single video on my iphone in years, let alone 4k. I have 20-30 photos total; most is in the cloud as I dont need them on the phone sitting there.
My storage is mainly apps and app cache.
TrueBlou
macrumors 601
My photos take up almost 7GB, but there's over 10 years worth of photos on there. And in the unlikely event I got low on storage, they would automatically get swapped out for lower resolution ones to take up less space. Which is handy I suppose.
I'm currently using 44GB of local storage, half of which is for Retroarch, then photos and videos. I could easily live without the Retroarch stuff which is 20 odd GB and the videos.
If I wanted to free up space, tho I can't imaging why, I could throw that lot onto an external drive that I use with my Kingston G3, or just put it all on an SD card.
The Kingston is surprisingly speedy too, being wireless ac. It can stream 3 10GB high bitrate MKVs simultaneously to separate devices with perfect frame rate. Not bad for a pocket sized WiFi/Ethernet router/USB/SD reader. Handy wee thing.
To that extend i feel like people are "pack rats" with their mobile devices. Like do you really need to walk around at all times with 32 movies on your device and 6,000 songs? Unless you're traveling why is 3-4-5 movies and a few hundreds songs not enough? Its a simple drag and drop and 5-10 minutes to swap them out for new content at home on iTunes.
And like you said, does one really need to carry 2,000 photos at all times? I mean cloud storage is cheap as dirt; in fact 100% free on Google photos unlimited if they are up to 16mp photos or 1080p video. I get keeping 50 or so you want to have with you, but thousands? It just seems so unnecessary.
16gb was sufficient hard drive space in 2010 just like 1gb of hard drive was sufficient in 2001. It is now 2016 and is reasonable to expect larger hard drive space, even at the base model.
rui no onna
Contributor
Pretty sure by 2001, I had a 20GB HDD already. Maybe in 1996 or something, 1GB was acceptable. 😛
rowspaxe
macrumors 68020
The US economic statistics are fairly...."creative". I believe there is inflation, but the government assembles it's "market basket" to minimize it. The unemployment rate is 4.9 percent but labor force size is down 30%. Color me skeptical
Maybe its me but if someone even just semi serious about video, 4k especially, the 16gb would be off the table right off the bat.
If they need to shoot 4k, its on the buyer to research before the plunge to get rough idea of space needs. this any video. I went pro res with an external recorder for my dslr. Among the first google questions before buy was what data use I am looking at to find more ideal drive sizes.
Apple marketing will say yes...it shoots 4k. Any camera that does 4k will, its the thing to do as bait. Marketing doesn't bog itself down in "boring" details. They want the bullet point for the ad. they won't go into depth. Its on the user to know what that will mean in terms of data storage needs to have longer clips of 4k or lots of smaller ones. Among other things.
they make 16's they still sell. Market for them still exists apparently.
I wouldn't consider it a ripoff, since Apple has ALWAYS charged a premium for their products. I've owned several Macs and iPhones and I've never felt they didn't live up to my expectations. The iPad Pro however, is the one product that does not live up to what I hoped it would be. Desktop class OSX in tablet form. I think iOS is great, but an operating system for a "laptop replacement" it is not. So I bought an actual laptop replacement, a Microsoft Surface Pro 4. You could say Microsoft is charging a premium as well, with type covers costing $130 or more, but a replacement Surface pen is a much more reasonable $50.
