I'm sure they can figure out a way to maintain a good 40% profit margin with a $100-$200 iPhone.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple Restocks Refurbished iPhone 8 as Lowest-Priced iPhone It Sells
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
To expand the market for the App Store, in case you needed an answer.
At $359, you might as well spend the extra $40 on the iPhone SE. Especially if you wait for the 5G version in a couple months.
A $20 candybar phone is not going to be able to run any app from the App Store. If it can, it will offer a very poor user experience and that will reflect badly on Apple as that's who the user will blame.
This model (A1863) was the last in the line of Qualcomm modems until the 12 was released. That one reason gives it a nice bump over the SE. It might be the only bump, but it's an important one!
We're on Verizon and my kids both have 8's that are still running strong, and hold a signal everywhere, while my wife's 11 tends to struggle more than their 8's in weaker areas. The whole Intel vs Qualcomm thing was legit in areas of high congestion and weaker signal.
We're on Verizon and my kids both have 8's that are still running strong, and hold a signal everywhere, while my wife's 11 tends to struggle more than their 8's in weaker areas. The whole Intel vs Qualcomm thing was legit in areas of high congestion and weaker signal.
This is the old "Apple needs as much market share as possible" argument.
If Apple were to introduce a $100-200 phone, some people who currently buy a $400 phone would then consider buying the $100-200 one instead.
Those people would then cut into fixed costs: for each given person, the budgets for iOS development, hardware support, free iCloud tier, etc. would decrease.
Which raises the question, again: why? To what end? "Hey look, we have more users" doesn't make sense as a goal from a business sense, unless each user brings in money, which they wouldn't.
I loved my 8 plus. One of the few phones I held onto for a couple years instead of my yearly upgrade. My mom took it over and still uses it till this day happily. The A11 was their first 6 core bionic series chip for the iPhones and it’s definitely held up very well so far.
Last edited:
The bean counting folks people at apple sit around ALL DAY LONG thinking up ways to increase profit margins to the max without looking like straight up theft. I'm sure they would've done it if it could be done. the only issue is why make 40% profit off a $100-200 phone when you can make 70-80% profit off a $1000+ phone?
Yep still got my 8 Plus, love that phone. But getting the SE 2020 for only 40$ more than these refurbished 8’s is a no brainer in my opinion, just a better device in every way except for the Intel modem.
Apple is still selling a basic looking last gen MacBook Pro leather Sleeve for 199 bucks. Of course they r not gonna sell an iPhone for 200 (even if they should)
Definitely a good point, wasnt paying attention to the se pricing. SE 2020 is an iPhone 8 on steroids lol
Sounds like Apple's clearing out the soon to be obsolete iPhone8 and generating a little revenue.
A few months ago, I had Apple replace the battery on my iPhone 7 jet black 128GB. Light and relatively small. No case. All day battery life. I can use the apps I need. Bluetooth and cellular signal is fine. Still runs iOS 15. No intent to upgrade any time soon.
Dunno about the price of the 8 here, but presume it will at least have OS upgrades available for another year.
Dunno about the price of the 8 here, but presume it will at least have OS upgrades available for another year.
Surprised you haven’t hit some walls with the 2gb of ram. Shows how well iOS still is with ram management. We got 16gb ram iPads to 2gb ram iPhones lol
I can share some insight on that
My work phone was upgraded from an iPhone 8 to a 2nd gen SE and the experience is horrible
The iPhone 8 has a superior camera, superior LCD screen and clarity, superior battery life, and better build quality... the SE feels so cheap in my hand
I can barely see this phone in the sunlight With its crappy screen contrast
It’s crazy how the difference is
TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️
Suspended
Thank you for the clarification.
It looks like when the iPhone 8 was announced Apple did not announce it with 128Gb in first place, thus added later.
Uhhhhhhh, I don’t think Apple is including the EarPods and 5 watt adapter. It’s just lightning to USB-A cable.
The eco initiative of not including power adapter and EarPods I believe also applies to the refurbs as well.