Apple Screwing its Customers Re: 16 GB

[deeddawg]

Without knowing the demographics, we can't know for certain one way or the other.

HOWEVER, consider the following:

1. Apple most likely has performed some amount of market study via focus group or other mechanism to understand the needs/preferences of its overall consumer base (not just the propeller heads who hang out on MR and/or follow Tech writers). Accordingly they likely have a sense of the real world viability of the 16GB units among the entire customer base.
2. Apple's product teams want to see their products succeed and won't intentionally try to anger customers. (noting that there will always be some layer of customers who would cost more to please than the revenue they'd generate; better if they're not customers)
3. Given the above two points, the existence of the 16GB tier suggests Apple believes the 16GB units are viable to its customer demographics.

So far Apple's been pretty good at succeeding despite the MR naysayers and others. Remember all the hullabaloo about 16GB units last year? Or how 1GB of RAM was so crippling? Sales figures suggest the majority of the market just simply didn't care.

MAYBE Apple is wrong this time around. Time will tell and the market will speak its mind. I still think Apple probably has a greater level of market insight than MR commentators or many tech writers if only because Apple has far deeper pockets with which to pay professional market researchers to find out the reality rather than relying on their opinion.

 

[FSMBP]

You know what sucks even more? Finding a way to fill my 128GB iPhone 6! There is just so much damn space I don't even know what to do!

Seriously man you gotta pay to play and that means ponying up an extra $100 which isn't that bad, especially for what you get. If it takes 2 months of cash to buy the 16GB then wait 3months to get the 64GB. Really it seams like consumers need to be fed with a silver spoon, I see so many people desperate to buy an iPhone that they just grab the cheapest one and then regret it later...I think it should have been 32/64/128 as well but its not.

For any other company I would agree with you, but not for Apple. Apple offers 8GB iPhones for the cheap; you get what you pay for. But for the flagship iPhone 6+ to have a base of 16GB? It's ridiculous.

Everything in the iPhone's have changed in the past five years (displays, RAM, processor, camera etc.). But they have had the same base 16GB since 2009...

 

[barkmonster]

For any other company I would agree with you, but not for Apple. Apple offers 8GB iPhones for the cheap; you get what you pay for. But for the flagship iPhone 6+ to have a base of 16GB? It's ridiculous.

Everything in the iPhone's have changed in the past five years (displays, RAM, processor, camera etc.). But they have had the same base 16GB since 2009...

I agree. It was purely a matter of cost restrictions that kept me from getting the 32Gb iPhone 5. I'd had a 32Gb 3GS as my first iPhone and grossly under estimated how much storage iOS used. I had no choice because the cost of repairing faults and replacing the battery on my iPhone 3GS would have been a waste of money after I'd already paid to have the faults fixed months earlier and the people who did the repair were completely dismissive of any responsibility when they failed within months.

 

[GoCubsGo]

Man! I always miss out on a good screwing.

 

[deeddawg]

Technology marches on and flash memory gets cheaper. 16GB has cost pennies for years now, 32GB should have become base with the iPhone 4S or 5

Pricing 101: Charge what the market will bear. With well differentiated non-commodity products, price them to what consumers will pay. The actual component / parts costs are irrelevant (so long as you can sell the product at a profit).

 

[heisenberg123]

As someone who does nothing but stream music and back up pictures and videos after the weekend, what's all the fuss about?

And wtf is an "entry level" iPhone? A joke, I hope.

Buy it to fit your lifestyle. My 16gb rocks!

exactly, the 16GB is perfect for a large number of users

people always want free upgrades

 

[stasha]

I had 16 gb iphone 5s,it was okay , people decide what they want apple give them choice

 

[FSMBP]

exactly, the 16GB is perfect for a large number of users

people always want free upgrades

Free upgrades? They are offering an iPhone that boasts 240FPS HD video, 43MP pano shoots, burst mode, apps etc. that barely has 12GB of usable space (which needs 4GBs free to upgrade the OS).

I doubt that 16GB is perfect for a large number of users given the slower adoption rates of iOS 8.

 

[whirldy]

Nothing is "free"!

I agree with Gruber:
32/64/128

Maybe next time

 

[heisenberg123]

Free upgrades? They are offering an iPhone that boasts 240FPS HD video, 43MP pano shoots, burst mode, apps etc. that barely has 12GB of usable space (which needs 4GBs free to upgrade the OS).

I doubt that 16GB is perfect for a large number of users given the slower adoption rates of iOS 8.

well it obviously sells well enough for apple to continue to make it so that makes me believe it is perfect for all those users

are you suggesting people are buying the 16GB knowing its not enough for their usage?

again 16GB users should not be the type that stores their whole life on their camera roll, you need to backup often if you take video and photos by the 100's

 

[cynics]

It's just another brilliant business move by Apple.

It almost doesn't make sense to NOT get the 64gb! It's the same price as 32gb last year! It's free 32gb!

......is what Apple wants you to think.

Reality is they just made a 299 dollar phone (on contract) a much more if not the most popular phone ever.

Depending on the market be prepared to see a push for a 299 dollar (on contract) base model iphone. Don't worry though by then Apple will be giving you 32-64 more gb of FREE storage then too! Lol

 

[Stevessvt]

I have a 16GB 6, I really wanted a 64 but NO ONE has one locally. Best Buy seems to have a stock of 128's, but I really didnt want to spend that much. I know I will have to back up my pics often, but with so many cloud based apps, like dropbox, or Google plus giving gigs of storage away free for photo back up, all automatically done (along with all my music on google music, so I stream everything) I'm pretty sure I can make the 16 gigs work for me.

 

[heisenberg123]

I have a 16GB 6, I really wanted a 64 but NO ONE has one locally. Best Buy seems to have a stock of 128's, but I really didnt want to spend that much. I know I will have to back up my pics often, but with so many cloud based apps, like dropbox, or Google plus giving gigs of storage away free for photo back up, all automatically done (along with all my music on google music, so I stream everything) I'm pretty sure I can make the 16 gigs work for me.

agreed totally

 

[veedubshafer]

I'm one of those people that 16gig is just fine for me. Actually, all of my iPhones were all 16gig models except for my original iPhone 2g, which was 8 gig.



I don't store music on my phone, I stream it when I want to listen.



Photos and videos get auto uploaded to my Dropbox account, so they get deleted on the phone afterwards and I can view them from all my devices through Dropbox.



I don't play games on my phone. I have a PS4 for that.



And I usually don't have more than 30 apps on my phone.



So everyone's needs are different. I never use more than half of my storage on the phone, and currently have about 9.8 gig free.



Also, my phone is glued to my hand most days. I read a lot of news from a bunch of news apps, I do Facebook, take pictures of my daughter and stream music in my car.



So I am not a grand mother/father, I'm in my 40's actually. I use my phone constantly, just not in the same way as most on here, but I would guess that I am similar to the average american though in usage.

Same here and I'm only 33! I just looked and I have 17 apps on my phone besides all the Apple ones that come on the phone that you can't delete. The 5s I just sold was a 32gb. I had no use for all that space. Right now I have 8.8gb free space.

Loving this 6+ 16gb space grey in black leather case ;-)

 

[ajm222]

16 works fine for me, especially since i started using this battery doctor app. never thought i'd need something like that after switching from android, but the thing opened up 4gb of memory on my phone just by running it for a few seconds a couple of times. i went from 2gb to 6gb of free space. i think it just cleared out all the useless cache that had built up, and i apparently had a ton of it.

 

[FSMBP]

well it obviously sells well enough for apple to continue to make it so that makes me believe it is perfect for all those users

are you suggesting people are buying the 16GB knowing its not enough for their usage?

again 16GB users should not be the type that stores their whole life on their camera roll, you need to backup often if you take video and photos by the 100's

Just because something sells doesn't mean people didn't desire more. The original iPad sold great but people wanted a camera on it (which it got later).

The whole issue is that 16GB is deceiving in two aspects that I haven't seen a normal non-techny person know:

1. 16GB* is really 14GB formatted, turns into 12GB with the OS on it. So a 16GB is really 12GB (which the common consumer lost 25% of advertised* storage).

2. The OS requires 4GB to update. Which makes a 16GB* (which is really 12GB) device into a ~8GB device (around half of they think they're getting).

Adoption rates slow down & the OS becames fragmented and "it just works" goes out the window. I currently level around 10GBs usage on my iPhone, I shouldn't have to pony up an extra $100 for 64GB when I only need a fraction.

 

[cdaq]

Are you getting screwed by Apple?
I would say not, after all no one is making you buy the phone. However, I will point out that Apple is absolutely selling their phones for much more than others in its class. Take for instance the Sonzy Z3, you get 3GB RAM and 32 GB internal flash memory (plus an SD card slot) for less than the 16GB iphone. Personally, I couldn't buy an iphone based on value alone. But the market is what it is, nobody gets screwed as long as there are options.

 

[osofast240sx]

32gb's should be the entry level for all iPhones.

Actually it should be 128gb and the price differences between sizes:
4" - $199
4.7" - $299
5.5" - $399
Would u ever buy a Mac with 16,32,64 gb of storage?

 

[heisenberg123]

Just because something sells doesn't mean people didn't desire more. The original iPad sold great but people wanted a camera on it (which it got later).

The whole issue is that 16GB is deceiving in two aspects that I haven't seen a normal non-techny person know:

1. 16GB* is really 14GB formatted, turns into 12GB with the OS on it. So a 16GB is really 12GB (which the common consumer lost 25% of advertised* storage).

2. The OS requires 4GB to update. Which makes a 16GB* (which is really 12GB) device into a ~8GB device (around half of they think they're getting).

Adoption rates slow down & the OS becames fragmented and "it just works" goes out the window. I currently level around 10GBs usage on my iPhone, I shouldn't have to pony up an extra $100 for 64GB when I only need a fraction.

OTA updates are not the only way to update your device

adoption rates are not real numbers, there are those people who don't upgrade their 4s in this example because they think it will slow the device even though its listed as a iOS 8 device so you loose all those people, there are people who are giving the iphone as a work phoen so they do treat it like their own device worrying about new features or new OS, there are the jailbreakers who wont update untill they can

 

[noobinator]

This thread is really like arguing which color is better: Blue or Green.

 

[cdaq]

I just don't get it! Apple is charging you more for less hardware. Period. For instance, I understand the argument that Apple has optimized their OS so it doesn't need more RAM to operate efficiently. Great! Then WTF are you still charging me for it???? Ditto with internal flash memory.

 

[deeddawg]

Just because something sells doesn't mean people didn't desire more.

We'd all love to be driving a Ferrari at a Ford price...

 

[richwoodrocket]

Get me a violin

If they're screwing you then don't buy it.

Lol

16 gigs is fine for most people. If you want more, you pay more. Simple.

 

[heisenberg123]

I just don't get it! Apple is charging you more for less hardware. Period. For instance, I understand the argument that Apple has optimized their OS so it doesn't need more RAM to operate efficiently. Great! Then WTF are you still charging me for it???? Ditto with internal flash memory.

how are they charging more for less?

 

[I7guy]

I just don't get it! Apple is charging you more for less hardware. Period. For instance, I understand the argument that Apple has optimized their OS so it doesn't need more RAM to operate efficiently. Great! Then WTF are you still charging me for it???? Ditto with internal flash memory.

I don't understand what you are trying to convey. The price is the price. Thankfully we as consumers have alternatives. Nobody is forcing Apple products down anyone's throat.