Can anyone enlighten me about the free on contract status? It's mentioned everywhere in the announcement, but essentially nobody gets that option when trying to purchase the phone. I don't mean any financing or payment plans, but 'actually' free because you sign a new 2 year agreement with your carrier. Who does that? I'm on ATT (since the start) and have two lines up for renewal.
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iPhone SE and 9.7-Inch iPad Pro Now Available for Order
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You mean your wife?
yeah.. and she did't came with a 2 year plan! Always read the small print!!
A few business customers and some grandfathered Verizon customers (such as myself) still have the option of signing a two-year agreement in exchange for the subsidized pricing ($0 & $50). AFAIK, aside from that, there isn't anyone else that carriers are giving contracts/contract pricing to.
ATT did away with them for everyone starting in January (http://arstechnica.com/business/2016/01/att-getting-rid-of-phone-contracts-and-subsidies-this-week/). Verizon still honors them, at this time, for grandfathered customers only.
All new customers for all new carriers no longer have the option with phones. The only two options are:
- Pay for iPhone in full
- Get on an interest-free monthly payment plan.
I'll be updating my 4s to the 5SE. I wouldn't say my 4s is running well as battery life has diminished to only a few hours, chrome crashes frequently, and echoing a key can take 2-3s at times. It has survived 5 years of daily use and it's still functional as an ipod touch now, everything still works which is more than I can say for my iPad 1 which topped out at iOS 5 and has become a heavy kindle. I'd vote the 4s as the top Apple product when ranking based on how well it's aged and years of useful life without upgrades.
Imagine if Apple were this smart about the mini (quad core skylake and option for mobile graphics card at $700 price point) and the macbook pro (13" retina skylake refresh w usb 3 (x2), usb-c, and tb at $1300 price point). Those two products, along with this phone, would go a long way to quieting those of us who care about tech quality as much as design. The sad truth is that this 100% doable today, and it wouldn't even take a lot of work to make it happen. Maybe cut memory upgrade prices by 30% and we'd stop whining about soldered-on ram too?
Where apple is failing is with strategy. They are betting on their buyers to be less tech savvy than their fanbase. Eventually that strategy is going to catch up with them. It feels like that's happening these days.
I'd be willing to bet that apple could sell 5 products (Phone, Tablet, Desktop, Laptop, AIW) and make as much money as they do now, with 3 categories for each (cheap, mid-level, pro). The naming confusion and feature segmentation within each product category, the watch's very existence, the massive gap between the mini and pro in price and power, selling 2 year old hardware at retail price, lack of upgradeability in all products, unnecessary form factor differences, and the absolute mess that is the macbook/macbook air/macbook pro lineup is what I consider laughable. I like Tim Cook's smile, but I do not believe he has demonstrated himself as a competent leader.
Imagine if Apple were this smart about the mini (quad core skylake and option for mobile graphics card at $700 price point) and the macbook pro (13" retina skylake refresh w usb 3 (x2), usb-c, and tb at $1300 price point). Those two products, along with this phone, would go a long way to quieting those of us who care about tech quality as much as design. The sad truth is that this 100% doable today, and it wouldn't even take a lot of work to make it happen. Maybe cut memory upgrade prices by 30% and we'd stop whining about soldered-on ram too?
Where apple is failing is with strategy. They are betting on their buyers to be less tech savvy than their fanbase. Eventually that strategy is going to catch up with them. It feels like that's happening these days.
I'd be willing to bet that apple could sell 5 products (Phone, Tablet, Desktop, Laptop, AIW) and make as much money as they do now, with 3 categories for each (cheap, mid-level, pro). The naming confusion and feature segmentation within each product category, the watch's very existence, the massive gap between the mini and pro in price and power, selling 2 year old hardware at retail price, lack of upgradeability in all products, unnecessary form factor differences, and the absolute mess that is the macbook/macbook air/macbook pro lineup is what I consider laughable. I like Tim Cook's smile, but I do not believe he has demonstrated himself as a competent leader.
Out of curiosity, when in the last 194 days since the 6s release was the decision made to "dump" it's internals in a 5s shell? You must believe a tanker like Apple can be steered like a motorboat.
How about you first learn the name before mocking it?
The 5 series was doing well being the most profitable smartphone ever, yet they introduced the 6 series of phablets. Must have been a bunch of panic decisions at Apple lately. Because who would ever change a screen size unless he is in deep trouble?
Do want the iPad Pro 9.7".
However, at an equivalent of $750 (32GB Wi-Fi) here in Sweden, I won't be buying. Crazy prices!
However, at an equivalent of $750 (32GB Wi-Fi) here in Sweden, I won't be buying. Crazy prices!
Ridiculous. Why would Apple put the resources into redesigning a brand new phone for a style that has run the course of its premium selling life, when it will be last year's design in 6 months?
On the one hand I do agree with you -- it is "not a genuine attempt to build a new phone for the 4" market." But whoever said it was supposed to be? You?
This is clearly a way to immediately address 4" customers needs, who don't care about style as much as function. Although kudos to Apple for offering it in the very popular Rose Gold when they didn't have to. For all practical purposes this phone is a 6s in a 4" body. I'm going to buy one as soon as they hit the stores next week. And then in 6 to 18 months, I'm going to upgrade to the 7se which I believe Apple has planned, as they depreciate the SE to make a more affordable, and competitive, entry level phone worldwide.
It's a brilliant business move, and one that gets Apple's latest technology into my hands, and more of my money into their bank account which would not have happened for at least another 6 months had they waited to put the resources into a "genuine attempt to build a new phone for the 4" market."
The 6s still sold more phones than any model before it, and has made more profit than any single model sold by their competitors. And the se allows them to continue to expand their ecosystem worldwide.
What's the rush? Wait 3-6 months and it'll be on sale somewhere.
As for crazy prices: yup.
Shut up! You want a notebook with three different kinds of ports, when Thunderbolt 3 could replace them all? No wonder Apple doesn't listen to you. Go find yourself a nice Windows PC with all the ports you like and can't get enough of.
Regarding the new phone, for me it is the optimal size. I love my 4S but it is getting old. But on the downside, Apple blatantly skips a 32GB option and makes the base a measly 16GB which is a VERY limited amount of memory given that iOS continues to grow. This is just Apple giving you the finger knowing full well you will need to upgrade to the next option up....which is 64GB. That is just a blatant money grab.
knowing full well you will need to upgrade to the next option up....which is 64GB. That is just a blatant money grab.
Yes it is. And that's for a fully functioning one in good condition. When I took my 5s in for out-of-warranty for damaged caused by the upgrade to 9.2.1, they told me it would cost $269 to repair, or trade it in for $200. I was contemplating keeping it for a backup phone, but now that they will offer so little for it, and probably less since the Touch ID function doesn't work, I'm definitely keeping it as backup.
It's possible that in many years it will be a problem, but for now you have to keep in mind that developers, even those wanting to make more powerful "pro" apps probably don't want to restrict their app to 4GB devices as there will probably be a lot more 2GB devices in use for a while (and that would also have happened if the 9.7" pro had 4GB as the iPad air 2 has 2GB and will continue to sell).
Great! That confirms that I did the right choice by going for the Air 2 instead of the Pro.
I come from iPad Air.
Most have done away with them, but Verizon has it as an option through Apple.com for some reason (if you want the monthly payments, you have to go through Verizon.com directly where the 2 year agreement isn't an option... don't ask).
The specs are the same as the flagship. Hardly a "panicked move". It's Apple... Did they "panic" when iPad sales started dipping?
First people were complaining about 1GB, then Apple finally updates the entire line to 2GB and people still bitch about that.
What Application on iOS requires more than 2GB? I can't even run out of RAM on purpose with my Air 2. Is this disappointment purely just because the 12.9" has more RAM? I was shocked and baffled why the 12.9" even had 4GB of RAM, to be quite frank.
I know. It really cracks me up. A lot of people say the new 9.7 iPad Pro needs to have 4GB, because, well, um, yeah, it has "Pro" in the name, and needs to run "Pro level" apps. But nobody is saying what those apps are or what they're doing with them.
Like people are running Matlab, Maya, Solidworks, or some other compute/memory intensive desktop software on their tablet.
Couple with the A9X and faster ram and ssd, I am thinking we'll be fine through iOS10 at the least.
Grabbed an SE 64gb in rose gold and the iPad Pro 9.7" in rose gold. I was going to skip the iPad Pro 9.7" and just use my Air 2 but figured ehhhh let's try the Pro 9.7" since I did enjoy the Pencil and ASK on the 12.9".