Eleven years ago when Steve Ballmer laughed at the prospect that people would pay 500 dollars for a phone. Now the Flagships are double the price. Oh, how the times have changed...
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.
Other Remember back when 500 dollars for a phone was ridiculous?
- Thread starter darksithpro
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I remember every time I got a new car...it was like 2500 for a phone because there was no Bluetooth and I had to buy the phone from the manufacturer. It was safer than holding the phone to my head.
Remember when phones were essentially just phones that could maybe message, and a few added on some really basic versions of email and calendar, and that's about it?
Last edited:
I can’t believe I’m paying $3.95 a gallon in gas. I wish it was 1992 again.
I found my original iPhone receipt the other day from 2007, $599 for the 8 gb.
In my area, it was easy to buy a phone. You paid $199 and agreed to a two year contract. After the contract was fulfilled you owned the phone. The price of the phone was was never even discussed.
But the price of your data and phone plan stayed the same regardless of whether or not the iPhone paid off or not.
To be fair though the £1k phones aren’t exactly popular to the mass market and it’s being suggested it’s putting people off upgrading. I don’t think they’ll go back to £500 again but closer to £700 in the not too distant future.
I feel like 1k phones are the norm. The competition is around 5k as well. I think they will stagger the phones on different tiers.
My 2nd windows phone, way back before the first iPhone was launch, cost me USD$1100. It was an O2 XDA. I had a Dopod 838 after that, which was also about USD $1000. No idea what he was laughing at... should really have check out the prices on windows phones first. I was already on my 4th windows smartphone which was build by Samsung when the first iPhone was launch. They were roughly about the same price.
Smartphone were expensive and the year to year upgrades were minimum. Use to convert media so that I could download from my computer to my smartphone for consumption. Serious long waiting time for every conversion, ever the transfer from computer to smartphone took a really long time. The mobile web was a super cut down version to save on data. Battery life was abysmal if you wanted to play games on it. Games were insanely expensive. I had some fun games like lemonade, tower mogul, snails. They were much better than snakes on nokia phones but no where near what we have today on the app store. E-shops were fragmented and were prone to sudden shutdown. Building a E-book library was so depressing.
Good thing the iPhone came along and change the industry. Last few years my iOS devices, especially my iPhone, has become my main device on which I do most of my computing. Absolutely delightful experience within reach all the time.
Last edited:
This video gets shared a lot on the MacRumors, and even though what Ballmer says is mainly correct, it’s a dated view point in today’s realm of smart phone pricing and technological advancements. 11 years ago, Ballmer never knew that phones would incorporate 3-D facial mapping, augmented reality capabilities, TrueDepth Camera, more refined hardware, etc. I’m not saying I completely agree with the price points with phones today, but they are vastly different from a decade ago.
That’s what the iPhone is...
The App Store is what allows for more functionality. Silly argument.
Speaking the price of smart phones, did you upgrade to the iPhone XS Max from your older 2017 X? The 6.5 model that you were referring to that wouldn’t release last year if you recall. Seems Apple did increase the price and release the larger size, when you originally were claiming they wouldn’t.
The Motorola StarTAC came in at $1000 price tag back in 1996
I've said it before and I'll say it again people wanted no contracts and supposedly lower monthly bills. So this is what you get with unsubsidized phones. People who have been buying their iPhones and phones in general outright for a while are probably used to the pricing.
I mean $1000 dollar phones are not Apple exclusive. How much is a Pixel 3 XL and Note 9 full price.
I've said it before and I'll say it again people wanted no contracts and supposedly lower monthly bills. So this is what you get with unsubsidized phones. People who have been buying their iPhones and phones in general outright for a while are probably used to the pricing.
I mean $1000 dollar phones are not Apple exclusive. How much is a Pixel 3 XL and Note 9 full price.
Last edited:
No, I don’t and you neither. Listen to Steve Balmer, he’s laughing about $500 fully subsidized with a plan! So in fact the first iPhone was way more expensive.
The iPhone a not a "phone". It's a pocket computer and GPS that has telephone capabilities.
That was how I felt last year. Clearly the sales of the X were so good that Apple decided to release a larger version.
Good for Apple. Their success pleases me.