Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Remember when iPhones cost $199.00?

Aibocyrus said:
You don’t read everything do you? Just hear what you want to. Again. I don’t work for AT&T. I work for Tesla now. And not a sales role either.
Go ahead and keep thinking phones only cost $200.
You couldn’t answer why companies would take a $400 hit. Stumped ya.
Click to expand...

You spin around like linda blair in the exorcist! Still waiting to hear why my bill doesn't go down.

From a phone salesman to a car salesman, eh? Shocking I say, shocking!
 
1000+ dollar iPhones is tim Cook's legacy

It's allowed Google to charge an arm and a leg for their Pixels too.

Nexus for a time was midrange priced

It's also going to stretch out upgrade cycles and change the dynamic I think
 
  • Like
Reactions: RtWrecklezX
macsrcool1234 said:
You spin around like linda blair in the exorcist! Still waiting to hear why my bill doesn't go down.

From a phone salesman to a car salesman, eh? Shocking I say, shocking!
Click to expand...
Again. You don’t read. Did I not just say it’s not a sales role? Oh that’s right... I did. You failed to read everything. Again. Only hearing what you want.

Your bill didn’t go down before on the old plans. Keeping a phone over 2 years in the past would lead to over paying for the device. The way the plans are built now, if you pay off your phone and don’t upgrade your bill does go down.

So now I’ve answered your question yet you still are unable to answer mine. Very interesting. You’ll probably start some new argument now just to avoid it. Again.
[doublepost=1509213608][/doublepost]
Oridus said:
Logic is hard to grasp.

People really think that a carrier would take a $400m hit for every 1 million units sold at $199.99. It's mind boggling how they can think the carriers would do this.
Click to expand...
I’m so relieved to hear some one else actually is smart enough to understand this. Anyone who doesn’t is just hard headed and will refuse to listen to logic because it isn’t what they want to hear or believe
 
  • Like
Reactions: eyoungren, artfossil and MEJHarrison
Diorama said:
Didn’t you buy the 6SSS for like $800?
Click to expand...

Yep... I did. $949 actually for the 8 Plus. Although price had no factor in my decision to pass on the X... lets not pretend that Apple's products are reasonably priced.

Quality products yes... and I pay the premium on the iPhone and iPad because there isn't a better solution.

See the computer in my sig? Yeah, I had both a MB Pro and iMac but when it came time to upgrade I passed and went back to PC. What do you figure an i7 7700k with 32GB ram with an 11GB 1080 Ti and dual 1TB NVMe Samsung 960 SSDs with both CPU and GPU liquid cooling would cost if it had an Apple logo on it?

$7500? $10k?

Sounds about right... $4k right now gets you an iMac with hardware that was top of the line 18 months ago.

So I got the 8 Plus... the iPad Pro 12.9 is the new laptop substitute... and I got 3x the PC for 50% less than I'd have paid if it were Apple.

I win.

... and what's up with the AirPods? $159.99? LMAO... are they made of gold or something? My LG Tones do the same thing for 1/3 the price.

But yeah, lets keep bowing down to Apple's ridiculous pricing.

🙂
 
macsrcool1234 said:
You spin around like linda blair in the exorcist! Still waiting to hear why my bill doesn't go down.

From a phone salesman to a car salesman, eh? Shocking I say, shocking!
Click to expand...

You're missing it.

Lets say you have a small business. Your main business is providing people paper to write on, with a monthly subscription charge for X amount of sheets of paper per month. But people also need to use pens to write on the paper. You sell pens, as a convenience to your customer so they continue to use your paper service. You buy these pens from Bic at cost. The pens cost $6.50 retail. You turn around and sell that pen to your customer for $2, however you charge a connivence fee of $.50. This means you take a $4 loss on each pen you sell. How do you make up the cost of the pen that you purchased from Bic @ $10? Don't you think that you would make sure the pricing of your paper subscription service was priced adequately to make up the price of the pens you bought from Bic and resold at a huge discount?

I don't know how much more simple I can make this... Your profit needs to come from somewhere if you're taking such a huge hit on products you don't produce yourself and buy at cost from another company for sale at your business for convenience for your customer.
 
myscrnnm said:
Apple is well known as the industry leader when it comes to profit margins, but the iPhone X's margins aren't as high as one might think. Analysts believe the parts alone are nearly $600. Even the iPhone 7 cost about $250 in parts. Yes, the labor in China is incredibly cheap and in relatively high supply, so that number is negligible. But this doesn't even take into account the marketing costs, the cut for the carriers and retailers, wages that it earns sales associates, shipping costs, et cetera. The OLED panel probably accounts for a significant part of the iPhone X's cost to Apple as well, as I believe they only have one supplier, which gives that company more control over pricing.
Click to expand...
What's funny is that the OLED Supplier I believe is Samsung...apple fans love to say Samsung phones suck but the components in many iPhones have been Samsung made... Regarding carrier subsidizing.. Traditionally you got the discounted price of a device on a one or two year contract..the reason for this is carriers ate the cost to keep u on their Network. The longer u stay and have service with them the more they make.. Hence what's eating 400 dollars when we can make 2400 over the period of 24 months on a plan with mrc of 100 per month. From thru point of view the 400 dollar subsidy is peanuts.
 
Aibocyrus said:
Your bill didn’t go down before on the old plans.
Click to expand...


Thank you for proving me right. Wasn't so bad was it?

Oridus said:
You're missing it.

Lets say you have a small business. Your main business is providing people paper to write on, with a monthly subscription charge for X amount of sheets of paper per month. But people also need to use pens to write on the paper. You sell pens, as a convenience to your customer so they continue to use your paper service. You buy these pens from Bic at cost. The pens cost $6.50 retail. You turn around and sell that pen to your customer for $2, however you charge a connivence fee of $.50. This means you take a $4 loss on each pen you sell. How do you make up the cost of the pen that you purchased from Bic @ $10? Don't you think that you would make sure the pricing of your paper subscription service was priced adequately to make up the price of the pens you bought from Bic and resold at a huge discount?

I don't know how much more simple I can make this... Your profit needs to come from somewhere if you're taking such a huge hit on products you don't produce yourself and buy at cost from another company for sale at your business for convenience for your customer.
Click to expand...

6LlqCea.jpg
 
No cause they never cost $199. You had $30 a month for 2 years built into your service plan to pay for the phone
 
I remember when a new car cost < $2,000.
phones you didn't own when 2 years were up - and people are right you paid for the phone for at least 2 years.
 
iMas70 said:
Those were the days... $199.00 for a 16GB iPhone with a 2 year contract. Now we're paying over $1K. I'm looking at $1229 with tax. This is pretty much the limit for what I will spend on a phone. A few friends said I'm crazy. I could buy a few non-Apple computers for that money. I don't expect to upgrade for at least 3 years.
Click to expand...

FYI, iPhones NEVER cost $199. #justSaying
 
It’s a lot of money but if you do a 3/4 years cicle then is not to much (200-250€ Per year). I’ve paid 800+ for my 6 and I will extend it another year. My idea was to swap it this year but I’m really disappointed with 8/X and the 6 is still running great.
 
It's been awhile so I don't remember exactly what I was paying then. I do remember there being a $25 discount if I did "something". That could have been changing my plan or going with one of their finance options.

I feel that I currently have the best deal available to me from AT&T -

Nation 450 with rollover - $39.99
Unlimited messaging - $20.00
Unlimited data (Grandfathered plan) - $40.00

Total is $99.99 - a FAN discount of $18.40. That brings the price down to $81.59

Aibocyrus - Thanks for contributing knowledge from the other side to this thread. I do understand they had creative ways to get the rest of the price of the phone. It was nicely built into the bill to make people feel like they were paying $199.00.
 
Am I misreading or is your argument that because you’ve continued to pay very high contract prices for years, this demonstrates that you were not being charged for the phone?

Yeah must be misreading. Anyway, just another to chime in that of course the iPhone was never that cheap. But nearly everyone bought it on contract and enjoyed the 2 year lock-in.
 
  • Like
Reactions: eyoungren and Oridus
Oridus said:
So the carrier just ate the $450 subsidy from a $649.99 phone?
Click to expand...

For people not switching that weren't intending to, yeah they essentially were.

It's not like plans are any cheaper even without contracts these days. That's why subsidy phones cease to exist.

Some were forced to respond to t mobile pricing but that's another subject
 
Aibocyrus said:
Explain why the carrier would lose $450? What kind of rational human being would run a business that way? They’d go bankrupt.
Click to expand...

Because 7 years ago the carriers were in a major war to acquire new consumers.

In the early days of smart phones, AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, T-Mobile and dozens of no-name start-ups were all trying to grab as many of the hundreds of millions of consumers waiting to pay big money for telephony and data as possible. Their investors were interested in early growth and a long-term play, not short term gains and losses.

Do a little homework. Go learn about the history of Amazon who lost money hand over fist for almost 20 years before finally turning a profit. Take a look at what happened to their stock last week and how much Jeff Bezos is now worth. Then come back here and have a rational conversation with people who know what they're talking about.
 
thadoggfather said:
For people not switching that weren't intending to, yeah they essentially were.

It's not like plans are any cheaper even without contracts these days. That's why subsidy phones cease to exist.

Some were forced to respond to t mobile pricing but that's another subject
Click to expand...

Uh. Yes. Yes they are.

Example of two 4 line family plans:

Family Talk 700 Min Plan (Old school AT&T plan, very popular) - 3gb data per line (Lets think to the truth that most people didn't have family plans with unlimited, and we used far less data back in 2010-2011 before these plans finally went the way of the dodo)

$60 Host line
$30 $10x3 for 3 partner lines
$30 Unlimited Text
$120 $30x4 for 3gb data plans each. 12 gigs not shared.
----
$240




Mobile Share Advantage 16gb (unlim talk/text)

$80 Rate Plan Charge
$80 $20x4 for 4 line fees
---
$160

$160 is effectively LESS than $240... unless I live in a weird alternate universe.

More data, less money, no contract in either situation.


Even if we want to go unlimited data, an AT&T unlimited plus (no restricted speed) data plan for 4 lines is $195, or down to $185 if you do auto pay and paperless. You can even get another $25 off TV service if you're a DTV customer... but let's just go high amount. $195 is effectively LESS than $240.
[doublepost=1509234302][/doublepost]
boltjames said:
Because 7 years ago the carriers were in a major war to acquire new consumers.

In the early days of smart phones, AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, T-Mobile and dozens of no-name start-ups were all trying to grab as many of the hundreds of millions of consumers waiting to pay big money for telephony and data as possible. Their investors were interested in early growth and a long-term play, not short term gains and losses.

Do a little homework. Go learn about the history of Amazon who lost money hand over fist for almost 20 years before finally turning a profit. Take a look at what happened to their stock last week and how much Jeff Bezos is now worth. Then come back here and have a rational conversation with people who know what they're talking about.
Click to expand...


A 2 year contract was in place because that was the average time it took to recoup the "savings" they gave to you off the equipment. Hence how they plan to MAKE money. If they price their service to never recoup that cost... they would perpetually be in the red for money, never turning a profit.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Aibocyrus
My bill never changed after a 2year contract with ATT. I joined their original iPhone unlimited data plan. It was like $30 per iphone on top of your minutes and texting plan.

I remember paying around $200-300 for an iPhone. I never upgraded yearly and I always would skip the S line.

My bill never changed after I kept the iphone 4 for more than 2 years. It was the same (during and out of contract), $160 for a 2 iphone att plan.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back