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The 16GB iPhone is NOT a ripoff

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C DM said:
I wonder if this thread was created so that a new user can gain a lot of posts quickly to gain access to other parts of the forums that require certain post limits. It'd be an interesting ploy.
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I can see them now... Hell yeah Marketplace! **fistpump** Booyah suckers.
 
lordofthereef said:
Damn, this thread is still going? I dismissed this guy that seems to have made his account with the single purpose of running this troll thread days ago.
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Do you even know what troll means?

Wow. So defending Apple on an Apple fan site is now being a troll?
 
warrior2000 said:
No. Apple is not ripping off anyone.

You are not looking at the big picture. You are simply focusing on how YOU benefit from getting a 32GB phone for the price of a 16GB. This is short term thinking. Just thinking about saving $100 TODAY.

Do you think Apple's profits are obscene? Their profit margin is only about 23% the last 2 years. Microsoft and Google have higher profit margins at about 25%. So is Apple really ripping off customers? For every dollar of goods they sell they only make 23 cents profit.

If Apple made the 1st tier 32GB then many who would have bought the 64GB phone would opt for the 32GB. For each of those decisions Apple would lose close to $100 in profit. The upgrades from 16 to 64 to 128 is almost pure profit. $100 may not sound like much to company like Apple but you need to realize how many phones they sell. Here is theoretical calculation:

Apple sells about 250 million iPhones a year.
Apple sells about 35% at the 2nd tier - 64GB
If Apple moves the first tier to 32 GB they could lose about 40% of the 64GB buyers
They will lose close to $90 of pure profit from those who decide to get the 32GB instead of the 64GB.

250,000,000 x 35% = 87.5 milion 64GB buyers
87.5 million x 40% = 35 million buyers who decide to get the 32GB instead of the 64GB
35 million x $95 of lost profit per phone = $3.3 billion in lost profit

Last year Apple made $40 billion in profit. A decrease of $3.3 billion is HUGE. That almost 8% of profits lost.

But you may say who cares if Apple makes $37 billion instead of $40 billion. That's still alot of money. But you should care. Because if Apple's profits begin dipping, even a little it could damage the company. Just look at late 2012 and early 2013. The stock tanked 45% in a matter of 6 months. Why? Because profits were down. Were they down 40%? Down 50%. No. The profits were down a mere 5% and the stock tanked big time.

But why as a consumer should I care about Apple's stock price? You should care because the stock price has a DIRECT EFFECT on the quality of product Apple can produce. For most of the top talent that works at Apple, 90% of their compensation is from stock options. So if the stock tanks or is flat their pay will be drastically effected. Because of this many of the TOP EMPLOYEES will be targeted by other firms who can offer much higher pay because of stock options that grow in value while Apple's does not. Bottom line is with a weak stock price Apple will not be able to retain top talent. Without top talent Apple cannot produce the awesome products we all love.

In addition without the profits Apple cannot support and grow its ecosystem. Without strong profits Apple won't be able to have the money to spend on R&D, acquisitions, and investments in facilities and cutting edge technologies. Other companies like Samsung simply copy Apple's innovations. Apple on the other hand spends BILLIONS in R&D. Companies like Samsung pay very little to run Android on their smartphones. Apple has to invest BILLIONS to keeping iOS running well and improving it every year. Without strong profits Apple would have to cut corners and that would hurt the quality of product.

The bottom line is the iPhone is a premium product. It will cost more than a Samsung or HTC. Just as a BMW will cost more than a Kia. But you get what you pay for. Is there any doubt that an iPhone is a more quality product than a Samsung/HTC? If so then you should be willing to pay a few more bucks for that quality. And be happy that those extra profits will be invested in R&D/top talent/ect to keep pumping out awesome products.

Here is a conversation I overheard the other day:

Concerned Troll: Yo, Tim Cook how is the iPhone sales going?

Tim Cook: Its going great! We can't even keep up with demand! We are sold out for the next 4 weeks.

Concerned Troll: Yo, Tim I got a great idea for next year.

Tim Cook: Lets hear it.

Concerned Troll: Next year you should give 16GB free to the low end phone.

Tim Cook: ok......


The point is Apple can't even keep up with demand when the iPhone launches! Why the hell would they discount their phones by giving memory free for the low tier? This strong demand continues through the holiday season and through Chinese New Year in February. So why would Apple sell iPhones at a discount when they can't keep up with demand for the first 6 months of release? It would be pure stupidity.

But guess what happens in March when the demand 'weakens'? We see all kinds of deals on iPhones. Last year BestBuy was giving $100 gift cards on all iPhone6 phones purchased. T-mobile and Sprint was doing the same. In other words you could get the 64GB iPhone6 for the price of the 16GB iPhone at launch. The bottom line is if someone is willing to wait 6 months after release they CAN get a 64GB iPhone for $650. They just need to wait a bit until the demand equalizes with supply.

So if 16GB isn't for you, you have 2 options. Either shell out the extra $100 and get the 64GB phone or wait 6 months and buy the iPhones at a discount. If you can't wait then shell out the $100. And what the hell is $100 anyway? Spread over 2 years thats about $4 a month. Are you going to really die from shelling out $4 more a month for the 64GB model? If so then the iPhone isn't for you. You probably are better off buying a $300 Android phone or a used iPhone. The bottom line is you gotta pay to play. PERIOD. There are tens of millions of other people who are willing to pay.

Apple is not greedy. Their profit margin is only 23%. They need to make profits to continue to support their awesome ecosystem, retain the best talent, and invest in R&D and new technologies. The demand for iPhone is so high in the first 6 months of release it is UNREASONABLE to expect Apple to 'discount' their top end phones. Those who have a tight budget and can't spend the extra $100 should either wait a few months till discount deals come around or realize that maybe a cheaper used iPhone or Android would be the more responsible thing to do.
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you may be under the apple reality distortion field that Jobs used to be - the truth is 16GB is ridiculous in this day and age, considering the OS takes up space itself 4 gigs you are left with around 12 GB - considering most sophisticated games are now over 1GIG and a 720p movie is a GIG or over you are limited to only having a couple of big games and movies and then there will soon be restrictions on storing movie files and photos especially 4K

It beggars belief apple have stuck with 16GB on any device now, it is really stingy, I thought it was terrible last year - 32GB should be the basic entry level storage on all iOS devices by now
 
Surf Donkey said:
As a tech lover, I can assure you, first generation anything eats the R&D costs baked in. That is a given.
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Yet the Mac and Macbook are way more expensive than PC's.

what the excuse there? Bottom line is Apple products are expensive. Deal with it. Or buy something else.
 
warrior2000 said:
Do you even know what troll means?

Wow. So defending Apple on an Apple fan site is now being a troll?
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I do, thanks. And it's not about defending Apple on a fan site. There you go again with the words in my mouth. Anyway, keep on repeating yourself. At least you're enjoying it, presumably.
 
VesselA said:
you may be under the apple reality distortion field that Jobs used to be - the truth is 16GB is ridiculous in this day and age, considering the OS takes up space itself 4 gigs you are left with around 12 GB - considering most sophisticated games are now over 1GIG and a 720p movie is a GIG or over you are limited to only having a couple of big games and movies and then there will soon be restrictions on storing movie files and photos especially 4K

It beggars belief apple have stuck with 16GB on any device now, it is really stingy, I thought it was terrible last year - 32GB should be the basic entry level storage on all iOS devices by now
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Yes and mainstream users download 1GB games....NOT.

You are describing a power user not the mainstream average Joe on the street.

The average Joe just uses his phone to take a few pictures, email, text, facebook, twitter, and stream some music and videos. They do not buy 1GB games or download movies to their phone.
 
lordofthereef said:
I do, thanks. And it's not about defending Apple on a fan site. There you go again with the words in my mouth. Anyway, keep on repeating yourself. At least you're enjoying it, presumably.
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explain how I'm trolling. Having an opinion that differs from you does not constitute trolling....unless you live in Communist China.
 
warrior2000 said:
explain how I'm trolling. Having an opinion that differs from you does not constitute trolling....unless you live in Communist China.
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There's no point. I don't need another argument going around in circles lol. I do commend you for at least stating that this is all your opinion. As much as you have repeated that you were bringing the facts I assumed you believed "apple is not ripping off customers" was a provable fact.
 
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C DM said:
You said it benefits customers. None of that shows that.
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Apple's profits benefit Apple consumers in the long run.

Strong Profits leads to more money to invest in R&D, retail stores, top talent, leverage with content providers and acquisitions. All that leads to better products.

Do you seriously think a near bankrupt Apple could produce the products Apple has made the last 3 years?
 
lordofthereef said:
There's no point. I don't need another argument going around in circles lol. I do commend you for at least stating that this is all your opinion. As much as you have repeated that you were bringing the facts I assumed you believed "apple is not ripping off customers" was a provable fact.
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I provided FACTS that support my opinion that 16GB is not a rip off.........for the mainstream customer.

Now for any random guy even a 128GB base iPhone may be a rip off....to him.
 
Surf Donkey said:
I can see them now... Hell yeah Marketplace! **fistpump** Booyah suckers.
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So who should set the prices on iPhone? The government? You? Obama? The Senate?

Ultimately its the market place that determines the price of the iPhone.
 
One thing I will add, and this is of course my opinion, Apple should do down thing about the storage size text message threads take up. I can have a couple months of threads, without oxidizes, take up multiple GB of storage. If I were to copy and paste that in rich text format I doubt I would even reach 100mb. Unsure what goes on with storing simple text messages, perhaps formatting them takes up space? It's rather embarrassing.
 
warrior2000 said:
That is NOT a minor thing. You do realize that almost all of the top employees have 90% of their compensation in stock options. If the stock tanks again and stayed down you will lose top talent. Reason is their pay at Apple will not be even close to what they could make at other tech companies that have a strong stock price.
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Actually I'd be very happy if Apple saw some more fluctuation in their top-level management, they're currently driving almost all parts of the company in a direction I don't like. Yes, they're breaking sales records every year, but personally I couldn't care less.
I don't like the big iPhones, the disposable iMacs/MacPros and couldn't care less about Apple Watches or iPads. That's why I'm sitting on a Late 2008 MBP, iPhone 5S, classic MacPro and a Hackintosh. I could easily afford upgrading all of this to 2015 models, but I certainly won't stick the money in Apples a*s for something I don't like.
 
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warrior2000 said:
So who should set the prices on iPhone? The government? You? Obama? The Senate?

Ultimately its the market place that determines the price of the iPhone.
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That went over your head I think. The marketplace, on this site, requires a set amount of posts to access. What was being Implied is that you are just trying to reach that post count.

But damn, goes to show you'll argue anything.
 
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lordofthereef said:
That went over your head I think. The marketplace, on this site, requires a set amount of posts to access. What was being Implied is that you are just trying to reach that post count.

But damn, goes to show you'll argue anything.
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well, I'm new here so I had no idea what marketplace was.
 
I for one am glad that warrior is willing to stand up for the little guy Apple, against those nasty consumers who want more product for their money.
 
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Fl0r!an said:
Actually I'd be very happy if Apple saw some more fluctuation in their top-level management, they're currently driving almost all parts of the company in a direction I don't like. Yes, they're breaking sales records every year, but personally I couldn't care less.
I don't like the big iPhones, the disposable iMacs/MacPros and couldn't care less about Apple Watches or iPads. That's why I'm sitting on a Late 2008 MBP, iPhone 5S, classic MacPro and a Hackintosh. I could easily afford upgrading all of this to 2015 models, but I certainly won't stick the money in Apples a*s for something I don't like.
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so what direction would you like Apple to take?

you want 3.5 inch flagship iPhones? Not sure what you expect from them.
 
warrior2000 said:
Apple's profits benefit Apple consumers in the long run.

Strong Profits leads to more money to invest in R&D, retail stores, top talent, leverage with content providers and acquisitions. All that leads to better products.

Do you seriously think a near bankrupt Apple could produce the products Apple has made the last 3 years?
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That's great rhetoric, petty much like the one that was used by kings to collect taxes from peasants, or the mob to collect protection money. Nice rhetoric at least deserves nice rhetoric in response.
 
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warrior2000 said:
I provided FACTS that support my opinion that 16GB is not a rip off.........for the mainstream customer.

Now for any random guy even a 128GB base iPhone may be a rip off....to him.
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The facts you provided were those that showed Apple's profits might be lower. That is not the same as providing facts that customers are not and do not feel ripped off by Apple. I can buy something because I feel to my best affordable option and still feel ripped off. In unsure there is any statistical data that you or I or anyone else can provide that will show conclusively, one way or the other. What we can say is that there are definitely people adversely effected by this limit.
 
C DM said:
That's great rhetoric, petty much like the one that was used by kings to collect taxes from peasants, or the mob to collect protection money. Nice rhetoric at least deserves nice rhetoric in response.
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No one is forcing anyone to buy Apple products.

The King would put you in jail if you didn't pay taxes and the mob would burn your store down if you didn't pay protection money. What a horrible comparison.
 
lordofthereef said:
The facts you provided were those that showed Apple's profits might be lower. That is not the same as providing facts that customers are not and do not feel ripped off by Apple. I can buy something because I feel to my best affordable option and still feel ripped off. In unsure there is any statistical data that you or I or anyone else can provide that will show conclusively, one way or the other. What we can say is that there are definitely people adversely effected by this limit.
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And there would be people who would be adversely effect by a 32GB limit also.
 
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