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All iPads The great memory rip-off

ZBoater said:
I take issue with the term "ripoff", as it suggests some sort of malice or fraud. Something being grossly overpriced can be called a ripoff, and I guess the case could be made the iPads are overpriced. But to me, you can't be ripped off is someone OFFERS you something, and you CHOOSE to buy it. It becomes a ripoff if they hid something from you, and you found out after the sale. You were ripped off.

Here, Apple is offering iPads for sales in several configurations at several price points to appeal to different people. You can choose to buy or not buy. 16GB is a very popular configuration. Many people don't need more than that, others can make do, others can't afford anything else. I just don't see the ripoff part. These things are selling like crazy. If it was "grossly overpriced", they would not be selling. But they are.

Do I wish I could buy Apple products cheaper? Of course I do. Is Apple ripping me off? Of course not.
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Its the ONLY difference between the models. The first 16GB cost as much as a 128 GB SSD in retail, the first 48GB as much as a 256GB SSD in retail.

The definition is:
rip-off (rpôf, -f)
n. Slang
1. A product or service that is overpriced or of poor quality.
2. Something, such as a film or story, that is clearly imitative of or based on something else.
3. A theft.
4. An act of exploitation.

The amount you pay extra is for storage and purely storage. The storage price is way overpriced, thats fact. Its a rip-off by definition.
 
Ries said:
Its the ONLY difference between the models. The first 16GB cost as much as a 128 GB SSD in retail, the first 48GB as much as a 256GB SSD in retail. ..

The amount you pay extra is for storage and purely storage. The storage price is way overpriced, thats fact. Its a rip-off by definition.
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And as has been mentioned several times already, you are not just paying for the storage, you are paying for a lot more. That may be the only difference between the models, but it is not the only opportunity Apple has to get more revenue out of their products.

Which reminds me, I paid $17.50 for a soda and a popcorn over the weekend at the movies. THAT's a ripoff because I have no choice but to buy from them.
 
It would have been nice to see Apple up the minimum storage to 32 GB. However I guess they didn't feel like the market dictated that change. Unfortunately or fortunately I looks like they made the right choice because they're not having problems selling iPad's.
 
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ZBoater said:
Which reminds me, I paid $17.50 for a soda and a popcorn over the weekend at the movies. THAT's a ripoff because I have no choice but to buy from them.
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But you are not being forced to buy a soda and popcorn when you go to the movies, just as people are not being forced to buy an iPad. They can easily go and buy an Android tablet if they don't like paying the Apple premium on memory.

That being said, I took advantage of the MacMall deal on Friday and got a 64gb Air for the same price as a 32gb...
 
lewisd25 said:
But you are not being forced to buy a soda and popcorn when you go to the movies, just as people are not being forced to buy an iPad. They can easily go and buy an Android tablet if they don't like paying the Apple premium on memory.

That being said, I took advantage of the MacMall deal on Friday and got a 64gb Air for the same price as a 32gb...
Click to expand...

Sure, I could do without popcorn, and I could do without an iPad altogether. At least with iPad I have options so I don't have to go without a tablet. At the movies, I am a captive audience with no other options while I am there.

The important point is that of the $17.50 I paid, Over $17 goes to pay for things other than the corn and the soda. A price difference between the small popcorn and the large popcorn is not just the extra corn. Its a chance for the theater to make more money.

That is the analogy that was being used to compare to the iPad pricing and explain to folks who thing the price difference between models should only account for the difference in the models themselves. No. The extra 16GB costs Apples very little, yet they charge $100. That $100 is not JUST for the extra 16GB. It is an opportunity for Apple to get more revenue to cover their other expenses and make more profit.
 
lewisd25 said:
But you are not being forced to buy a soda and popcorn when you go to the movies, just as people are not being forced to buy an iPad. They can easily go and buy an Android tablet if they don't like paying the Apple premium on memory.
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I suspect much of the dissent is simply that people are looking at it differently.

Some look at it from a "cost basis" in terms of what's the cost to Apple of the added storage and get tied up in knots considering the markup in the final product. Others look at the value of what the product does/provides. e.g. what's the value of the convenience factor, not having to worry about closely monitoring storage usage and constantly add/delete content.

Is $100 for 16GB of storage a "rip off"? Yes from the basis of the cost of the storage. No if there's not a viable alternative and that $100 avoids a bunch of frustration and effort spent futzing around with deleting/adding content and apps because you don't have enough space for your stuff.

"Should" Apple price the memory jumps lower? "Should" Apple increase the base storage without increasing price? All depends on which yardstick you're measuring against.

Apple's going to do what they believe benefits Apple the most; and that's generally going to be whatever provides the greatest revenue in the short and long term. That strategy can and will alienate some portion of the potential customer base; and will continue for so long as revenue from the value focused segments outstrips the revenue from the cost-basis focused segments.
 
deeddawg said:
...Apple's going to do what they believe benefits Apple the most; and that's generally going to be whatever provides the greatest revenue in the short and long term...
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This.

Apple is a for profit company. They won't come out and say it this way, but they will target people that have money to spend. They are not interested in people who can barely afford an iPad. They don't compete on price and don't want to make less profit per device like Android does. Mac OS and iOS have less than 10% market share. Yet they made $7.5 billion profit last year. They rather sell to less people and make more money. Again, they won't come out and SAY this because it sounds greedy. But it is what it is. It is called BUSINESS.

As consumers, we either accept this or not. We vote with our wallets. And we have. Consistently. And therefore Apple maintains their (successful) strategy.
 
ZBoater said:
As consumers, we either accept this or not. We vote with our wallets. And we have. Consistently.
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Cue the "Sheeple" and "Fanboi" insults from those who just can't understand why everyone doesn't jump aboard their anti-Apple rantwagon... :D
 
What is so difficult to understand that people can like something, yet find a fault? What if Apple shipped THE perfect device for you. It was popular(supported), rave reviews, etc... But there was something "wrong" with it - Only came in neon pink(pick another color you wouldn't buy) with neon pick accessories only, etc... Would you willing buy it and show your neon pink pride? Or would you say "WAIT A MINUTE, can I get some other color here?"

There is one aspect(other than the 1Gig of RAM, and consistent crashing) that people have an issue with. Why feel the need to shout down people who express an opinion? Only positive opinions need be posted here?
 
Count Blah said:
...There is one aspect(other than the 1Gig of RAM, and consistent crashing) that people have an issue with. Why feel the need to shout down people who express an opinion? Only positive opinions need be posted here?
Click to expand...

You are confusing disagreement with your opinion with "shouting down". Who is shouting you down? Can you please post an example? You will find a lot of disagreement with your position, but shouting down is an exaggeration.

Don't expect everyone to agree with your opinions, and do expect them to be challenged and disagreed with. But please, feel free to continue posting them. Negative opinions are welcomed here. :D
 
Bought a 128gb w/cellular. Don't feel ripped off one bit. It was a choice I made, because of my needs/usage.

I also remember the press being surprised when they announced the price of the 1st gen, couldn't believe they did it for under 1k.

The 16gb price gets people in the door...the rest is made up in the price hikes for each model. Basically I look at it as we who buy the higher capacity models subsidize those that buy the 16gb model.
 
ZBoater said:
And as has been mentioned several times already, you are not just paying for the storage, you are paying for a lot more. That may be the only difference between the models, but it is not the only opportunity Apple has to get more revenue out of their products.

Which reminds me, I paid $17.50 for a soda and a popcorn over the weekend at the movies. THAT's a ripoff because I have no choice but to buy from them.
Click to expand...

They can sell you the 16GB for that amount with profit, the only thing you pay more for is storage. It is a rip-off.

Taking your example with the popcorn, i can only buy an iPad from Apple. THAT's a ripoff because I have no choice but to buy from them.

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ZBoater said:
Wow. There's a lot of people being ripped off.

https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=18452167#post18452167

16GB is the LEAST popular among Macrumors posters. 32 and 128GB seem to be the most popular. That's a lot of rip offs.
Click to expand...

Just because something sells, doesn't make it less of a rip-off...

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ZBoater said:
This.

Apple is a for profit company. They won't come out and say it this way, but they will target people that have money to spend. They are not interested in people who can barely afford an iPad. They don't compete on price and don't want to make less profit per device like Android does. Mac OS and iOS have less than 10% market share. Yet they made $7.5 billion profit last year. They rather sell to less people and make more money. Again, they won't come out and SAY this because it sounds greedy. But it is what it is. It is called BUSINESS.

As consumers, we either accept this or not. We vote with our wallets. And we have. Consistently. And therefore Apple maintains their (successful) strategy.
Click to expand...

Hence they use the strategy of have a "cheap" 16GB model, with barely room enough and rip you off on the storage.
 
It always has been a rip off but that is one of the ways that Apple make their money back on a product.
I had the 64GB iPad 4 and dumped it for a 16GB mini which in turn has been replaced by a 16GB rMini. I typically don't need more than 16GB and the times that I would benefit from extra storage i.e. going away with work or on vacation, I now just bring a portable Wireless filehub. I now have virtually limitless storage with me for holding media, offloading video & image content etc. A one off cost of less than £30 which will serve this and all future iPad purchases and save me a lot of money in the long run.
 
Donka said:
I now just bring a portable Wireless filehub. I now have virtually limitless storage with me for holding media, offloading video & image content etc. A one off cost of less than £30 which will serve this and all future iPad purchases and save me a lot of money in the long run.
Click to expand...

If you don't mind, which one did you purchase? I was looking at an all-in-one(HooToo tripmate), which fulfills multiple rows. What programs/process do you use to access video/audio files from a wireless HD?

Thanks.
 
Count Blah said:
If you don't mind, which one did you purchase? I was looking at an all-in-one(HooToo tripmate), which fulfills multiple rows. What programs/process do you use to access video/audio files from a wireless HD?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

I have two and I did a review of them both. They are great devices and very flexible. I use nPlayer to stream or download media and it works great with both of these. Feel free to ask any questions. I'll never pay for more than an entry level capacity IOS device again but I appreciate others will have different requirements.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1654864/

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1627876/
 
ZipZap said:
Yep, rip-off is the right term with respect to the memory.
Click to expand...

That is your opinion, and you are certainly entitled to it. I disagree with you.

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Ries said:
...Taking your example with the popcorn, i can only buy an iPad from Apple. THAT's a ripoff because I have no choice but to buy from them...
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There are many tablet options you can buy instead of Apple. Last time I checked there was only one brand of popcorn you can get in the theater.

No one is making you buy Apple products. You buy them because you want to. You buy them because they make a product that you want to buy. But you have options. Like not buying it. And buying a Kindle, or a Samsung, or... wait, they charge extra for memory too! If it is less than Apple, why not buy from them? Perhaps because Apple has created a product that is worth more to you and to the millions who buy them than the difference in storage price?
 
Ries said:
Its the ONLY difference between the models. The first 16GB cost as much as a 128 GB SSD in retail, the first 48GB as much as a 256GB SSD in retail.

The definition is:
rip-off (rpôf, -f)
n. Slang
1. A product or service that is overpriced or of poor quality.
2. Something, such as a film or story, that is clearly imitative of or based on something else.
3. A theft.
4. An act of exploitation.

The amount you pay extra is for storage and purely storage. The storage price is way overpriced, thats fact. Its a rip-off by definition.
Click to expand...

By definition, huh? How so? I don't see how any of these apply

clearly we can rule out definitions 2 and 3, right? It's obviously not a knockoff or theft. What about numbers 1 and 4?

Do you think apple is exploiting people by pricing their items the way they do?
Do you think the ipad, and more specifically the added storage itself in the upgraded models are of poor quality?

presumably you would answer no to both of those questions which leaves overpriced.

You, like many other people in this thread, think that the increased cost of the upgrades to be too much - but that is a subjective stance

objectively an item is only overpriced if it doesn't sell. If someone is willing to pay X for Y then, by definition, Y is worth precisely X. Or rather, Y is worth at least X.

You can extrapolate from this the claim that an overpriced item won't sell well if you want to put it in more practical terms but to call it a ripoff when it is selling well is silly - and certainly not true "by definition"

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Ries said:
They can sell you the 16GB for that amount with profit, the only thing you pay more for is storage. It is a rip-off.

Taking your example with the popcorn, i can only buy an iPad from Apple. THAT's a ripoff because I have no choice but to buy from them.
Click to expand...

What? that's absurd. You have a choice: don't buy an iPad if it costs more than it is worth to you.

Ries said:
Just because something sells, doesn't make it less of a rip-off...
Click to expand...

yes it does, actually.

Ries said:
Hence they use the strategy of have a "cheap" 16GB model, with barely room enough and rip you off on the storage.
Click to expand...

that makes no sense.

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lewisd25 said:
But you are not being forced to buy a soda and popcorn when you go to the movies, just as people are not being forced to buy an iPad. They can easily go and buy an Android tablet if they don't like paying the Apple premium on memory.

That being said, I took advantage of the MacMall deal on Friday and got a 64gb Air for the same price as a 32gb...
Click to expand...

pretty sure that was his point.
 
The cellular chip/GPS chip $129 is just as bad as a rip off as the memory rip off.

Probably cost no more than $20 these days to put the chip in.
 
ZBoater said:
That is your opinion, and you are certainly entitled to it. I disagree with you.
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Sorry, but that is a empirical fact. You're too much the Apple defender to see it clearly.

You may not feel like you were ripped off, but you were. You just don't care.
 
ZipZap said:
Sorry, but that is a empirical fact. You're too much the Apple defender to see it clearly.

You may not feel like you were ripped off, but you were. You just don't care.
Click to expand...

Ok, so everyone who doesn't feel ripped off is an Apple defender and doesn't care? Is this like all the people who don't see yellow screens are just not looking hard enough? :confused:

No, it is not an empirical fact. It is an opinion. And thankfully one shared by a very few people.
 
ZBoater said:
Ok, so everyone who doesn't feel ripped off is an Apple defender and doesn't care? Is this like all the people who don't see yellow screens are just not looking hard enough? :confused:

No, it is not an empirical fact. It is an opinion. And thankfully one shared by a very few people.
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+1

That is very well stated - an empirical fact would be stating that Apple obtains a profit margin for added memory which is disproportionate with the base unit of the iPad.

No one is disputing that ... it is when 'ripped off', which is a subjective analysis of the value proposition of the added memory, is used that we get into trouble.

Having owned one of each gen of iPad (got a Mini rather than a 4), I have determined that 32GB is my 'sweet spot'. I would have loved if Apple had reduced the memory upgrade cost to $75 rather than $100, but I understand the way their business works and the need to maintain a certain profit level due to the expensive business they run. The fewer components you make, the less you control costs - and the harder it is to drive price down without compromising quality (PC makers are a great example of the flip side of this!).
 
This is classic microeconomics.

Apple has a wide range of consumers they can reach, and really only one price they can set for, say, an ipad mini with 32GB and lte support.

Some people will pay that price, and some people will balk at it. That's what sets size of the market. Apple seems content with setting a price for hardware that's much more expensive than the competition, knowing that many customers value their ecosystem more than others...

I consider myself a pretty big fanboy, but I balked. I balked at washed out colors for a $629 tablet compared to getting a comparable nexus 7 on ebay from a reputable seller for half that. I'm a fanboy, but I'm also cheap. I still like the apple ecosystem more, and I like the 3x4 form factor better, but I didn't see the value. I do in the nexus 7.

Those of you who don't see the price as high should welcome my way of thinking, as that kind of thinking (multiplied by millions) will put some pressure on Apple to get more inline with the market.
 
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