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The cost was probably just a bit hidden for the person. We were still doing that $200 subsidized carrier-locked phone with a two year contract back in 2011.
It's true.

I bought my iPhone5 64gb (top spec at the time) with a carrier subsidy and it cost me $10/month over 24 months, $240 AUD. Ontop of the mobile plan itself which was $39/month.

These days; a basic mobile plan starts at $59/month on the same carrier; and i need to pay at least $1200 AUD outright for a non-pro base model 15. RRP might not have moved much, but there's no argument that the real world cost to own a new iPhone today is a lot higher than it was a decade ago; even adjusted for inflation.

Edit: And to be clear, carrier subsidies still exist. I can see various subsidies for pixels and older samsung phones. They just don't exist for iPhones and the newest samsungs.
 
And with a much faster processor so AI processing can be done on-phone.

Funny how people forget about that.

They've already hit a wall with their processors. Very minimal gains year on year.

AI could be easily done on processors dating back to the 11 Pro if Apple didn't scrimp and save to rip customers off by not including a decent amount of RAM.
 
Faster chips so they can limit new features to the new hardware. "can't poWEr This NEw feaTURE on tHE oLdER HArdwAre"
If you are talking about Apple Intelligence: That’s not what Apple did though. My 2020 Mac Mini M1 (8gb) will support on-device Apple Intelligence.

If Apple wanted to artificially-limit Apple Intelligence to new hardware (even if older hardware was capable to running it with no performance issues), then Apple made a huge oversight by accidentally letting me use my old (old by comparison) base model Mac Mini M1, lol. Apple should have forced my cheap-butt to upgrade to at least an M3 Mac with 16GB! 😂😂😂

In addition to being supported on all M-Series Macs, Apple Intelligence is also supported on the 2022 (and newer) iPad Air and iPad Pro. As well as the 2023 iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max.

Maybe Apple could get Apple Intelligence to work on other older iPhone hardware and other older iPad hardware. But it probably wouldn’t work as well on that hardware.

Call me naive (super naive even), but I think… I believe and trust the big tech company this time… Wow!… I know… I can’t believe I said that either. Am I feeling alright!? Do I have a fever!?! 🤒🤧😷

😂
 
And many do care about AI. The good news is you don't have to use it.

Choice is good.

I think it’s one of those technologies where a healthy number of people will use it and a healthy number won’t, especially if it’s a subscription thing. I personally wouldn’t pay for it, I figure if Apple really wanted everyone to use it, it would be part of iOS 18 as standard.
 
I think it’s one of those technologies where a healthy number of people will use it and a healthy number won’t, especially if it’s a subscription thing. I personally wouldn’t pay for it, I figure if Apple really wanted everyone to use it, it would be part of iOS 18 as standard.
Apple Intelligence is free (no subscription).
 
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The latest phone you need to buy to use it, unfortunately is not free. Apparently it'll run on the iphone15 pro and above only.
It’ll also run on the 2022 iPad Air and the 2022 iPad Pro. And any M-Series Mac — including my 2020 base mode (8GB) Mac Mini M1.

Lots of older hardware options to run Apple Intelligence on-device.
 
Apple Intelligence is free (no subscription).

If that’s the case then fine. There were threads here a couple of weeks ago suggesting Apple might hold certain AI features back and offer as a paid subscription. I did think that was absurd and a sure-fire way to make sure less people use them. Its a bit rubbish that users need at least an iPhone 15 to be able to use these software features though, I doubt the vast majority of users have phones that new in the grand scheme of things.
 
If that’s the case then fine. There were threads here a couple of weeks ago suggesting Apple might hold certain AI features back and offer as a paid subscription. I did think that was absurd and a sure-fire way to make sure less people use them. Its a bit rubbish that users need at least an iPhone 15 to be able to use these software features though, I doubt the vast majority of users have phones that new in the grand scheme of things.
Specifically it isn’t the iPhone 15 (or iPhone 15 Plus). It’s the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max that are supported (on the iPhone side). The iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus aren’t supported.

Apple Intelligence is also supported on the 2022 iPad Pro and 2022 iPad Air (as well as the 2024 versions, of course). And every M-Series Mac will support Apple Intelligence (including my 2020 base model Mac Mini M1).

So there is a variety of hardware (about four year old hardware in my situation) that can use these features. It isn’t just the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max.
 
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Specifically it isn’t the iPhone 15 (or iPhone 15 Plus). It’s the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max that are supported (on the iPhone side). The iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus aren’t supported.

Apple Intelligence is also supported on the 2022 iPad Pro and 2022 iPad Air (as well as the 2024 versions, of course). And every M-Series Mac will support Apple Intelligence (including my 2020 base model Mac Mini M1).

So there is a variety of hardware (about four year old hardware in my situation) that can use these features. It isn’t just the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max.

Not brilliant though in my opinion. The fact the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus which are current iPhones are not supported, I think is abysmal. I wouldn’t be too impressed if I’d invested in those phones considering how expensive they are.
 
Not brilliant though in my opinion. The fact the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus which are current iPhones are not supported is abysmal. I wouldn’t be too impressed if I’d invested in those phones considering how expensive they are.
If it can’t work on those devices (without significant performance compromises), then it can’t work on those devices (without significant performance compromises).

This is one of the few times where I believe the big tech company (Woah… what!? lol). Apple says it can’t work on those various non-supported devices without it being too slow to be useable. And that seemingly is the case. If Apple just wanted to artificially-limit it to new devices, then Apple wouldn’t offer support for Apple Intelligence on my 2020 Mac Mini M1 (8GB). Apple would instead force me to upgrade my Mac to something a bit newer.

But that’s just the on-device AI features. There are still off-device AI features that will work for anybody using Siri on iOS 18.
 
If it can’t work on those devices (without significant performance compromises), then it can’t work on those devices (without significant performance compromises).

This is one of the few times where I believe the big tech company (Woah… what!? lol). Apple says it can’t work on those various non-supported devices without it being too slow to be useable. And that seemingly is the case. If Apple just wanted to artificially-limit it to new devices, then Apple wouldn’t offer support for Apple Intelligence on my 2020 Mac Mini M1 (8GB). Apple would instead force me to upgrade my Mac to something a bit newer.

But that’s just the on-device AI features. There are still off-device AI features that will work for anybody using Siri on iOS 18.

It’s shortsighted by Apple though don’t you think? AI isn’t a new thing and has been coming to devices as we know it for a few years. To release an iPhone 15 that lacks the amount of ram to run AI sufficiently is seriously dropping the ball. Or is it the classic Apple way of withholding specs to try and force people not to buy that £1k iPhone but stretch to that £1300 iPhone?

I think people using an iPhone 15 and who were planning to keep it for a few years will be a little miffed that just 12 months on, an iOS is released and contains features their relatively new iPhone is unable to perform due to ‘significant performance compromises’ brought on by an inferior specification.
 
It’s shortsighted by Apple though don’t you think? AI isn’t a new thing and has been coming to devices as we know it for a few years. To release an iPhone 15 that lacks the amount of ram to run AI sufficiently is seriously dropping the ball. Or is it the classic Apple way of withholding specs to try and force people not to buy that £1k iPhone but stretch to that £1300 iPhone?

I think people using an iPhone 15 and who were planning to keep it for a few years will be a little miffed that just 12 months on, an iOS is released and contains features their relatively new iPhone is unable to perform due to ‘significant performance compromises’ brought on by an inferior specification.
I mean… if you talk to people posting in this article’s comments section, they don’t care about Apple Intelligence anyway. So no huge loss, right? lol

But in all seriousness: There won’t even be a full-release until 2025 (2024 will just be the public beta version). So maybe (just me talking; nothing announced) the full-release won’t even be available until the iPhone 17’s launch around September 2025. I would imagine it would be sooner than that, but I don’t know that for sure. All I know is 2024 is the beta and 2025 is the full-release.

And (you are pricing your phone in pounds, so I assume you are in the UK): It likely won’t even be (officially) available (in the public beta form) in the UK at the beta’s launch. It’s limited to US English at the launch of the beta. Likely you can get around that by simply logging into a US account. However, you probably wouldn’t (officially) even have access it to it at the public beta’s launch anyway.
 
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I mean… if you talk to people posting in this article’s comments section, they don’t care about Apple Intelligence anyway. So no huge loss, right? lol

But in all seriousness: There won’t even be a full-release until 2025 (2024 will just be the public beta version). So maybe (just me talking; nothing announced) the full-release won’t even be available until the iPhone 17’s launch around September 2025. I would imagine it would be sooner than that, bit I don’t know that for sure. All I know is 2024 is the beta and 2025 is the full-release.

And (you are pricing your phone in pounds, so I assume you are in the UK): It likely won’t even be (officially) available (in the public beta form) in the UK at the beta’s launch. It’s limited to US English at the launch of the beta. Likely you can get around that by simply logging into a US account. However, you probably wouldn’t (officially) even have access it to it at the public beta’s launch anyway.
I think that is true actually, a lot of people probably won't be interested in AI at this point, and to be honest I'm not particularly bothered if I have it on my phone or not, I'm just offering points for discussion and taking a dig at Apple not offering enough hardware to run it. Limiting its release to the US only I think might actually be a very wise thing in the short and long term.
 
If that’s the case then fine. There were threads here a couple of weeks ago suggesting Apple might hold certain AI features back and offer as a paid subscription. I did think that was absurd and a sure-fire way to make sure less people use them. Its a bit rubbish that users need at least an iPhone 15 to be able to use these software features though, I doubt the vast majority of users have phones that new in the grand scheme of things.
There was a speculative rumor that Apple could decide to eventually charge for some extra AI features. Apple has said that none of what they showed at WWDC would be extra charge. It’ll probably be a while before Apple is ready to bring out non-core AI Features that are advanced enough to be worth paying extra for.
 
I will give you all a huge scoop...The iphone "17" will actually release THIS YEAR, as part of the "One More Thing" Segment. however, it will be renamed the I24! going forward the model names will consist of the Letter I, the last 2 letters of the year and the sub models, regular (No subname), Pro, and Ultra...thus mimicking the Samsung lineup. The iphone 16 frame which lasted from 2017 to now will end in 2024.
 
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Your math does not add up.

The base iPhone 4S cost $649 in 2011. Inflation calculators tell me that's about $900 in today's money.

The iPhone 15 starts at $800

Either your memory is faulty or you're buying higher-end models, which is your choice, but not anyone else's fault.
I paid less than 400 for the 4s, I was on verizon and they got it later when the price was down, perhaps for a sale. Yes I buy higher end models but that has NOTHING to do with these devices being grossly overpriced.
 
I can't wait until next year So i get a bad phone,? so tired of these articles making it seem buying something even that has not been released is not that good
 
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