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Tim Cook Says Apple Products 'Change the World' and Aren't Priced Just 'For the Rich'

bunnicula said:
That's a ridiculous statement. What defines "real rich?"

I mean, you can buy a smart phone with a pretty good rating for less than you can spend on a flagship iPhone. This includes iPhones from previous model years as well as Android and other types of phones.

You can buy a very nice appliance for less than you can buy a top-of-the-line appliance. Same goes for cars.

You don't see these alleged "real rich" people not buying higher-end cars, appliances, or any other type of items, including smart phones. I have been buying iPhones since 2007, because I LIKE THEM.

I don't flash my phone around like it'll impress people, though there was a time in the early days of iPhones that I had to pretty much hide mine to keep people from wanting to hold it. That ended long before people on MR were squawking about what a "status symbol" an iPhone was and what version they were "rocking" at the mall. *eyeroll*

Seriously, it's stupid. People should buy whatever they like and we should all mind our own business about other people's spending habits. And there's no need to be weird about how much Apple chose to price their new phone for. If the market decides it's too much, Apple will adjust for the market.

They did it with their first phone. Thing is, this price isn't THAT much more money. People act like Apple were not already charging 969 dollars for a phone. What's another 31 dollars?
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I think they were getting at the idea that upper class people in Britain tend to be quite frugal [that's how they stay wealthy] - but the thing is it's more a pattern of buy something expensive/high end and keep it until it literally breaks and can't be repaired again, not going without something altogether. Of course this is more for old money families, the noveau riche will splash the cash to show off that they've 'made it' like the common vulgar plebeians they truly are ;)
 
LordVic said:
Absolutely and I think it's a great move from Apple's perspective. They did so with the iPad as well.


Apple's biggest problem in the recent past (2000's and onwards) is that they want a premium price point on all their products. And to get that and sales you have to have something that makes users believe there's value for that additional pricetag compared to the competition

for many years, Apple has done that. They had cutting edge, top of the line flagships.

The problem becomes what do they do when they no longer only have "top of the line" items. not everyone who wants an iPad wants a $600 iPad, when there's competition selling similar functioning tablets for $500. Not everyone wants to pay $999 for a phone when there's competition who are close enough in value at $650.

Moving to provide more affordable product offerings in their lineup is a great way of expanding their reach. the $320 iPad for example is just this sort of product. for $320, it's a premium quality product, that while not the flagship top of the line, offers 95% of what users want. Giving choice to the consumer and offering a product that is more "value optimized". this is good for business IMHO because it attracts more than the "flagship" market.

I'm just curious how the Iphone lineup is going to be redone to offer a proper "non-flagship" device for those who don't want to pay flagship prices. The SE is close but doesn't quite fill that gap for thsoe willing to buy a $500 device, but are looking for something larger than 4"
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I think we're about to see what they have planned tomorrow. I don't think they really believe that everyone will want to buy what is now falling into the "Edition" or "Pro" category and spend the money that goes with it.

I think we'll see the next generation of the 7/7plus form factor with some upgrades and a lower price point compared to the X model. We saw them split the difference with AW Series 1 and AW Series 2, and (as you mentioned) they've done it with the iPad.
 
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Feenician said:
The internals, the parts that matter, are from the 6S and 6S plus. Hypberbole does not help to make a point, quite the opposite.
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I beliege it was actually comprised of components from 5s, 6 and 6s - the iPad 2017 is literally an iPad Air with Touch ID/ new chip (see ifixit's teardown)
 
Feenician said:
The internals, the parts that matter, are from the 6S and 6S plus. Hypberbole does not help to make a point, quite the opposite.
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I think the form factor throws people, though. Once they see a larger phone closer to the SE pricing with decent specs, it might make sense.

It's funny, because we had folks clamoring for a small phone once the 6 and 6 plus came out. Then, when they got it, they swore it was just a crap phone (it's not, one of my kids has one and he loves it... he's 20). I think he's going to go for the X this week, though. He's ready for a bigger phone. If not the X, he'll go for whatever the 7 turns into... 7s?
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Rob_2811 said:
Here are some pictures of Tim absolutely not disparaging people who make commodity products


6a0120a5580826970c01b8d1e122ba970c-pi



9455-1159-Screen-Shot-2014-06-03-at-103444-PM-l.png



tim_cook_ios_android_fragmentation.png
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Come now... like Steve didn't do that all the time.

Hint: He did.
 
bunnicula said:
I think the form factor throws people, though. Once they see a larger phone closer to the SE pricing with decent specs, it might make sense.

It's funny, because we had folks clamoring for a small phone once the 6 and 6 plus came out. Then, when they got it, they swore it was just a crap phone (it's not, one of my kids has one and he loves it... he's 20). I think he's going to go for the X this week, though. He's ready for a bigger phone. If not the X, he'll go for whatever the 7 turns into... 7s?
[doublepost=1505162738][/doublepost]

Come now... like Steve didn't do that all the time.

Hint: He did.
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I had an SE. It was fantastic, just what I wanted.

Granted I end up going the other way and getting a 7+ but I didn't claim to be logical. ;)
 
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Falhófnir said:
I think they were getting at the idea that upper class people in Britain tend to be quite frugal [that's how they stay wealthy] - but the thing is it's more a pattern of buy something expensive/high end and keep it until it literally breaks and can't be repaired again, not going without something altogether. Of course this is more for old money families, the noveau riche will splash the cash to show off that they've 'made it' like the common vulgar plebeians they truly are ;)
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Ahhhh! Well, that sort of "buy a fine product and keep it forever" thing works well with autos, furniture, homes, leather goods, some clothing, etc.

Not so great with tech gear, no matter how rich and frugal you are.

I know people who'd be classed as "old money" who buy a new iPhone every year because they dig Apple stuff. I know people from "old money" who wait a couple years and go on the upgrade cycle.

I know people who are new money who hang on to a phone a long time.... and those who upgrade yearly. Totally a personal thing.
 
bunnicula said:
Ahhhh! Well, that sort of "buy a fine product and keep it forever" thing works well with autos, furniture, homes, leather goods, some clothing, etc.

Not so great with tech gear, no matter how rich and frugal you are.

I know people who'd be classed as "old money" who buy a new iPhone every year because they dig Apple stuff. I know people from "old money" who wait a couple years and go on the upgrade cycle.

I know people who are new money who hang on to a phone a long time.... and those who upgrade yearly. Totally a personal thing.
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Yeah it definitely works better when there isn't a tide of progress constantly building up against a product - or at least I don't think armchairs have advanced all that much since I bought mine :D I think it probably also has to do with the fact a lot of 'old money' families are secretly 'no money' families because they've had to spend so much on keeping those 200 year old manor houses from crumbling into ruins with a fraction of the relative income their ancestors would have had.

I think most of the people I see round this way like to show off with things like iPhones, watches or giant unneccesary Chelsea tractors (who honestly needs one when they don't ever go near a muddy field?) I don't understand why, it's not like another 40%+ of people don't have the exact same phone, and one watch looks quite like another unless you really know what you're looking at. But then I think people who move into the area seem to think it makes them something a little bit special - c'est la vie!
Feenician said:
And? It's relatively inexpensive and performs extremely well. What's the problem?
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Didn't say there was an issue with it, it's a fantastic device for the money - just pointing out that it's not all newer components as you stated in your post...
 
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Falhófnir said:
I beliege it was actually comprised of components from 5s, 6 and 6s - the iPad 2017 is literally an iPad Air with Touch ID/ new chip (see ifixit's teardown)
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The heart of the 2017 iPad is the Apple A9, the Air had an A7. The 2017 iPad has 2GBs of LPDDR4 RAM while the Air had 1GB of LPDDR3 RAM. The Air started at 16GBs of storage while the 2017 starts at 32GBs.

The 2017 iPad performs like the 6S because it shares the same SoC. While they did go cheap on the screen coating and used the same enclosure of the Air, it does not perform like one.
 
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Rob_2811 said:
Yes he did. Did he give interviews claiming not to?
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I don't know. I didn't watch all his interviews. The media and how companies handle the media has changed dramatically since Steve Jobs got sick and subsequently died. He made some damned cocky comments... who'd tell people they were holding their phone wrong and expect to be believed?

;)
 
PowerGala said:
The heart of the 2017 iPad is the Apple A9, the Air had an A7. The 2017 iPad has 2GBs of LPDDR4 RAM while the Air had 1GB of LPDDR3 RAM. The Air started at 16GBs of storage while the 2017 starts at 32GBs.

The 2017 iPad performs like the 6S because it shares the same SoC. While they did go cheap on the screen coating and used the same enclosure of the Air, it does not perform like one.
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So... more or less what I said?
 
OldSchoolMacGuy said:
The numbers would tend to support that even a large percentage of lower incomes still spend their money on iPhones, even if they can't really afford them

7D0F36D85E384C379AFA58707C5B1592.jpg
http://www.pewinternet.org/files/old-media/7D0F36D85E384C379AFA58707C5B1592.jpg
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That further proves that Tim Cook is out of touch with the average house hold when he's making a product that people shouldn't technically be buying due to it ballooning their expenses. This chart also does prove, that while everyone CAN buy an iPhone, only the high incomes, high education are buying them at the highest rates.
 
Jakewilk said:
Yeah, I mean, that’s why they keep the Mac mini around and up-to-date, right?
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Touche, Apple are not considerate of the lower end market at all. Tim is full of sh*t about how he's some sort of humanitarian and world changer - look at how trains and cafés are full of mindless zombies staring at little glowing screens to understand how much tech companies are changing our world for the better. I'm not luddite and I'm not saying tech can't improve or aid our lives - but lets keep it in perspective. I like the guy but he's full of it - talking like he's saving the world from some inferior time before Apples products.
 
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bunnicula said:
I don't know. I didn't watch all his interviews. The media and how companies handle the media has changed dramatically since Steve Jobs got sick and subsequently died. He made some damned cocky comments... who'd tell people they were holding their phone wrong and expect to be believed?

;)
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The answer is no he wouldn't, Jobs was as hard faced as they come he wouldn't have had any problem bashing the competition he just wouldn't have followed it up with the hypocritical soft soap nonsense that Tim Cook has here.
 
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Apple products have always been expensive, but they held high value. Now, laptops (for example) are almost twice as much and have less value (no ports, soldered in components etc).

I could spend $4000 for a laptop, but I just can't justify it no matter how much money I had. You really need to have a lot of disposable income to spend that much money on a laptop. It seems foolish really.
 
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btrach144 said:
That further proves that Tim Cook is out of touch with the average house hold when he's making a product that people shouldn't technically be buying due to it ballooning their expenses. This chart also does prove, that while everyone CAN buy an iPhone, only the high incomes, high education are buying them at the highest rates.
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You might want to go back and read what he actually said, rather than Macrumors misquoted paraphrasing of it.
 
Swift Play is not free you have to buy an iPad in order to get it. Yeah it sounds like free then it sounds like Tim who claim things he does but not really.
 
Falhófnir said:
So... more or less what I said?
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It has far more in common with the 6S than the Air or 5S. It is not literally an Air with Touch ID new chip. It would be far more accurate to say it's a 6S in a new enclosure, which isn't quite right either.

The most important parts of any computer are the CPU, GPU and RAM. All of which the 2017 iPad shares in common with the 6S and not the Air, 6 or 5S.
 
Marx55 said:
Apple could sell all their products at half price and make even bigger profits, boosting market share. And, of course, using standard ports and non-soldered upgradable internals, besides promoting headless Macs (mini, mini tower and tower) instead of iMac all-in-one. Because CPU may last for seven years, yet displays last more than 20 years, thus being ecological.
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This old wish in one hand vs crap in the other line again.

I said it 20 years ago, and again 10 years ago, and I'll say it again:

THIS. WILL. NEVER. HAPPEN.

See you again in 10 years, when I repeat it once again...
 
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