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

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

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http://www.pewinternet.org/files/old-media/7D0F36D85E384C379AFA58707C5B1592.jpg
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That 31% android $75,000 and over is very interesting.
 
Michael Scrip said:
True... but the 2017 iPhone lineup will actually start at $649... just like it has for years.

And you can still get older (but still great) iPhone models at a lower price.

Apple products have never been "cheap"... let's be honest here. :)

And we also can't forget that this new $1000 iPhone is actually an additional model above the standard lineup.
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The new iPhone is the natural technological evolution of its standard model; it is exactly what the iPhone 7 should have been and is no more a new model than the 6 was above the 5S back in 2014 which carried the same $649 price point.

By keeping the existing four-generation old design around at the same price point Apple is trying to make consumers think the new model is going upscale. It isn't, and in fact its hardware specs are substantially the same as the $725 Samsung Galaxy S8. The iPhone design has been stagnant for quite a while. Apple's catch-up with the iPhone X is just bringing them back to parity with the competitors.

The iPhone X, at $1,000, is being priced to cater to the rich or those that want to be perceived as rich. Under Steve Jobs I bet this would have been a $749 or even $799 runaway success and the LCD model would have been kept around as the $500 (base) - $600 (plus) cheap line.
 
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The problem is it depends what you mean by poor, everyone has a different income, lifestyle and with it their own idea of poor, for example i'm sure there are people out there who would be astonished at just the thought of us on this forum spending £1000 on the next iPhone, for some people £1K is a lot of money, for other people it's chump change and for others it's somewhere in-between. Are Apple a high end brand? yes i would say so, there not like a Poundshop (something we have in the UK that sells cheap crap) but at the same time they are not not a millionaire's only brand where only they can afford it.
 
DanielDD said:
Tim Cook needs to get out of San Francisco and New York more often and check the wages of real people outside major cities.
I live in a small town in Europe (read: the continent with the highest standard of living) and I have yet to see AirPods, the new MacBook Pros, and iPad pros in the wild
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I have seen all of those and I was recently traveling here in the US and not always in a wealthy city. You also cannot discount the notion that people aren't all lugging their gear around (except the AirPods).
 
OllyW said:
I have to say it's only a minority of MR members with the bad attitude, most members on here are helpful and friendly. :)
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I do not disagree. That said, the jerks are often the loudest. :D

That's true anywhere, though.
 
78Bandit said:
The iPhone X, at $1,000, is being priced to cater to the rich or those that want to be perceived as rich. Under Steve Jobs I bet this would have been a $749 or even $799 runaway success and the LCD model would have been kept around as the $500 (base) - $600 (plus) cheap line.
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No, as someone pointed out earlier the current 7 Plus already costs in the realms of £1k and as for Steve Jobs, are you being serious? the same guy who priced a computer at Next for 10K, if Steve Job's was still at Apple it would still be around 1K for the iPhone X, this next iPhone isn't for the rich, a 10K Apple Watch was for the rich but a £1000 iPhone isn't.
 
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bunnicula said:
The numbers don't tell us if they bought off Craigslist, got the phone for Christmas, or it's their work phone, though.
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Another issue with that chart... "% who say their phone is an Android"

It could be a $100 Android phone... or an $800 Android phone. Who knows?

A poor person could buy a Galaxy Note 8... or a rich person could buy bargain Moto G or whatever.

So just labeling the chart "Android" doesn't really tell any story.
 
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bunnicula said:
Well, is that the people who bought the phone at fault or MR members who are jerks? ;)

We have some older family members who have older phones. My inlaws and my grandma in law have 5c/5s phones. They know not to upgrade to the new OS and they don't really need it. No complaints. They'll probably get some newer phones this round from us (the 6s and 6 SE models we're upgrading from... my 7 plus and my son's 7 plus will get sold) and my inlaws will then move up a little on OS, but not to iOS 11 on those. Nope.

It helps them to get these phones from us. They're on a budget and phones aren't their top priority. My FIL's is his golf game, even though he loves gadgets and would probably dig my 7 plus. :D
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Ignoring iOS11, have you explained to them how the sunsetting of 32 bit apps affects them though? No app updates for anything already - no new facebook features, all apps they can download are those frozen in time...

Anything older than a SE is now obsolete tech. That's a good percentage of the 100s of millions sold to date.
 
bunnicula said:
I have seen all of those and I was recently traveling here in the US and not always in a wealthy city. You also cannot discount the notion that people aren't all lugging their gear around (except the AirPods).
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I see the latest and greatest of Apple products quite often in coffee shops, governmental buildings, and universities in major cities here in Europe. People in the countryside just earn less and do not have the extra money to pay for the prices Apple is practicing
 
Dave245 said:
If you buy outright yes but a lot of people who can't afford it often have them on contract. Personally i'm not a fan of contract i much prefer to buy outright and put a Pay as you go sim card inside, also the 7 and 7 Plus will likely remain at a lower price while the 8 and 8 Plus then replace the current price point, the X will probably start at 1K, it's the same with the Apple Watch, there are cheaper models that start at around £300 with a more expensive edition at £1,299, my point being that they don't just cater to the rich.

Edit: also there is a iPhone SE that sells for even less!
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£380 entry for the lowest spec phone, is not cheap.
 
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mimue88 said:
an iPhone for MORE than 1000$ isn't for the rich... ok
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I'm not rich by any means. I'm not poor either... living off a military pension right now. But I have an iPhone 7 plus 256 GB and an iPad Pro 12.9" 256 GB. I have an older MBP 13" from 2012. I saved up for my phone and ipad. Each month I put a bit aside for savings for future upgrades. Rich would be one of those phones that cost like 14,000 USD and aren't even smart phones... Vertu I think is the brand name. They were available at Heathrow I remember looking at them and nearly fainted with the sticker shock! Those are for the rich. IPhones are not.
 
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You could probably buy the features of the iPhone X for cheaper next year in the next regular iPhone update, with a lot of bugs and production issues removed!
 
78Bandit said:
The new iPhone is the natural technological evolution of its standard model; it is exactly what the iPhone 7 should have been and is no more a new model than the 6 was above the 5S back in 2014 which carried the same $649 price point.

By keeping the existing four-generation old design around at the same price point Apple is trying to make consumers think the new model is going upscale. It isn't, and in fact its hardware specs are substantially the same as the $725 Samsung Galaxy S8. The iPhone design has been stagnant for quite a while. Apple's catch-up with the iPhone X is just bringing them back to parity with the competitors.

The iPhone X, at $1,000, is being priced to cater to the rich or those that want to be perceived as rich. Under Steve Jobs I bet this would have been a $749 or even $799 runaway success and the LCD model would have been kept around as the $500 (base) - $600 (plus) cheap line.
Click to expand...

So you're saying the iPhone X should be the $649 iPhone.

Obviously Apple didn't do that.

My comment was simply to explain what Apple did do.

You should send an email to feedback@apple.com if Apple's decisions bother you so much.
 
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commodorepet said:
Ignoring iOS11, have you explained to them how the sunsetting of 32 bit apps affects them though? No app updates for anything already - no new facebook features, all apps they can download are those frozen in time...

Anything older than a SE is now obsolete tech. That's a good percentage of the 100s of millions sold to date.
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The 6/6+ and the 5s are older than the SE and are 64-bit.
 
They aren't for the rich (though rich buy them) and they aren't for the poor.
Those who aren't rich just tend to purchase the high-end models and complain about the price.
 
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Dangle that carrot on the string Tim -- the TV, the car, and now the magic "medical" gadget. Whenever the share price feels a bit of downside shift, Apple announces a share buyback or fires up the PR machine to right the ship. I'd ask are investors really that naive?, but the answer seems to be a resounding yes.
 
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Arkanok said:
Right Tim. Apple products aren’t just for the super rich, because every average person can afford the cheapest 15” Apple laptop at a measly $3199.99 (Canadian).
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They adjusted the price up when the CAD fell rather quickly...Now that we're on a rebound, still waiting on them to readjust downwards for it. We're up to 80 cents now, they adjusted prices up when we were down near 70.
 
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