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Will the next iphone be $399 too?
- Thread starter doctajay
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i dont think they would remove features from the 399, if they did they would piss off all the current customers, a lot
I'd bet the price won't ever go back up. $399 is a great price point, business-wise...it clearly sends a message that this is a premium product, but it is within what most people are willing to pay for a high-end phone. Given how Apple has rolled out each successive iPod generation, I'm sure they'll do the same with the iPhone:
1. Roll out new product
2. Drop price mid-life
3. Update product, add features, sell at the same price
4. Go to step 2
1. Roll out new product
2. Drop price mid-life
3. Update product, add features, sell at the same price
4. Go to step 2
I bet we see the current model (no change) go down to $299 and a 16 GB version with 3G appear at $499.
Then, 6 months later the $499 version will drop to $399 and the $299 version will disappear.
In other words, what people are saying (no price change to an upgrade) but with a 6-month window to suck up extra money from the people who REALLY REALLY want 3G.
Then, 6 months later the $499 version will drop to $399 and the $299 version will disappear.
In other words, what people are saying (no price change to an upgrade) but with a 6-month window to suck up extra money from the people who REALLY REALLY want 3G.
I can't see the iPhone ever being below $399. If it became $299, it would be the same price as an iPod touch. Apple seems to want to give people the impression that the iPhone is a much classier product. Most likely 3g will become a stand feature in the iPhone hardware update and a 16gb version will probably be $499.
Also good. However it happens I believe they'll split it into two price levels again.
That's what they tried to do originally but they found that the "4 GB for $100" wasn't enough of a difference to sell the cheaper one.
I'll bet they try the "2 prices" again but with more of a difference between them this time around. Dunno what those differences will be (your guess is as good as mine was above) but I'm betting it'll be something like that.
I think that the highest I would go is $499 for the 3G version. Anything higher is prohibitive except for those on the bleeding edge, and by the time the 3G version comes out, WM7 might be out, offering some competition. So I don't think they would want to jack the price up too high. I agree that the 8 GB Edge version will probably drop $100, which might cause them to edit the ipod touch slightly to keep its appeal also. Either way, I bought a little $30 phone to hold me over until the next version comes out. I believe it will be worth it.
depends when it's out and what features are in. if it's 3g+16gb and out sometime next fall, they're unlikely to be able to sell a lot @ $399.
if there's 3g+16gb+gps+5mpix camera+etc and it's out by summer, the price is sure to go up.
though apple seems to need a cheaper model as well in order to reach 1% market share 2008, so one scenario is that they keep the old model at much lower pricepoint.
i think that the current model will drop in price but i dont think they can go much higher than the $399/£269 price without some killer feature.....more than 3G and 16GB i think if they want to jack up the price by £100 or so!
i totally agree on this one-- if they drop the price on the iPhone, they would have to drop the price on the iPods to keep people happy-- there has to be some type of differentiation among the two an does anyone think they will drop the price on the iPod Touch? It would be nice, but realistic??
Depending on the exact features Apple adds to the next iPhone, I can see the price going up as high as the $599 price we once saw for the 8GB. If they continue to produce the current 8GB iPhone with EDGE and also sell a 16/32 GB iPhone with 3G and maybe one or two more features, they could easily get some customers paying $599. Over a million people bought the 8GB at that price and I continually see people saying they are waiting for 3G before buying. IF they keep the current model and add another I expect to see a $499 or $599 price tag.
Since they currently offer the 16 GB iPod Touch and 8 GB iPhone at the same price point, it would make more sense to me to reduce the price of the iPod Touch (or increase the storage and keep it at the price point) rather than increase the price of the iPhone. The price reduction in August to me showed that Apple wants to sell the iPhone at that price, and since the iPhone is a more profitable product for Apple (initial price point + monthly carrier fee from AT&T), I think they want to push that over the iPod Touch that's a one-time sale only. After such a hullabaloo was made over Apple's $200 price drop, I gotta tell ya, I don't see them increasing the price until a major hardware revision is released in a year or so, e.g., iPhone 2.
When Apple releases new generations of flash iPods, after all, they keep them at the current price point even though they've bumped the storage capacities.
No argument there, but what's Apple's margin on the iPod Touch? It has 16 GB of storage, and granted, it's missing the camera, the phone, and Bluetooth (did I miss anything?), but it goes to show that the chips are available and affordable. It's a simple drop-in chip replacement and doesn't require recertification by the FCC, either. I personally don't think Apple will release a capacity bump before the August MacWorld, but I think that by then they will be buying enough in quantity to make the 16 GB + phone + camera + Bluetooth affordable enough to make a 16 GB iPhone come in at the $399 price point.
Of course, that means they'll either have to bump up the storage on the iPod Touch or reduce the price. Honestly? I can see either happening, but I don't know how affordable 32 GB of flash might be--now or then.