Apple is too expensive for me

[loop101]

I've owned 3 iPhones, a 3G, 4s, and currently have a 5s. Eventually I will need to replace the 5s, but I can't see myself getting another iPhone. They are simply too expensive. Their computers are also far too expensive. If I wanted to upgrade my phone and laptop to where I could comfortably work in Xcode for several years, it would cost a fortune. Unfortunately for me, I loathe Google products and their penchant for tracking everything you do, so my options are few.

My personal feeling is that PWA's written for mobile-devices, and running apps written in WebAssembly, will mostly replace traditional "apps". They wont require revenue sharing, App Store gatekeepers, expensive development machines, or weird computer languages. Jonathan Ive is now leaving Apple to start his own design company, that doesn't seem like a good sign. Recently Apple unveiled a $999 monitor stand, it reminded me of the movie "Big". In that movie, Tom Hanks character is transformed in to an adult, and he ends up working for a toy company. He succeeds there because he has a knack for knowing what kids want (because he really is a kid). Later in the film, he has some setbacks because he can't conceive of the cost of the toys he is pitching. Money and price do not mean anything to him. I think the millionaires designing Apple products are no different. A $999 monitor stand is a great deal when it is the best goddamn monitor stand on the planet, and I'm sure it is, but only people working at Apple can afford it.

My next phone will probably be a Pixel phone. Supposedly they have the least 3rd party spyware and are the most upgrade able. I've heard they aren't cheap, but at least I wont need to buy a new laptop to write apps for it.

Edit:

One thing I will add, which was actually the reason I wanted to post this, is that I have a strong feeling that if Apple products have finally become too expensive for me, they are probably now too expensive for a lot of other people. Their situation reminds me of when Jobs was kicked out a long time ago, they kept milking their existing customers without getting new ones, and they almost went out of business. I'm not going to bet against them, but I expect a downtrend.

 

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[Kak]

I agree on all fronts. I could have any computer I want, that still doesn't make me want to spend 5 grand on a high end Mac. Made the switch to PC, something equivalent to a $5k Mac and Samsung phones. I might check out a OnePlus phone next though.

My wife was a diehard Apple fan. After she saw how badass my new PC is, we are going to switch her over too. I doubt she will give up the iPhone, but I don't care.

I do however own a bunch of stock in Apple. It is extremely cheap considering its profitability.

 

[Kak]

Makes me a happy investor.

 

[biophase]

The price is the price. It may be too expensive for you and many others, but it's not too expensive for the rest. This is the same with everything. Is a Ferrari too expensive? If it was, nobody would buy it. Kind of like the new NSX. That's an example of something that was too expensive and nobody bought it. Guess what, they lowered the price the next year. The price is the price until it isn't.

 

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[loop101]

The price is the price. It may be too expensive for you and many others, but it's not too expensive for the rest. This is the same with everything. Is a Ferrari too expensive? If it was, nobody would buy it. Kind of like the new NSX. That's an example of something that was too expensive and nobody bought it. Guess what, they lowered the price the next year. The price is the price until it isn't.

In the 80s I read a book called "Alas, Babylon", about a Russian first-strike on America. The hero's brother worked at SAC and sent him a telegram that said, "Alas, Babylon", which meant a Russian attack was imminent. I remember someone in the story saying they knew the Russians were preparing to strike because they detected 3 Russian subs in the Gulf Of Mexico. Most military people did not think much of it because they always detected Russian subs in the GOM. The guys brother warned him because they had never detected 3 together. It was a subtle clue that turned out to be right.

I normally would faithfully get the best Apple gear when it was time to upgrade, but this time I wont. I will not pay $1000 for a phone when I can get a $20 handset at Staples. I could buy whatever Apple products I wanted, but I am objecting on principle. It's like Tulip Mania when people were trading houses for tulip bulbs, and one day everyone said, "These are just damn flowers", and it crashed the world economy. For me to finally refuse to upgrade Apple gear is a surprise to me. I feel like this is a subtle clue.

Part of my irritation comes from the fact that one of my best comptuers, is a 2011 MacBook Pro. I upgraded the RAM to 16GB, replaced the 320GB drive and CD with 2x500GB SSD's, it looks brand new and runs perfect. My iPhone 5s is also in perfect shape. Neither of these devices is supported by Apple anymore. I have to upgrade them because Apple needs more cash to pay for their spaceship building. Meanwhile Apple lobbies against the right-to-repair you own computer, so if I buy one, I better get the Protection Plan, too. It feels coercive.

 

[Guest24480]

I have a 2014 Macbook Air and an iPhone 6 and couldn't be happier with them. The battery fried on the iPhone 6 but it was a known issue so they gave me a brand new one for like 30 bucks.

Coming from a lifetime of buying entry-level Windows laptops that are practically unusable after 2 years, having a machine that actually works and is user-friendly means I will continue to buy Apple products moving forward.

Yes, you can probably get a better bang for your buck with a custom built PC or a higher-end Windows laptop. But I would rather pay a slight premium and not have to worry about bloatware than having to suffer through buying another junktastic Microsoft product.

Bonus: it's nice having a Unix OS for development work. The day I considering switching from Windows was when I dual booted Linux Mint onto my 3 year old Windows laptop and its speed increased at least 5x.

How does a computer perform worse on its built-in operating system vs. an open source one that I downloaded from the internet and installed with a flash drive within 5 minutes?

I don't keep up with hardware that much but that's my two cents as a consumer.

 

[biophase]

In the 80s I read a book called "Alas, Babylon", about a Russian first-strike on America. The hero's brother worked at SAC and sent him a telegram that said, "Alas, Babylon", which meant a Russian attack was imminent. I remember someone in the story saying they knew the Russians were preparing to strike because they detected 3 Russian subs in the Gulf Of Mexico. Most military people did not think much of it because they always detected Russian subs in the GOM. The guys brother warned him because they had never detected 3 together. It was a subtle clue that turned out to be right.

I normally would faithfully get the best Apple gear when it was time to upgrade, but this time I wont. I will not pay $1000 for a phone when I can get a $20 handset at Staples. I could buy whatever Apple products I wanted, but I am objecting on principle. It's like Tulip Mania when people were trading houses for tulip bulbs, and one day everyone said, "These are just damn flowers", and it crashed the world economy. For me to finally refuse to upgrade Apple gear is a surprise to me. I feel like this is a subtle clue.

Part of my irritation comes from the fact that one of my best comptuers, is a 2011 MacBook Pro. I upgraded the RAM to 16GB, replaced the 320GB drive and CD with 2x500GB SSD's, it looks brand new and runs perfect. My iPhone 5s is also in perfect shape. Neither of these devices is supported by Apple anymore. I have to upgrade them because Apple needs more cash to pay for their spaceship building. Meanwhile Apple lobbies against the right-to-repair you own computer, so if I buy one, I better get the Protection Plan, too. It feels coercive.

You can get an IPhone 7. Doesn’t need to be an X. Your complaint seems to be that they don’t support your older stuff. But the question is how long should a company support old hardware?

Btw I only use PCs and have an IPhone 7. I buy a new PC about every 5 years and change IPhones every 3-4.

 

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[PizzaOnTheRoof]

I will not pay $1000 for a phone when I can get a $20 handset at Staples.

You get exactly what you pay for

My iPhone 5s is also in perfect shape. Neither of these devices is supported by Apple anymore. I have to upgrade them because Apple needs more cash to pay for their spaceship building.

It’s in perfect shape...but 6 years old...you’re right, it should run like brand new. Smh.

“Supporting” hardware requires much more than adding a label next to the iOS number.

 

[TonyStark]

I like Apple because of its synchronicity amongst many devices.

And whenever I boot up my Apple desktop or laptop, there’s never any issues, lags, or viruses.

 

[TheCj]

Apple products have always been way more expensive, when compare to everything else based on the physical hardware you get.

The reason I see people get them is because they are easy to use, the lack of freedom on the apple software platform means everything is straightforward. They have stores with customer service that people actually feel comfortable using. Apple users don't feel lost when using the tech they feel good.

My co-workers every now and then show me the "latest" that they can do with there iphones and I've been able to do these things on android phones 3-4yrs previous. It's just not one button press easy.
My android phone is dual sim and cost me $60US, I've learned people don't like to hear about it being able to do the same or more than there multiple hundred dollar iphone's.

Something as simple as a file transfer from phone to pc is just funny to see iphone users attempt.

Yet at end of the day the current and future generations are being brought up to use simple technology. If you look at all the customization features across all windows, android operating systems can see the trend is to less options. Simple and straight forward, everything is automatically updating etc...

As continue to progress I think Apple users are noticing that Android phones are getting just as easy to use now. Where as an Android user am noticing there are less and less options on my phone every new operating system installment.

The other thing is the pc technology isn't improving enough for a basic user to see a difference from 5yrs ago to now. So when you look at new computer products or what I've noticed specifically is windows laptops the specs are usually very similar if not worse to the item replacing, the difference being the newer tech has smaller form factors, less energy use and more wireless options.

The other reason the tech is getting expensive is its become such a big part of especially the younger generations life. That a laptop or phone is literally there largest expense in life, since most of this younger generation has little interest in driving cars themselves. Licensing numbers are down, and so they aren't buying cars. So I think that helps carry the price.

 

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[ChrisV]

Yea, I agree with @TheCj

There are certain features to macOS that save me soooooo much time. I have a Surface Tablet too, but I just feel like I'm significantly more productive on a Mac.

For example Gestures is one of my favorite features:

Something as simple as a file transfer from phone to pc is just funny to see iphone users attempt.

I don't agree. It's literally one button and it transfers whatever file wirelessly. People are just dumb.

 

[ChrisV]

Bonus: it's nice having a Unix OS for development work. The day I considering switching from Windows was when I dual booted Linux Mint onto my 3 year old Windows laptop and its speed increased at least 5x.

Yes, for programmers Linux and macOS is definitely where it's at. Although I've heard that Windows is coming out with a gorgeous new terminal:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gw0rXPMMPE

 

[Blackadder]

A walmart prepaid 6s iphone on the att network is 244 or so dollars, well within an acceptable price for a smartphone.

AT&T Prepaid iPhone 6S 32GB Prepaid Smartphone, Space Gray w/ $45 airtime included - Walmart.com

Not available Buy AT&T Prepaid iPhone 6S 32GB Prepaid Smartphone, Space Gray w/ $45 airtime included at Walmart.com

www.walmart.com

And a 7 is a hundred bucks more

AT&T PREPAID iPhone 7 32GB + $50 Airtime Bundle (Includes $50 account credit upon activation) - Walmart.com

Free 2-day shipping. Buy AT&T PREPAID iPhone 7 32GB + $50 Airtime Bundle (Includes $50 account credit upon activation) at Walmart.com

www.walmart.com

It's only really expensive if you have the latest and greatest.

 

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[G-Man]

Or you can go with refurbished. If you buy a "refurbished" phone that's within the last two generations, there's a high probability that it's just a carrier return that someone data wiped and graded. No repairs needed.

Most of the carrier returns of recent generations (I have an XR 256 that I bought for $500), are A stock phones that the person returned not because they had any problems, but because their carrier offers them a "deal" to upgrade every year.

I don't buy new anymore at all. I'd rather have a 1 year old "refurb" of a good brand than a brand new piece of garbage. Same goes for laptops. My refurbished Surface Book performs better than the HP I bought brand new, and I abuse the hell outta that surface.

 

[ChrisV]

Or you can go with refurbished. If you buy a "refurbished" phone that's within the last two generations, there's a high probability that it's just a carrier return that someone data wiped and graded. No repairs needed.

Most of the carrier returns of recent generations (I have an XR 256 that I bought for $500), are A stock phones that the person returned not because they had any problems, but because their carrier offers them a "deal" to upgrade every year.

I don't buy new anymore at all. I'd rather have a 1 year old "refurb" of a good brand than a brand new piece of garbage. Same goes for laptops. My refurbished Surface Book performs better than the HP I bought brand new, and I abuse the hell outta that surface.

I got my MacBook Pro refurbished. I think it saved me like $500 right off the bat. It's the same exact thing.

 

[OlivierMo]

I got a Dell 4k display, 1TB SSD, great CPU, 32G at Costco for $1800 and installed Ubuntu on it. Dual boot windows ubuntu. Great machine. Same with Apple would've cost an arm and a leg.

 

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[Seamster]

The way they eff with your phone by degrading its processing power to increase battery life really pisses me off. Should be illegal. Like, I replaced my own battery (regardless of how hard they try to make them non-replaceable) and have kept my 5 year old phone in great shape and yes, it does work as well as the day I got it. The problem is that the software is all newer and they didn't make a version for my older phone. I'm forced to upgrade. Five years is not a long time for a phone. My last computer lasted from 2004 until 2017. Bought a Lenovo which I don't like because of this whole USB-C-is-the-future-of-everything-thing yet most devices you buy are still micro USB or regular USB and the USB-C ports on the computers don't have enough power (???) for the stupid dongle adapters to work properly.

 

[TheCj]

I don't agree. It's literally one button and it transfers whatever file wirelessly. People are just dumb.

Will have to look into this, the only way i've seen people able to transfer things from a windows pc to an apple phone is through installing itunes software on the pc. Takes a lot of work.

 

[ChrisV]

Will have to look into this, the only way i've seen people able to transfer things from a windows pc to an apple phone is through installing itunes software on the pc. Takes a lot of work.

Oh, I use a Mac... I'm not sure the best way to do it on Windows. Probably a Bluetooth File Transfer.

 

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[Digamma]

Meanwhile, I bought a Motorola G3 for less than $200 in 2016 and it still works flawlessly. Didn't even need to change the battery once.
I think it's my second smartphone ever.

Technology exists to solve a problem. If it solves the problem, it's good enough.

My personal feeling is that PWA's written for mobile-devices, and running apps written in WebAssembly, will mostly replace traditional "apps".

Hopefully. You can do that now if you can leverage alternative marketing channels rather than depend on stores (read: if the target market can handle that and if you're good enough at the game). I know that if I ever get need to make a mobile app product, it will be a PWA with one codebase for web and mobile, because life is too short for that shit.