Hacker News Reader

Comment by mojuba | Hacker News Reader

I think Apple knows this perfectly. I'm not even sure whether the "I'll wait for the S upgrade" people (myself included) outsmart Apple or it's Apple who created the market for those who want to feel smarter than the rest.

At the end of the day, the economics of major upgrades vs. incrementals is very straightforward: major upgrades do bring significant new convenience features (e.g. once you are used to Face ID you don't want to go back) and if you want to own them today, you pay more. There's nothing smart about not benefiting from the new features today for the sake of saving a few hundred dollars.

View on HN

> There's nothing smart about not benefiting from the new features today for the sake of saving a few hundred dollars.

I suppose you mean that it's obvious (i.e. doesn't require some masterstroke), not that it's a bad idea?

Sounds great to me. I don't upgrade my computing hardware until it's no longer fit for purpose for the most part, it would be stupidly wasteful to buy a new thing every 6 months regardless of whether I can afford it.

> There's nothing smart about not benefiting from the new features today for the sake of saving a few hundred dollars.

Sure there is. For every life-changing new feature, there are a dozen that end up not going anywhere. For the ones that are, their true advantages and disadvantages only become clear after they’ve been in the world for a while.

I’m thankful for all of the early adopters out there that hapily deal with the churn and find out what’s actually good so that I don’t have to— I can spend that time focusing on what’s important to me and still get most of the benefits, if only a year or two later.

"For every life-changing new feature, there are a dozen that end up not going anywhere"

"3D Touch" (IIRC?) would seem to fall in to that camp, no? I've never had a device that offered it, and the folks I know that do didn't realize they had it.

I left Apple phones before that feature came out, and because of that feature I feel like I have no idea how to use a new Apple phone. I want to say it's just error but I really feel like they just forced a bunch of UI into that feature too hope it would catch on.

> I think Apple knows this perfectly.

They research the market very well and optimize for maximum profit. Some people will feel left in the rain and some will think they made a steal. This is of no big concern for apple. Their overall profit is and in the last years it seemed to only go up and up.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com