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Comment by FBISurveillance | Hacker News Reader

Note that this is regular iPhone, not the Pro one that is _rumored_ to have Thunderbolt 4. On a Pro one, getting a 2TB model and getting 480Mbps transfers is not something Apple would do, my prediction.

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So they hobble the regular phone to encourage upgrades. That would by typical of Apple.

Alternately, would increasing the cost of the base phone for a facility hardly anyone would use the right thing to do?

Especially when there is a high end model specifically for people who are willing to bear the cost for higher end features?

The cost of a usb3 module instead of usb2 is negligible. Thunderbolt is a reasonable upgrade for a pro model, but usb2 is completely unreasonable in 2023 unless the phone is <$500

The lower end is price conscious and cutting 10c here and there is meaningful, especially at the volume that Apple ships. And isn’t this for the models that are under $500?

Also note that it’s not just the module. They shipped cable would also need to be usb3. So they probably shaved $5-10 out of the BOM by using usb2 as part of an overall cost reduction effort which probably netted $20-100 in savings depending on far away this was from there target. In other words usb2 would have probably been anywhere from 5-50% of the target reduction they were seeking and even 5% would have been significant.

That being said, there may be strategic reasons why they’ve limited iPhones to 480mbps this whole time. The alternate framing is “iPhone 15 isn’t upgrading to usb3 alongside the usb-c connector migration”.

> And isn’t this for the models that are under $500?

Apple hasn't officially announced it, but the cheapest iPhone 14 is $800. So it's extremely unlikely they will have an iPhone 15 for $500 or less.

This argument doesn't make any sense at all. The price of a base model iPhone is around €800. Saving $.10 on a USB-2 module wouldn't make any difference to a consumer spending €800, but it will translate into major savings for Apple. For the individual consumer, it means being stuck with a 10-year-old standard that is exceedingly slow for the modern age. So yes, it will help somebody, but that somebody is Apple, not the average consumer. Additionally, the cost of cables produced on a large scale is negligible compared to the cost of the phone. You've conjured up an imaginary consumer who wants to buy an expensive phone without paying a little more for a cable and better data transfer. This is a standard justification given by the Apple crowd to defend their actions, and frankly, there is no justification for including a USB-2 port in a phone that will be released in 2023.

Furthermore, all of this is notwithstanding the fact that the price of the iPhone is going to go up this year. So yes, you're getting less for more.

Have you bought a new car recently? Most base and mid models are hobbled together and always lack that one cool feature. It’s typical of most mid to high end purchases.

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