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Comment by rootusrootus | Hacker News Reader

> $2,000 for a phone? Holy price point, Batman. No thanks.

Isn't that basically in line with the competition? Cheaper, even, than some of the competition?

$2800 here. What kinda of problem does that solve that's worth that kind of money? I'm seriously asking, because I can't figure it out. I can completely see buying an iPhone 18 Pro because you use it for work as an influencer or media creator, but this is close to twice the price and much less of a tool.

I don't think luxury phones necessarily need to solve problems. They're just luxury phones, people who can afford them will buy them because they like them, not because they're solving problems.

An influencer needing the latest iphone is also ridiculous when you think about it. They are running instagram and tiktok after all, not waiting for software to compile. They don't even need the latest and greatest camera because all their content is only going to be viewed on a palm sized screen.

Influencers want a device like that for status and branding. Technical specs are not a huge factor.

Doesn't it hide in a giant pink jelly case with a pop socket anyhow?

I can't really answer that because I'm not the target for this particular model. I'd rather have a new Mini.

But I think this could be really appealing for a large number of normies who have a phone as their sole computing device.

That is a valid use case, but it's a $2800 device, you can get another iPhone and a Neo (or an iPad) for the same price and have money to spare.

It does make sense as a one and only device, but the price makes it a little unrealistic, in my mind.

>What kinda of problem does that solve that's worth that kind of money?

If it means I don't have to put reading glasses on to use my phone, I'd pay a lot more...

Have you checked the accessibility features of your phone?

Incredibly useless. It is obvious that Apple doesn't have UI/UX designers over 40. Increasing the font size doesn't effect everything and breaks too many things. For example, you can't change the size of the time in the top left. Style > usability all over the place. Don't get me started on the stupid watch...

That does sound annoying :(

It's basically for people who want an iPhone and iPad, but in a device that's worse than both, while being more expensive than just buying one of each.

Apart from fire and shelter, a person really does not _require_ that much. These are luxury items, to which the basic rationale does not apply.

Good god, is it? My current phone is an iPhone SE 3rd Gen and I paid $250 for it on eBay.

have you considered that you might just not be the target market ? :)

Who exactly is the target market? Millionaires?

Pretty sure Apple and other manufacturers do market research before pouring tons of resources into it.

I guess the time would tell. I’m pretty sure they did market research before the Apple Vision Pro and we all saw how it turned out

As someone who worked on the Vision Pro, we were well aware that it wasn’t going to change the world on its own, but we were also aware that the current Vision Pro would be the worst one we ever sold. Apple, possibly uniquely amongst its peers, plays the long game on products categories

As an engineer in a high cost of living location, you can buy this phone and still save some money in the same month.

However, maybe you can't buy a house there. For that you'd have to be a millionaire.

But people like me cannot be the target market of Apple because that would be a very limited number of customers. Also even if I could afford it, I don’t see any use case for it so why would I even buy it?

There’s something like 26 million millionaires in just the USA, that’s a reasonable market for a top-of-the-range $2500 phone, assuming an average sale is the midpoint of the scale

256GB galaxy z fold8 is ~$1900

Not sure what expressing the cost of your current phone has to do with the discussion here, but I’m guessing this phone certainly isn’t for you. Some people choose to spend more on their phones, and some less.

A price difference of 8x for what this offers seems crazy to me.

A $10,000 car and a $80,000 car are going to be markedly different. Same for a $100,000 house vs a $800,000 house.

This $2,000 phone does not seem 8 times better than my $250 phone.

Your opinion is duly noted.

Your phone does not offer more screen area on demand. That is genuinely useful for many people. Apparently, not you, but that's OK.

> This $2,000 phone does not seem 8 times better than my $250 phone.

Well lets adjust the comparison you just made, then.

> A $10,000 car and a $80,000 car are going to be markedly different.

I can buy a Maserati Ghibli for under $10K on eBay and it will be very similar to the $109K Ghibli that Maserati would sell me today.

Well, other than being 10 years old, having 100,000 miles on it, most likely needing a new timing chain, suspension, and generally needing a new cooling system, sure.

That's why they're $10K.

Meanwhile for about the same price differential, $10K on eBay will get you an Audi RS 5 ... engine ... with 60K on it.

I don't know that the Ghibli makes the point you want to make.

> I don't know that the Ghibli makes the point you want to make.

What point do you think I was trying to make? ivraatiems compared what he paid for a used iPhone on eBay to a new iPhone four years newer, and then said this was an absurd price difference because 8x price gets you way more car.

All I did is point out that this is a bullshit comparison because of course you can buy an older, used product way cheaper than a brand new one. I chose the Ghibli because it is one of the more entertaining (and repeatable every year, there are lots of gluttons for punishment out there it seems) examples of fast depreciating cars. To varying degrees this example could use any product, but ivraatiems chose cars so I ran with it.

It's not really fair to compare a used phone price to a brand new one. The SE 3 sold for almost 500 when it was released.

Is this foldable 4x better than your SE 3? Almost definitely, by every metric, except size if you're into small things.

That’s not a brand new folding phone. Those start at $1900 MSRP from what I see. However, you can get them a few hundred cheaper. Some of them cost even more than Apple.

People have been saying “Oh my God, who would pay $600 for a phone“ for 20 years. Clearly there are such people.

Most people don't actually realize they're paying $$$$ for their phone, as they get a phone with their mobile plan and they pay some monthly small sum for 24 months that lets them forget they'd never be able to afford it otherwise.

New flagship product with lots of features is more expensive than old entry level product purchased used?!

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