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Comment by kamaal | Hacker News Reader

This post is the reason why Apple is doomed on the longer run. Yes, expensive cute phones sell a lot early on. But no one sees value in spending that kind of cash every two years, for very little value in return.

This is basically the repeat of the desktop market in the 90's and early 2000s. Except that we now have Android instead of Windows as the dominant alternative.

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I think you're giving the mass consumer a fair bit too much credit. People still stand in lines to buy the 6, which is something like the 11th generation (if you count all the intermediate minor-rev phones).

Why? Apparently so they can have it before everyone else...for 48 hours...

(iPhone 5S/Ting user, bought 'em used for my wife and I a few weeks after the 6 came out and a bunch of people dumped their "obsolete" 5Ss. So I agree with you in philosophy, but disagree that enough people think like that to "doom Apple")

You don't see people stand in lines for other smartphones because they are not released as mass media events. And the crowds would be to large to work as a queue. Those phones are selling all the time, hence no need for the queue.

Queue's are needed when you need some kind of a priority based selection.

I agree the queueing is unnecessary, border on insane. However, the fact that many of the people queued up (whether literally or figuratively) to buy the 6 were using their perfectly good 5S to pass the time is some amount of evidence that people do see some value in buying expensive phones every year or two and Apple isn't doomed.

Very little return? I can't imagine a device that I use more or is more personal than my smartphone. I've regretted buying sub-par devices in the past but I've never regretted spending more. I usually hold on for 3 years before I replace a device; that's a long time. It's a long time to have something cheap.

Not sure about this. People have been saying this since 2012, but iPhones are now stronger than ever. There's a reason why Coca-cola can sell their products for more than generic store brand.

Probably since 2008, to be honest. Every week brings a new "And this is why Apple are doomed" crank out of the woodwork in direct contradiction to the fiscal facts.

Apple could take -just- their profits from 2014Q4 ($18bn), burn $10M a day, and it would still take -nearly 5 years- before they were done with just that lump of cash.

But... the article is about an Android user complaining about an Android phone.

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