Apple's 16GB IPhone 6S Is a Serious Strategic Mistake 324
HughPickens.com writes: Matthew Yglesias writes at Vox that Apple's recent announcement of an entry level iPhone 6S is a serious strategic mistake because it contains just 16GB of storage — an amount that was arguably too low even a couple of years back. According to Yglesias, the user experience of an under-equipped iPhone can be quite bad, and the iPhone 6S comes with features — like the ability to shoot ultra-HD video — that are going to fill up a 16GB phone in the blink of an eye. "It's not too hard to figure out what Apple is up to here," writes Yglesias. "Leaving the entry-level unit at 16GB of storage rather than 32GB drives higher profit margins in two ways. One, it reduces the cost of manufacturing the $649 phone, which increases profit margins on sales of the lowest-end model. Second, and arguably more important, it pushes a lot of people who might be happy with a 32GB phone to shell out $749 for the 64GB model."
But this raises the question of what purpose is served by Apple amassing more money anyhow. Apple pays out large (and growing) sums of cash to existing shareholders in the form of dividends and buybacks, but its enormous cash stockpile keeps remorselessly marching up toward $200 billion. "Killing the 16GB phone and replacing it with a 32GB model at the low end would obtain things money can't buy — satisfied customers, positive press coverage, goodwill, a reputation for true commitment to excellence, and a demonstrated focus on the long term. A company in Apple's enviable position ought to be pushing the envelop forward on what's considered an acceptable baseline for outfitting a modern digital device, not squeezing extra pennies out of customers for no real reason."
But this raises the question of what purpose is served by Apple amassing more money anyhow. Apple pays out large (and growing) sums of cash to existing shareholders in the form of dividends and buybacks, but its enormous cash stockpile keeps remorselessly marching up toward $200 billion. "Killing the 16GB phone and replacing it with a 32GB model at the low end would obtain things money can't buy — satisfied customers, positive press coverage, goodwill, a reputation for true commitment to excellence, and a demonstrated focus on the long term. A company in Apple's enviable position ought to be pushing the envelop forward on what's considered an acceptable baseline for outfitting a modern digital device, not squeezing extra pennies out of customers for no real reason."
Not the only factor? (Score:5, Interesting)
Actually I see another reason to keep the base model at 16Gb. App development is crucial to the iPhone (and any other smartphone out there), and many developers don't like to do the extra work to keep their application sizes sane. However, as long as the base model is 16Gb, app developers need to keep this in mind when developing their apps.
If this encourages even only some developers to keep their applications down to a sensible size (knowing that anyone with a 16Gb device will either avoid their application, or delete it as soon as they run low on space) then I guess it's worth it.
I'm not saying the extra money in Apple's pocket isn't a factor, but I'm sure there are other factors at play here, this theory being just one of them.
-- Pete.
Re:Not the only factor? (Score:5, Informative)
Also keep in mind, many, many people own a smartphone, yet don't use the advanced features offered. Like my dad. He has about 3 apps he uses -- no interest in getting others, no interest in shooting video, maybe shoots photos every couple of months. I suspect there are a few million people like him. I would think and hope that the people buying the entry level know what they're getting into -- which, is that if you plan on using the phone much or the advanced features, it IS NOT for you. However, if you plan on just wanting a smart phone, but use none of the advanced features, then it most certainly is just fine.
I don't think it is that bad to keep it around.
Re:Not the only factor? (Score:5, Insightful)
Sure, that would be fine, if the jump from the 16GB version to the 64GB version wasn't $100 friggin dollars...
For FLASH storage that costs maybe $5 if they are being really nice about it...
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Prices aren't just a function of supply, they're also function of demand (what the market can bear). Since a model with more storage is more desirable, the price will increase more than proportionally.
Or put it this way: A 0 GB iPhone would be throughly useless, so it wouldn't sell for $200, it would sell for near zero.
Another way: when combined with the rest of a phone that can actually make use of said storage, the additional storage becomes more valuable than it otherwise would.
There shouldn't be anythin
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Supply and demand will also mean those who want more for less will go elsewhere reducing demand resulting in a glut of supply and collapsing prices or substantially reduced sales. Apple has lost it cache, it was inevitable, nothing they could do to keep it except try to be bigger dicks than they were with B$ patents to keep the competition out. There isn't really all that far to go with smart phones now, extra battery life, replaceable batteries to keep up resale, waterproofing and durability, storage spac
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They are being really nice, up until the most recent generation the jump from 16 to 32 was $100 and the jump from 16 to 64 was $200! They are giving you half off! Jeez some people don't know how good they have it.
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Where well working market is a measure of the real world conforming to their theory. Slightly reminiscent of high school physics experiments where the uncertainty permitted nearly any explanation for observed phenomena.
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No no, GP is right. Once you become an adult/start making real money, most of your big ticket purchases are often done with full consideration of the long term. I don't care about sticker price, I care about the price divided by how many years it's likely to work in. Which makes a new smartphone purchase with an average life expectancy of 2 years less pricey per month than what I spend on gas. A much easier dec
Re:Not the only factor? (Score:4, Insightful)
I would question whether people with this usage pattern would just be better off with a cheaper Android or Windows phone. Why pay $700 for a phone if you just you it to send text messages and run few simple apps? If Apple wants to maintain their high end customer base, they should at least have their phones reasonably high end.
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> Why pay $700 for a phone if you just you it to send text messages and run few simple apps?
Well for one, you're not paying $700, you're paying the delta between $700 and whatever other phone you buy. In a better-case scenario where you get something like the Moto X, that's more like $300.
So why pay $300? Well if all the people at the other end of the connection are on iPhones, it gets you iMessage, FaceTime, AirDrop and many other features. I know I find those compelling. $300 compelling.
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So why pay $300? Well if all the people at the other end of the connection are on iPhones, it gets you iMessage, FaceTime, AirDrop and many other features. I know I find those compelling. $300 compelling.
Wow. It's like you actually LIKE being vendor locked-in.
Even if I had an iPhone, I wouldn't use any of these services and would use cross-platforms alternatives instead, when possible.
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Comments are meant to be read as a thread... What I said didn't apply to all situations, to everyone, everywhere in the freakin' Universe.
Maury Markowitz said "Well if all the people at the other end of the connection are on iPhones, it gets you iMessage, FaceTime, AirDrop and many other features."
So no, people don't "need the application", they already have it because they have iPhones.
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Except most people around me do have iPhones or iPads, especially the non-technical people. I only know of two people with Android phones. The rest don't even have smartphones, just flip-type dumb phones. I even have a few contacts that only have landlines, some of them on magicJack, although one of them do have an iPad.
There's no pressure on anyone. Email works just fine between all platforms and if you don't want to write something, you just make a regular phone call.
same for my family . Bought it for a purpose (Score:4, Insightful)
Same here. I just bought a 16 GB ipad mini. They are available with more memory; I don't have any need for more. Sure we COULD fill the storage if we wanted to shoot a bunch of pointless video with it, but that's not what we want to do with it.
We use it for abcmouse.com and a few apps which my toddler's preschool uses. My toddler won't be shooting feature films with it, she'll be using abcmouse and the PBS Kids app. We'll probably use all of 64 MEGAbytes.
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I agree, I couldn't care less about the camera or the ability to shoot video. It's a feature that has been in phones for years that I still can't figure out why I'd want. I have managed with 16GB and don't feel an urgent need to upgrade.
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App development is crucial to the iPhone (and any other smartphone out there), and many developers don't like to do the extra work to keep their application sizes sane. However, as long as the base model is 16Gb, app developers need to keep this in mind when developing their apps.
That would be nice, if it worked like that... but already way too many apps are getting big.
Sure, Facebook isn't too big and others are reasonable, but how big can the Facebook app really get?
Try downloading Real Racing 3 or the Disney Infinity 2.0 app and tell me about app sizes. As I look at my kid's iPad, there are over 10 apps that are over 1GB in size each.
Ok, that is an iPad, not an iPhone, but same thing more or less.
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Games are big because of the high resolution of the iPad. It has a resolution of 2048Ã--1536. That's higher resolution than any game console does, and higher than the average home desktop monitor. When you have high resolution, you need more pixels in the textures and videos for your games, or they are going to look sub-par.
I think that not having expandable storage at this point hurts them more than it helps them. My wife got an iPad and there was only 12 GB of usable space out of the box. Download a
To me, it looks like abuse. (Score:4, Interesting)
One problem is not Apple offering a 16GB iPhone, it is that those who want more must pay 20 times Apple's cost.
Although Tim Cook tries to imitate Steve Jobs, he clearly does not understand how to do that. Steve Jobs did everything necessary to positioning Apple products at the top. Offering a new model of iPhone with only 16GB is a sure way to get negative comments, and it did.
Steve Jobs was extremely abusive, biographical books say, but he was aware of the effect of every aspect of advertising and how even minor items might be received in people's minds.
Books: The Little Kingdom: The Private Story of Apple Computer [amazon.com] published in 1984, gives the early history.
See page 84 of this book: iCon Steve Jobs: The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business [amazon.com]. Quote: "Steve was not only very rich but pulling a quarter of a million dollars a year out of the company in salary, yet he refused to let any of his engineers receive more than $30,000 a year, the lowest salaries of any engineers at Apple. He considered anyone working less than 80 hours a week to be wimping out."
Gross margins (Score:5, Insightful)
One problem is not Apple offering a 16GB iPhone, it is that those who want more must pay 20 times Apple's cost.
Your cost analysis isn't a useful one though I think I understand the point you are trying to make. Apple has gross profit margins around 40% and around 56% of their revenue comes from the iPhone. Gross profit is revenue [wikipedia.org] minus cost of goods sold [wikipedia.org] and is a crude measure of the raw profitability of a product before you pile on the costs of running the company and selling the product. While Apple doesn't break out their numbers for cost of goods sold for the iPhone line, it's not hard to prove that even if everyone were to buy the more expensive product, Apple doesn't receive anywhere close to a 20X bump in gross margins. The marginal profits [wikipedia.org] received from the more expensive models is meaningful but it's not an improvement to the degree you are implying.
(Disclosure, I'm a certified accountant in my day job - among other things)
Steve Jobs did everything necessary to positioning Apple products at the top.
They position their brand near the top but not always the products themselves. Apple often starts their products at or near the top of the market but they routinely sell products that are no where near the top of the market. In phones and tablets and ipods this is simply their older models which they continue to sell. In PCs they sell computers that are designed for market tiers below the top. I have a Mac Mini myself that even when it was first introduced was no where near state of the art and wasn't designed to be. Apple HAS to provide products that aren't at the top of the market because if they didn't their competitors could easily undercut them from the bottom end of the market. Apple doesn't want to compete on price alone but they cannot ignore lower tier market segments.
Offering a new model of iPhone with only 16GB is a sure way to get negative comments, and it did.
Only by people who wouldn't buy one anyway. The 16GB model is probably not intended for you. It is intended for people like my Dad who uses about 3 apps and doesn't take a meaningful amount of photos or video and isn't trying to store a Library of Congress worth of music on his phone. He uses less that 8GB of storage on his phone and that isn't likely to change. Providing a 32GB model would cost Apple money and really only benefits a relatively tiny group of users who happen to need more than 16GB but less than 32GB. I'm pretty sure Apple has done the research and if a 32GB unit would result in them selling more units then they would make one. I am certain that there is a very large group of users like my father who want the basic features of an iPhone but simply don't use much storage.
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It's the cloud, man - streaming from the cloud. We're all 4G here, we can install apps from the cloud at will, and who keeps copies of media anymore? That's so 2005...
Soon as you shoot that HD video in the jungles of Timbuktu, stream it out 4G to the cloud - they've got 4G in Timbuktu, don't they?
Newsflash Cupertino: we don't even have decent 4G coverage in the American mid-west. Your 16G phone will be a POS for anybody who ever leaves a city, even just for vacation.
Re:Not the only factor? (Score:5, Insightful)
If they simply put more storage in the damn thing, app sizes would stop being a problem.
That is exactly the attitude GP was referring to.
The easy availability of storage and memory today has made programmers extremely wasteful of resources. As a result, many programs today could literally run 10 times as fast and take up 1/10 as much space, if the developers really wanted to concentrate on that.
It's easy to be a programmer today. It's much harder to be a good programmer.
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... What? You don't change programmer attitudes by restricting choices of the consumer.
That's like saying counter-top mixers stay should be under-powered so that the attitudes of recipe creators will conform.
Re:Not the only factor? (Score:4, Insightful)
Having more powerful countertop mixers won't make Chef Emeril add rocks to his recipes.
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As a result, many programs today could literally run 10 times as fast and take up 1/10 as much space, if the developers really wanted to concentrate on that.
Ugh. Best example I can think of is Fallout shelter. Here's a game that is actually made WORSE by making it 3d, but they did that anyway, with the result that the game chokes and stutters on a Tegra3. This game is simple enough to have implemented the concept on an Amiga or ancient game console, if done with 2d graphics. And since the world of the game is 2d, there's no reason to use 3d except justifying stealing development funds.
But what's truly sad is that the game is still really simple, barely there ev
People will buy them.. (Score:2)
..and Apple will make money.
I wish I could make Apple's mistakes.
Of course, 16GB is too small - unless you want a smartphone for email, web, messages, maps, etc etc, and don't plan on shooting any HD video. I have an 8GB iPod, and for what I use it for, it's perfectly fine. I have a 160GB iPod classic for music, and a camera for photos. Separate devices are better. All I need is that bag of holding to keep them all in...
Many people don't need huge storage (Score:3)
Of course, 16GB is too small - unless you want a smartphone for email, web, messages, maps, etc etc, and don't plan on shooting any HD video.
Which describes a HUGE number of users out there including my parents, my in-laws, the owners of my company, and probably 2/3 of my aunts and uncles. Don't make the mistake of thinking everyone users their smartphone the same way you or I do. I use close to 100GB on mine. My father uses less than 8 and there are many more like him.
I have a 160GB iPod classic for music, and a camera for photos. Separate devices are better. All I need is that bag of holding to keep them all in...
Separate devices are not necessarily better. I have a 128GB iPhone and it stores my entire music collection and all my point an shoot photos and video with room to spare. Wha
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When slagging apple is trendy, they will slag apple.
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Most of them zombies do the same thing over, and over, and over again, without realizing the emptiness of their action
We're discussing Apple iPhones, not last night's Republican presidential debate.
I am fine with 16gb. (Score:5, Insightful)
Just because it is not good for you or some people, doesn't mean that the cheaper option should not be available for those that really don't need the space.
I primarily use it for a "modem" link and for getting messages and checking messages and keeping connected....
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You represent a very small proportion of users. Most want to use the phone's other basic features - the camera and music playback. Once you start snapping away that storage space quickly fills up, with your MP3 collecting filling the rest. Apple even owns a music store and encourages users to buy from it. Not just music but video as well.
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It seems kinda miserly. Flash memory is very, very cheap, even the low power high performance type used in phones. When you consider what other manufacturers charge for going 16->64GB it's clear that cost is not the issue, considering the huge margin Apple already has.
It seems like a simple oversight. The new generation phones are pretty "meh", nothing really new and they are no longer the thinnest or lightest or best camera etc. No major screw-ups either, they fixed the bending issue and didn't add any
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The trouble is that this option is not there because Apple has stripped out the bill of material costs so they can altruistically deliver people like you a cheaper phone. It is unequivocally a marketing strategy to try to raise average sale prices. Remember, prices have been falling now with inflation for over 8 years, which is not ideal. This is one of the problems with having a single product strategy - it is very hard to raise average prices without people noticing. An alternative is what you see in the
Re: I am fine with 16gb. (Score:2)
Hey, the phone I bought just last month is a 16GB model and it's just fine.
Oh, but I put a 64GB SD card in the slot ...
and put a 7.5 Ah battery on it.
Perhaps mine is a bad example.
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The median usage of data on an iphone is 7GB.
That makes sense, considering that most iPhones are 16GB in size...
So the people complaining about it, really know nothing.
So, you really know nothing, since it would be impossible for the usage on a 16GB iPhone to be much more than about 12GB (due to not all 16GB being usable).
This is obvious, shame you don't get that.
Apple and the market (Score:2)
They can always drop the price of the phones, after all the BOM must be down below $100, after all it is a free market and the Apple bubble can only last for so long. There is no other industry where a single player can keep a global monopoly.
Re:Apple and the market (Score:5, Insightful)
What Apple does have though is a disproportionate amount of media coverage (both paid for advertising and articles), so perhaps that's skewing peoples perspectives?
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What Apple does have though is a disproportionate amount of media coverage (both paid for advertising and articles), so perhaps that's skewing peoples perspectives?
Well Apple is also making a disproportionate amount of the profits. Essentially the iPhone is not very dominant in terms of market share, but it's still the market leader.
Re: Apple and the market (Score:2)
Yep - the "Apple Bubble" where Apple can charge more than competitors will finally bust any day now after 40 years.
Apple is not a monopoly (Score:2)
There is no other industry where a single player can keep a global monopoly.
What are you babbling about? Apple is not and never has been a monopoly. Probably the closest they ever got was with the iPod in the MP3 player market and even there they never achieved monopoly power and that market has largely gone away due to smarphones. They sure as hell aren't a monopoly in smartphones where they aren't even close to a majority market share much less monopoly power.
16GB is enough for me (Score:4, Insightful)
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> For me the iPhone is what it is: a phone. Talking to people, texting, chatting, reading e-mail and surfing the web.
>a phone
>reading e-mail and surfing the web
No, you're using it as a smartphone. You just are happy with a feature set. It's not some fundamental or elemental set- it's still doing stuff a phone couldn't do. You're taking a subset of the native apps and saying, "ok, verily, this is blessed".
This thing is also an mp3 player, a camera, a video camera- and all that stuff is built in,
Streaming music changes demand for storage (Score:2)
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You do all the other stuff on a laptop? That's cute.
Does your laptop have a 4K video camera?
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For many people, their cell phone is their primary digital camera. With a 12 MP camera sensor that can also record 4K video, you're going to burn through 12 GB (The OS uses 4) of storage quickly.
Even if Apple wanted to make a 16 GB "cheapskate" model, they should really make 32 GB the standard for their flagship phones.
Re:16GB is enough for me (Score:4, Informative)
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Most people just use their phones for Facebook, Youtube, Email, Internet and Angry birds. And yes, as a phone. 16GB is more than enough for that.
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So it's NOT a mistake, then? (Score:5, Insightful)
"Leaving the entry-level unit at 16GB of storage rather than 32GB drives higher profit margins in two ways. One, it reduces the cost of manufacturing the $649 phone, which increases profit margins on sales of the lowest-end model. Second, and arguably more important, it pushes a lot of people who might be happy with a 32GB phone to shell out $749 for the 64GB model."
First you say it's a serious strategic mistake, then you give two perfectly (corporately) good strategic reasons for doing it. Make up your mind!
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But see there's a third option (Score:2)
That being people decide to leave Apple and get something else. Apple's position on the smartphone market is tenuous at best. While there are still enough fans who have to have the latest greatest iGadget, that number has been dropping. Worldwide Android is the big player.
So every time Apple screws people over, it is the kind of thing that'll make more people look to other brands.
Re: But see there's a third option (Score:2)
And why should Apple be worried about a bunch of people who can't or won't spend more than $100 on a phone? How is selling a bunch of low end no profit margin devices working out for companies selling Android phones?
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It just looks bad when the 100$ phone has the same specs.
It is a historical thing (Score:2)
Apple has always sold devices with not enough memory since the very first Macintosh.
Profit (Score:5, Insightful)
"But this raises the question of what purpose is served by Apple amassing more money anyhow."
Fundamental misunderstanding of how the world works.
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It's a common viewpoint held by a rather large portion of the world's population, especially among elites. They find it distasteful and wish we would stop doing it.
"I do think at a certain point you've made enough money, but you know, part of the American way is, you can just keep on making it if you're providing a good product."
-- Barack Obama
Except they don't do anything with it (Score:3, Insightful)
Normally if a company makes lots of profit, it gets used in some way. If there isn't a business need for it, it goes out to investors. That is part of the idea of investing: You can get a share of the profits (it isn't the only reason, but one of them). That doesn't happen with Apple. They just hoard all their profits... to what end?
I personally am not sure why their big investors let them get away with it. I would want my cut if I had money in Apple. However for whatever reason investors are fine with them
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if Apple holds onto the cash it just gets reflected in share price.
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I think for a while at least they were using their money to more or less invest in suppliers, building the factory the supplier needed to crank out some new kind of part in exchange for getting all of the output from the factory for a year or something, basically allowing them to monopolize the supply of some new feature.
The funny thing is, management of that much cash becomes a headache and I think banks were starting to charge negative interest rates in some cases.
Re:Except they don't do anything with it (Score:5, Insightful)
I think Apple understands that one day it will be Microsoft, or IBM -- behind the curve in some new area that seems all-important, and needing a big warchest to sustain the years of decline and mis-steps while they figure out what to do.
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Low quality article (Score:4, Insightful)
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Who cares? (Score:2)
Seriously, who does? People using their phones as toys instead of phones is all good and fine, but it is not news. Whether this phone then has over-sized memory or grossly over-sized memory is even less news.
Somehow I doubt it (Score:2)
Don't get me wrong... I think Apple's closed platform and ridiculous incremental prices for storage continue to alienate many power users, and that is the gift that keeps on giving for their competition (both in terms of market share and developer support). But when it comes to their business it is not 'a strategic mistake' but rather the opposite -- they've spent the last 8 years doing essentially the same thing on this front, and they can cry all the way to the bank if they want to, but it's hard to chan
Re: Somehow I doubt it (Score:2)
Yep you are absolutely right. Because of Apple's "mistakes" all of the Android vendors are more profitable than ever and app developers are supporting Android first and IOS is getting crummy ports later...oh wait...never mind.
It's like the Lottery. (Score:2)
It's a tax on stupidity. That's all Apple's offerings have ever been.
And nobody ever accused Apple of being a charity organization...
Wrong strategy? Not really (Score:2)
Just like anybody else (I think) I am often amazed at how much money people are spending (again and again) on apple devices and particularly iPhones. And just like anybody else I often wonder how long this can go on.
So, I'm convinced that somewhere in the future apple will either make some huge mistake or, alternatively, find their formula working less and less well for them because (like any market leader is bound to do) they keep on hammering on the same nail, not realizing the world has changed meanwhile
It's enough. (Score:2)
You might not believe it, but there are millions of people who never shoot any videos with their iPhone, not even low res.
There are also people who do not install 7 GB Navigation apps or 3GB games.
I even deleted the music from mine, which were also several Gigabytes, I now stream them from my home computer if I need them.
Ditto for the photos, Google photos does the job for me, after they have been uploaded, I delete them on the phone.
16 GB is enough for lots of people.
16GB Can Actually Be Enough (Score:2)
Just the other day I was considering what storage level of Nexus 5x to plan on getting. I usually default to getting the max-storage model and paying whatever the extra is. But on my last couple of phones I realized I mostly stream my music, and automatically cloud-save photos/videos and later cloud-view them. The phone I'm using now (a OnePlus One running Cyanogenmod) has 64GB storage but I'm only using 6GB, and that's with a small subset of my music locally-stored in case I'm offline.
This is in the And
Large Phone Capacity Encourages Waste (Score:2)
Meh (Score:2)
There's no way on the planet that microsd and replaceable batteries aren't worth the cost to the customer. When is Apple gonna wake up from the reality distortion field and make a product that makes technical sense.
For all we know they've just soldered a $1 (bulk wholesale) microsd card in the stupid phone to get the 16gb version and a $4 microsd card in to get the $64 gig version. Not a significant cost.
Seriously I see a 16 gig class 10 card on alibaba for $1 in bulk
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Removable storage on an iPhone would be the death of it.
iPhones are easy.
uSD cards are hard. They have to be unmounted, there has to be a mechanism for partitioning the storage so that certain things which mush remain on the phone can stay on the phone, and things which can be removed or swapped can be removed or swapped. That means the asking the user where they want to store things, either once (and risk things being put in the wrong place if the user changes his or her mind) or every.single.time. And the
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> Seriously I see a 16 gig class 10 card on alibaba for $1 in bulk
Those are actually borderline useless 128MB microsd cards with the filesystem tweaked [1] to show up as 16 or 64GB
[1] http://www.ebay.com/gds/All-Ab... [ebay.com]
Re:Meh (Score:5, Insightful)
> When is Apple gonna wake up from the reality distortion field and make a product that makes technical sense.
When they stop being the largest and most profitable company in all of recorded history, with the number 1, 2 and 7 best selling phones on the planet?
Duh.
Make a smaller phone (Score:4, Interesting)
Apple don't want people to buy that phone (Score:2)
App Slicing and the Cloud (Score:2)
Apple has been working on a number of technologies to reduce storage requirements including Photo's iCloud storage and app slicing.
I'm pretty sure Apple knows what they are doing when it comes to balancing costumer satisfaction and profit.
Some Think Otherwise (Score:4, Informative)
What? I don't even. (Score:2)
Look, I've learned to hate Apple over the years, but this story is ever so much ignorant, clickbait bullshit.
Matthew Yglesias writes at Vox that Apple's recent announcement of an entry level iPhone 6S is a serious strategic mistake because it contains just 16GB of storage â" an amount that was arguably too low even a couple of years back. According to Yglesias, the user experience of an under-equipped iPhone can be quite bad, and the iPhone 6S comes with features â" like the ability to shoot ultra-HD video â" that are going to fill up a 16GB phone in the blink of an eye. "It's not too hard to figure out what Apple is up to here," writes Yglesias. "Leaving the entry-level unit at 16GB of storage rather than 32GB drives higher profit margins in two ways. One, it reduces the cost of manufacturing the $649 phone, which increases profit margins on sales of the lowest-end model. Second, and arguably more important, it pushes a lot of people who might be happy with a 32GB phone to shell out $749 for the 64GB model."
Obviously it is not a strategic mistake if people are paying and Apple is pocketing the money, idiot. If it's driving upsells, then it's a good plan. You're just jealous. Me too, but don't make shit up.
16GB is fine (Score:4, Insightful)
The problem is the price. I agree that 16GB is low for a $650 phone.
Work Sucks (Score:2)
Work has decreed they will no longer provide a Company phone for us in IT per the corporate overlords and that we have to load the company email application on my personal phone, for which I'll receive a few bucks compensation a month (but they also dropped the internet compensation they've been paying for years).
Rather than giving the corporate monkeys World access to my personal phone, I added a second phone sufficient to run the company email application and isolated it from my personal data. New Apple a
Critical thinking (Score:2)
probably not pure profit. (Score:2)
I don't think it's about pure profits. If it was, they'd sell 8 gig iphones at a price point of like, free/99/149 on contract. They don't. Not this cycle. Not since the 5c dropped off the lineup. Now the 5s, the bottom end for Apple, ships in 16 or 32.
Not only that, but given that the 32 tier no longer exists for most devices, and that tier's occupied by 64 gig devices, I doubt that selling price is the reason here. If that were true, the 128 gig iphone would've been priced at $100 more than the 64. Instead
Troll piece, as usual (Score:3)
iPhone 6S comes with features — like the ability to shoot ultra-HD video — that are going to fill up a 16GB phone in the blink of an eye
The author obviously never bought an iPhone himself.
When you try to buy an iPhone from Apple's website, just next to the options for memory size, it has a helpful link saying "How much storage is right for you?", and if you click it, this passage pops up (emphasis mine):
iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus come in three storage sizes: 16GB, 64GB, and 128GB. The term “GB“ stands for gigabytes. The more gigabytes you have, the more content you can store on your iPhone, such as apps, games, photos, HD videos, music, and movies. For example, if you have a large music or photo library or lots of apps, it’s a good idea to consider an iPhone with a larger storage capacity. If you rarely download apps or you don’t take many photos or videos, an iPhone with a smaller capacity may be better for you. When deciding which size to choose, be sure to consider how your storage needs may change over time.
So the author is basically saying, the 16GB model which Apple also told you is only good if you don't take many videos, will easily be filled up if you, duh, take many videos! No shit, Sherlock!
As usual, every time year when Apple releases the new iPhone model, there are these troll pieces coming out trying bait readers. Happens every year.
iCloud (Score:4, Interesting)
I prefer however to buy a 64 GB version and not be dependant of Apple's services, whose reputation is not as good as their hardware.
another article written by an idiot (Score:3)
$7? Not likely (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Samsung's latest Galaxy S and Note models have no SD card slots and rely on built-in storage, too. They've even dropped the removable battery in their quest to be more Apple-like.
Re: (Score:2)
And SD cards are pretty much useless in modern versions of Android, anyway.
Re: (Score:2)
You just stick whatever size sd card you need in there and now you have portable storage.
How do you install a SD card in a iPhone?
Without Steve Jobs ... (Score:3)
Let's look at products from Apple Inc., during its time with, and then without Steve Jobs ...
With Steve Jobs -
1. Apple I
2. Apple ][
3. Apple III
4. Lisa
5. McIntosh
6. iPod
7. iPad
8. iPhone
Without Steve Jobs -
01. Newton ....
... ad nauseum ...
02, iPad
03. iPhone
04. iPad
05. iPhone
06. iPad
07. iPhone
08. iPhone
09. iPhone
10. iPhone
11. iWatch
12. iPhone
13. iPad
14. iPhone
15. iPhone
16. Apple TV
17. iPhone
18. iPad
19. iPhone
20. iPad
21. iPhone
22. iPad
23. iPhone
24. iPhone
25. iPhone
26. iPhone
Re: (Score:3)
i think the next product should be iSland. with that much cash, they can just build or buy an artificial island, declare it a new iCountry, base themselves on that iSland and pay taxes only to themselves. I'm sure amazon, google and microsoft would gladly incorporate themselves in iCountry for some token tax.
Re: (Score:2)
I hear iRan is pretty much up for sale.
I think that is their goal... (Score:2)