6 ms·
It's pretty wild that Apple has held prices down the last few years in the face of elevated inflation. I decided to calculate the inflation-adjusted price of ev
by nowooski 3y ago
It's pretty wild that Apple has held prices down the last few years in the face of elevated inflation. I decided to calculate the inflation-adjusted price of every iPhone ever, and the 15 line are some of the most affordable (in 2023 dollars).
Full table and charts are here: https://www.perfectrec.com/posts/iPhone15-price https://www.perfectrec.com/posts/iPhone15-price
But the take aways are:
- iPhone 15 is cheapest base model since the OG iPhone in 2007
- 15 Plus is cheapest large iPhone ever
- 15 Pro is cheapest pro ever (and $250 cheaper than the first Pro model, the iPhone X).
- seizethecheese 3y agoThe phones are officially loss leaders for the service businesses.
- fdsafdsa32va 3y agonope, the phones are very profitable.
- seizethecheese 3y agoYep, I meant this in spirit, not literally, but looks like I was wrong even in spirit: https://sixcolors.com/post/2023/02/apple-results-and-charts-117-2b-quarter-is-still-a-step-back/ https://sixcolors.com/post/2023/02/apple-results-and-charts-...
- dev_tty01 3y agoNot true. Apple is super disciplined about profit margins. Each business has to be sustainable on its own and each product sells with a hefty margin or is doesn't make the cut.
- paint 3y agoApple phones are a lot more expensive than android phones of similar specs
- dan-robertson 3y agoWhat does similar specs mean? Just looking at cpu for the first set of results I found[1], one has to go back to the iPhone 11 (released 2019) to find one performing worse than a non-iPhone. Results are closer for multicore and maybe the comparison/benchmark I found was bad for one reason or another, or maybe you mean other specs like the size/weight or cameras. [1] https://browser.geekbench.com/mobile-benchmarks https://browser.geekbench.com/mobile-benchmarks
- legulere 3y agoAnother perspective is that apple managed to keep prices more or less at the same level, while it has become more and more a medium-range product: there’s not even the current chip anymore and only USB2.0
- Synaesthesia 3y agoFor people in the US yes, overseas they are famously overpriced. Here in South Africa the cost of an iPhone is ridiculous.
- TimCTRL 3y agoYou could buy a 50x100 plot of land here in East Africa
- spiderice 3y agoUsing that logic literally everything in America is overpriced. Turns out different places have different costs of living.
- akerl_ 3y agoNobody is comparing the cost of an iPhone in the US to the cost of land in East Africa. They're comparing the cost of buying an iPhone in East Africa to land in East Africa. Different places have different costs of living, and many consumer goods and services adjust to that in different markets. Apple is notorious for setting international price points insanely high relative relative to local price points.
- woobar 3y agoAre apple prices insanely higher compared to other brands offering exactly same product? Not sure about East Africa, but quick check for South Africa shows that Toyota RAV4 (+30%)[1] or PS5 (+23%)[2] prices are adjusted up from the US counterparts. [1]https://www.cars.co.za/newcars/Toyota/RAV4/ https://www.cars.co.za/newcars/Toyota/RAV4/ [2]https://cacellular.co.za/product/playstation-5-disc-version-local-pre-order/?utm_source=Click&utm_medium=Channel&utm_campaign=PriceCheck_ZA&SFDRREF=SFDR_1021318240&ptcid=10637_1_677139095&ref=2 https://cacellular.co.za/product/playstation-5-disc-version-...
- Synaesthesia 3y ago
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- sosodev 3y agoRight? Considering USB-C and the fact that they moved most of the pro features into the base model it seems like a great time to upgrade from an older model.
- gnicholas 3y agoThe cost of inputs has gone down. What has happened to the cost of storage and RAM (both commodities, I assume) over the last several years? They're still shipping "Pro" iPhones — that cost as much as a computer — with 128GB. That's one way to keep costs down, and to goose the demand for Apple's iCloud backup service.
- jbc1 3y agoWith Apple's margins I doubt they're using a cost plus pricing model.
- gnicholas 3y agoI wasn't assuming that either. I was just pointing out that I'm not impressed that their prices haven't gone up in an inflationary period, since some of the inputs for these devices have gone down in price (presumably by a lot).
- lotsofpulp 3y agoThat is not the story their profit margins tell (no big material increase in quite a few years). https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/AAPL/apple/net-profit-margin https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/AAPL/apple/net-pro...
- dan-robertson 3y agoIf people back up most of what’s on their phones, won’t people with more storage also want more space for backups? What things in your mind (other than apps/games) would take up a lot of space on a phone and not be backed up? Or do you suppose they wouldn’t be backed up to iCloud?
- gleenn 3y agoiCloud is very inexpensive relatively speaking. And even the smallest plans have a very large amount of storage.
- SeanAnderson 3y agoHah. Hi Wally! Or, rather, I assume this is him. I found myself reading your post, then was like, "Oh hey I know someone who came to this conclusion already... oh shit, they're linking to PerfectRec? Oh shit, I think it's Wally on HN!" Hope you are well :)
- goldenjm 3y agoHi Sean! Nice to see you here! :)
- SeanAnderson 3y agoHey Joe! :D The whole gang is here, apparently!
- goldenjm 3y agoHaha yeah we are, including you!
- nowooski 3y agoHey Sean! Hope all is well. Glad the take was at least memorable enough you did a double take. :-)
- sillysaurusx 3y agoHey Sean! I don’t have a clue who you are, but I wanted to say hello with everyone else! Have a good week!
- TheSpiceIsLife 3y agoHey Shawn! I don’t have a clue who you are, but I wanted to say hello ;)
- SeanAnderson 3y agoHah :) I was a senior/staff engineer at a startup where Wally was head of marketing and Joe was co-founder. We all worked together for several years before a successful exit. PerfectRec is their new thing and I was pleasantly surprised to see them in this thread!
- faeriechangling 3y agoThe iPhone is improving less and less generationally and faces stiff competition. Regarding the regular iPhone, I haven't seen Apple be this far back in display tech in such an expensive product since 2017 when the MacBook Air was still using a 1440x900 display. The pricing of the 15 pro is pretty remarkable to me considering apple is paying for titanium and 3nm silicon this time around. It's also interesting how Apple has knocked down the price of the Pro and SE models every generation.
- xpe 3y ago> The iPhone is improving less and less it is hard to buck the S-curve : https://www.open.edu/openlearn/nature-environment/organisations-environmental-management-and-innovation/content-section-1.7 https://www.open.edu/openlearn/nature-environment/organisati...
- ninkendo 3y agoI maintain that there’s no such thing as a true exponential function in the actual physical universe. Every one of them is a sigmoid function in disguise, that you may or may not be in the early phase of.
- fnord77 3y ago> apple is paying for titanium only the outer trim is titanium, the frame is still aluminum
- WheatMillington 3y agoTechnology always gets cheaper, pretty wild to think otherwise.
- Gud 3y agoNo they don't. Sometimes societies stagnate and things become shit expensive.
- roger_ 3y agoThe new base Pro Max is the same price as the equivalent previous model: https://www.macrumors.com/2023/09/12/iphone-15-pro-pricing/ https://www.macrumors.com/2023/09/12/iphone-15-pro-pricing/ They basically eliminated the lower 128GB model.