New Apple Lust Objects for 2010 and onward

incidentally, Elvis Costello is kind of a poor choice for a brand trying to stay relevant

One point my co-worker made -- while fingerprints might be extraordinarily hard to "hack," once someone figures out to do it, you can't change them.

― #fomo that's the motto (Hurting 2), Tuesday, September 10, 2013 2:00 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

well they'd have to hack it 10 times, amirite

the US mass market is not the market they have principally in mind with either of these phones (nor the principal market they've had in mind for a few years). imo ppl here and pundits who should know much better are making a mistake if they try to figure out what's going on by thinking about "$99 with 2 year contract", at&t vs verizon, family plans (lol), messaging plans, etc. the US market is totally unrepresentative, and compared to basically everywhere except japan, korea and western europe, totally saturated.

also stop putting cases on your phones you nerds

I wouldn't caek, but I drop things. I've been a better person this phone, I swear.

btw not putting a case on your phone is the most non-design nerd move, most cases are phenomenally not-nerdish and yet very uncool

err, I mean not using a case is a design nerd thing

do you carry your phone in a hip holster?

xp but outside the US is paying $599 vs. $699 really a "mass market" move?

er 549 vs 649 rather

i'm not saying it's a mass market move anywhere (although it kind of is via the colours). i'm saying stop thinking about the us phone industry if you want to understand apple.

I put a case on my 4 because I didn't want to scratch the glass. If I get a 5c (likely), I may skip the case.

I have a case on my 4 because I have cement floors at work and at home and I'm a klutz of the highest order.

true, that

no I don't have a goddamn hip holster, I have a pretty minimal shell that keeps the sucker from shattering when I drop it on the corner. I'm done with Apple designerd apologia that insists that an iPhone is an objet d'art and, although destructible, can't be sheathed because it detracts

I don't have my iPad in any such thing, though.

my 4s has no scratches on it. literally none. it's lived in a pocket with my keys for like 3 years. i mean if you're a dropper then fine, but if you're doing it to stop screen scratching then fyi it's not necessary.

I have a sweet old Nokia candy bar with scratches and divots all over the outside that still works perfectly well, but it's all plastic

agreed completely, I've never covered the screen and am only concerned with dropping

idgaf if the back of my phone gets all scratched, either

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51lwvlmvwgL.jpg

My 4s has scratches, but they're all from the first week. Faintly remember some talk at the time about some coating need time to harden. Since the very first ones were straight from the factory and they didn't have time to set.

iPhone 5 case scratches up like an OG iPod Nano, tho

i am a habitual phone dropper, so crap case and screen protectors are always a-go

family plans (lol)

Why lol? A 2-year family plan usually saves you money over two separate contract-free phones -- it's a pretty reasonable way to go for US customers, unless things have changed a lot since the last time I set this up.

But what do I know, I keep my iP5 in a case. (My old one, caseless, never got scratched, but I just like the heft of it in my hand with the case on.)

caek otm about focus on non us markets. Samsung is eating apples lunch in asia

gold iphone! game over, samsung

"Faintly remember some talk at the time about some coating need time to harden. Since the very first ones were straight from the factory and they didn't have time to set."

that sounds ridiculous.

Does a $549 iphone become price competitive with samsung?

Yeah

Why lol? A 2-year family plan usually saves you money over two separate contract-free phones -- it's a pretty reasonable way to go for US customers, unless things have changed a lot since the last time I set this up.

not saying lol at the people who choose them. it's a totally sensible thing to do given the options.

but you know what would be better than family plans saving you a little bit of money? sanely priced individual contracts (i.e. 80-90% less than what they cost now).

due to government/industry collusion there's not much else we can do about it

at least t-mobile usa is getting some part of it right -- if you buy an iPhone outright it's the base price, but if you subsidize it over a contract period you actually end up paying a little less for it

I mean, rather than the current system where you pay some fake number and then get jacked for a high amount every month regardless of what device you chose

dy, do people mostly own their phones in HK or do they get them as part of a contract?

Everybody owns. No contracts

Well there are contractual deals

HK otm

How does paying for a phone on t-mobile monthly compare to buying it outright? Do they effectively charge interest or is it the same price divided by 24 months?

Lock in contracts severely disadvantage apple. They can only sell phones to people every 2 years

And for people willing to pay the upgrade fee, locked phones severely limit who they can sell their phones to

How many people would really buy a $500-800 phone every year otherwise though?

The same people who cycle through iPads and MacBooks

Resell market is robust for those products

Phones are status symbols as well. Apple introduces gold phones so people won't think you're a plebe who only has an iPhone 5

i change my laptop up every couple of years. with resale i get a brand new laptop for like $200.

same would go for phone if i felt they were getting qualitatively better

the 2 year iphone cycle is the one vestige of the US market being what they had in mind when they first started making phones

Hurting, I just said some details re: t-mo above

I think the best coverage for me locally would be verizon but for some reason I've always found them irritating

no doubt Verizon sucks, but in all my years of hearing about people on other carriers complaining about service, I've never heard someone complain about Verizon. I switched from Sprint to Verizon years ago and have never had coverage complaints.

i am never locking in to a coverage contract again

mh, saw that but wasn't sure I understood your post. Like is the total amount you pay over the two year period roughly equal to what you would pay upfront? Cause if so you'd be crazy not to pay over two years, right?

The amount you would pay over two years is less, or at least it was with some T-Mobile plans. I believe if you break the contract and keeping the phone, you end up paying a little more, with fees.

So yeah, assuming you're willing to stick with them for the two years, it's a better deal. Ideally companies should be giving you a discount for loyalty?

In the United States, a single model of each line supports both AT&T and Verizon, as well as T-Mobile, with support for Sprint coming in a separate model that is also compatible with KDDI and Softbank in Japan.

Thank goodness