CyberSub
"My wife and I both have the same exact problem with out phones."
As they complain of yellow splotches, screen scratches, and left-hander discrimination, disillusioned fanbois are also howling over problems with the not-so-holy handset's proximity sensor. "I'm having an issue with the Proximity Sensor not properly detecting when i'm holding my phone to my ear," says one user in a post to the …
1) those component prices are facts. Or, to be totally correct - it is fact that those are the prices of those components.
2) the cost price of an object is the cost to produce a new one. R&D, etc. are important but not when calculating the cost* though I'm not sure about the severance payments made to the relatives of terminated Foxconn employees.
So, it's stonkingly good business for Apple and all credit to them for creating such demand. And while it's an impressive profit margin it's still way off what you can charge for luxury goods. Probably just as well now that other companies are producing equivalent hardware for significantly less.
* Low-value products like cola may include advertising in cost, because without it no one would pay a premium price.
"2) the cost price of an object is the cost to produce a new one. R&D, etc. are important but not when calculating the cost* though I'm not sure about the severance payments made to the relatives of terminated Foxconn employees."
By whose definition of cost?
None that I've come across ignores set up and development costs, which are traditional amortised across each unit sold.
More importantly, the *value* is in the configuration, not the components.
Which isn't to say that the iPhone isn't an overpriced piece of consumer tat -- it is. Just it's overpriced by the value of the configuration.
Actually, R&D and non-value added component (ie packaging, user manuals et c.) costs are factored into product costs, as are logistics for instance - warehousing and distribution are costly, unless Apple and Foxconn have secretly perfected JIT for the entire supply chain. You need to differentiate between manufacture and retail/point of sale, where profit margins are added and marketing costs are accounted for. This isn't really a question of 'economics' either, rather the manufacture process which is a different subject entirely, but that's for another day...
That is the cost price of the *components* only. Assembling a device is not going to be that expensive. Paying the hundreds of software and hardware engineers for a couple of years to create the device, OS and application software is *extremely* expensive. Not to mention the cost of all the equipment they have to use in the process, the premises rent, the travel costs etc.
And then there's the UI designers, testing, marketing, sales, admin staff...
It's not a new phone!!!! it's an updated OLD phone!!!!
They started designing it back in 2004 and released it in 2007, the two and a half year development program was huge, it's been paid for over and over again by iFans and for the last three and a half years they have been "tweaking" it (what development?), the real gravy is the 3rd party developers that Apple "let" develop software for their iPhone (which Apple get get paid for!), it literally is "Money for old Rope".
It's a bit of a let down to have so many problems, but it's no worse than previous releases, the difference is it's not so much better than the competition that people ignore the "quirks" this time.
Of course they're leveraging the existing platform, and yes it probably cost less to develop than the first model (you don't know this for certain incidentally, there might have been significant costs researching avenues which were later rejected - but lets say it's a reasonable assumption).
Doesn't change the fact that adding together the price of the components and saying the rest is profit is wildly inaccurate. That doesn't even stand up for baking a loaf of bread never mind a piece of technology.
This argument has been had over and over again on The Register. I'm not sure why people are adamant that manufacturers can produce something and sell it at no cost to themselves whatsoever, it defies common sense.
iPhones are awesome devices, but really, what was Jobs thinking with his customer service email exchange? Not smart.
Anyhow, there are better products out there now than the iPhone, but they have a large and devoted installed base. Could sell those folks salt soup for $5 and they would buy if it was called iSalt
Check out this article about Jobs and the iPhone and the chain reaction that Job's statement created. Wicked funny and safe for work.
http://www.dailygoat.com/2010/06/steve-jobs-claims-iphone-works-great-rubber-band-tin-foil-metal-coat-hanger-coaxial-cable-ceos-inspired-candor/
Seriously, if I had even a US nickel for every time I've heard somebody whine about how the first-release camped-out-for-a-week-to-get-it only-three-in-the-state gizmo they've just bought doesn't work right, I'd be rich.
I thought up-to-date Pattern Recognition was a POSIX requirement for any wetware distribution. But sometimes it may be turned off by default?
# sh /etc/rc.d/rc.pattrecd start
http://dilbert.com/fast/1995-01-22/
"What sort of brand loyalty do Apple manage to instil for their customers to put up with this sort of thing."
Steve Jobs' reality distortion field. He persuades people that whatever he's talking about at the moment is the greatest product ever made and you really should buy it. And regarding any bugs that turn up 1) It's not a bug, you're using it wrong. 2) "Learning to use the device properly" is worth it for the other intagibles of the device in question. 3) Again it's not a bug, but it'lll be fixed anyway, if not in this version, in the next one -- just buy one now, then buy that one when it comes out.
In all seriousness, this has no affect on me, I'm not impressed by Apple products -- but I think basically he's highly charismatic, and makes what I will call "charismatic devices".
Are you a Douglas Adams (Hitch Hikers guide to the Galaxy) fan? If not get hold of a copy of the books and look up 'The Sirius Cybernetics Corporation' who basically produce devices whose superficial design flaws mask their fundamental design flaws. The theory is that after battling with a device for ages to get a minor function working you don;t have time to realise the fact that overall the device is useless...............
"Having purchased every version of iPhone on each launch date, I have never encountered this problem"
Wow, as much as I knew about people spending hours in a queue for a phone and there being a "following", I would never have thought that someone would rush out and buy a new model of the <same phone> on each and every launch day. Seems a bit loopy to me.
NOTE: The iPhone is great. I love my 3G which I bought the year after it came out and I might go for the 4 but am also keenly looking at the Android range. (written on my Ubuntu Netbook just to show that even techies love the iPhone)
are so busy being techies for their living rather than a hobby that they don't have time for the frequent disruptions of major Fedora releases for their own systems, so use Ubuntu LTS releases instead.
And why not netbooks if they work well enough. Damned useful devices. If I could afford one, I might get an android phone to replace my Palm Treo, and use that instead, but until I do, my EeePC is more portable than my Thinkpad, and runs a full Linux distro just fine.
Amateurs.
>>frequent disruptions of major Fedora releases for their own systems, so use Ubuntu LTS releases instead.
Been working with Linux for over 10 years in enterprise enviroments, other than a brief flirtation with SuSE a few years back, its RHEL all the way. Ubuntu is an enthusiasts distro and even then just a user-friendly stepping stone to Debian.
EeePCs are aimed at folk who leave the house/office - real techies have VPN.
Yeah. RHEL not Fedora. And of course YOU pay for it, don't you!
Your VPN solution requires network connectivity. Try VPN'ing into a government or financial institution! I thought I would be able to work from home at least some of the time when I first went contracting, but sadly, that wasn't the case in the real world.
BTW. Been working as a UNIX deep techie for 25+ years. Linux is the new-boy, and enables me to have a UNIX-like environment with me, especially on my netbook.
because we all know techies CANNOT be real techies unless they are busy spending every Friday and Saturday night writing their own apps for their own phones, that only they will use, because (let's face it) they have nothing else to do on a weekend night.
- Number of "techies" screaming on this site about how locked down the iPhone is and how it hurts their sensibilities: seemingly millions
- Number of "techies" on this site that have actually produced a _working_ mobile application: a few tens or maybe low hundreds
- Laughing at the irony: Priceless...