$1,000 for an iPhone really isn’t that much
SAN FRANCIS CO Sorry folks, but spending $1,000 for a smartphone isn’t out of line.
There are many who will be jumping at the chance to be the first on their block to have the new iPhone X, out in November with the steepest price tag we’ve seen to date for a major smartphone. I’m with them in feeling that it’s an easy purchase.
We’re talking $2.75 a day for a year, or $50 monthly for 20 months.
This is the iPhone after all. The device we no doubt spend more time with than our wives and husbands, children, brothers and sisters. It awakes with us, taps us into our work lives with messages from the boss and co-workers, delivers texts from our friends, amuses us with games, YouTube clips, Snapchat and Instagram selfies and photos of our latest trip. We don’t have to wait for the evening news anymore — our phone delivers updates all day — and who still looks at Facebook on a, gasp, computer?
Some say, well gee, at $1,000 the phone is creeping up to the price of a laptop computer. Well, duh, of course. Laptop and desktop sales have been declining for years as we spend more time on our mobile phones, which are now more powerful and full-featured. As phones have gotten better, naturally prices go up as well.
I still swear by my MacBook Pro laptop. I do video, photo and audio editing every day, and mobile just doesn’t cut it for me. But it’s getting closer. (Thank you, Adobe Lightroom Mobile, my goto mobile photo editor.) But I know many people who don’t even bother with their computers anymore. For them, it’s all mobile.
An entry-level MacBook Air, a line that hasn’t been updated in some time, starts at $999, the same price as the iPhone X, and while it does have a webcam, you don’t get that great mobile camera to snap all those great shots that you do with the iPhone. And the Air can’t fit in your pocket.
Think about what you spend money on — an expensive dinner at a restaurant that could top
$200 with friends — it’s here today and gone tomorrow. Tickets to a concert or a sporting event that could top hundreds of dollars? That’s just for one night.
I’m with many who weren’t blown away by the new features announced for the iPhone X. I can live without unlocking the phone with my eye and wireless charging. But it doesn’t matter — that beautiful OLED screen. That new camera. Gotta have it, right?
To those who think Apple is gouging us by jacking up the Iprice to record levels, I say — it’s a free country. Apple’s in business to make money, and if it wants to sell a super premium product, more power to them. We don’t have to buy it — and if we don’t, watch the price tag start to tumble.
And deal alert — Apple’s entrylevel iPhone, the SE, is now $349, has a 4-inch screen, the latest software and a decent camera. But you can’t unlock the screen with your eye. And for many people, that’s just fine.
So if you’re now comfortable with the $1,000 iPhone, just know this — if the plan works as well as Apple hopes, surely there’s a
$2,000 iPhone awaiting you around the corner.