←back to thread

42 points skadamat | 3 comments | | HN request time: 0.017s | source
Show context
mrweasel ◴[] No.45187118[source]
The cheapest of the new phones is 7500DKK ~ 1175USD. That is just insane. I get that I can get an older models and that Apple is a "luxury" brand, but at $1000+ I don't get who buys new iPhones anymore.

Apple seems stuck in a mentality of subsidized phones, which might still be how the US does it, but it makes their product unreasonably expensive in other parts of the world. I can accept that Apple can't do a $200 phone, but that this point I'd be happy with a $500 phone.

replies(6): >>45187186 #>>45187218 #>>45187241 #>>45187260 #>>45187344 #>>45187442 #
ceejayoz ◴[] No.45187218[source]
The original iPhone was $499 in 2007. That's $800 today with inflation per https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm. The cheapest model is "from $799", so… the price is basically unchanged for two decades.
replies(3): >>45187353 #>>45187563 #>>45187739 #
1. dingaling ◴[] No.45187563[source]
Inflation calculation doesn't quite work like that. Mobile phones are part of the basket of consumer goods prices that are tracked ( with weightings applied to compensate for increasing complexity and capability ). So they help to define inflation, rather than being the outcome of it.

You'd really need to compare to average salary or purchasing power instead.

replies(2): >>45187692 #>>45192285 #
2. ceejayoz ◴[] No.45187692[source]
It's a perfectly useful way of looking at it, but if you prefer:

Average salary 2007: $40,405.48; 2023: $66,621.80.

https://www.ssa.gov/oact/cola/awidevelop.html

3. shuckles ◴[] No.45192285[source]
This logic doesn't make sense. The opportunity cost (i.e. the basket of goods you forego buying) of buying an iPhone is exactly the same as it was when the device first launched. No single good in the basket is such a large component of overall measure that you can't use inflated prices to understand, in relative terms, the cost of a good.