Apple announces the iPhone XS, XS Max, and colourful XR phones

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

At the risk of winding Cat up some more .... it's always possible to introduce an extra price band, especially where branding/fashion/designer-status are involved.

But I agree with the GT40 argument, to a point at least.

Suppose I have my eye on a £15,000 Patek Phillippe watch, and they bring out a new version with a different colour winding knob, at £18,000. Will it sell? Probably, because some people just have to have the latest, and have enough money that they really, absolutely do not care about cost.

But, would that new P--P watch have any impact on £2000 Rolex, Ket alone a £200 Seiko or a £20 Timex? I can't see how, personally.

That does not wind me up,as that was kind of my point - I was talking about mainstream and the low end of the market not elite tier products and elite tier phones can cost as much as $20000:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCfClc8ssOU

If you start basing low end mainstream pricing on the cost of elite tier phones which have a far wider potential pricing range(I mean you could make a phone which costs a few million quid for billionaires),then I mean you could say a low end phone like a Nokia 3310 could cost $1000(instead of under $100) based on the fact a "new" $20000 tier exists.

I have a passing interest in hifi and photography and you probably are quite aware of how expensive the top end can go. Leica and its special editions,or even their lenses where a Leica 50MM/F2.0 costs £2000 and a Nikon 50M/F1.4 is sub £500. Yet even a trusted camera brand like Nikon does not price its 50MM as high as Leica can,since its targeting a more mainstream volume market,and Leica has long targeted a far more affluent level of photographer,and also to put it mildly is also seen as a bit of a fashion accessory.

Even in the Nikon range they have lenses which cost silly money for professionals,costing £1000s but this has not much bearing on the price of the kit lenses or the step up lenses either,since they are targetted towards pros who make money and rich amateurs. Then you have another tier above Leica with people like Hasselblad and Phase One who make medium format systems which make Leicas look cheap. For example the base Phase One XF 100MP system costs $50000.

Hifi where you can get a NAD C316 amp for £300,or a Sennheiser HD650 is under £350,yet I have listened to £500000 separates system or a headphone system which cost £120000.

Just because these exist does not mean the stuff which is orientated towards a more mainstream purchaser(like the cheaper products),have to suddenly rise in price to meet them(say double or triple),especially since the mainstream tends to be more budget constrained by its very nature,and I was not talking about Apple phones in general too,but bog standard phones,since Apple realistically is a high end brand,as opposed to someone like Samsung who sells high end stuff too but sells loads of lower end stuff.

There is a reason why the vast majority of smartphones worldwide are Android - not because it is better,but because its on average far cheaper. For instance if you look at smartphone revenues,despite Android being 77% of the market,Apple has 51% of actual smartphone revenues having only 20% of the market. That by extension to me says,they sell the most high end phones,and most Android phones sold are probably cheaper products,more orientated towards the mainstream and lower end segments of the market,ie,purchasers are more price sensitive.

[Saracen]

Agreed on those examples, Cat, and as you may know, I have similar interests , photography and hifi. So I get the point.

As you said, it was my point too.

Elite products certainky have little or no bearing on budget, mid-range, etc, and while high-end changes can have minimal effects on low-end, it will be minimal IMHO.

For a start, those that can't afford elite, or even high-end, still can't whether those prices remzin the same, or quadruple.

A similar effect works the other way round too, though with an exception. Tjose that could afford elite tier products aren't necessarily willing to pay that much, but those that csb both afford it and are willing to pay it aren't likely to know or care much about budget-levdl pricing.

For example I visited Ferrari, Aston Martin, Mercedes, BMW, etc but I didn't visit ....oh, Yugo. Or Kia. I visited Ford .... briefly. Very briefly. They just didn't have what I wasclooking for, so I didn't care whether a sporty Focus was £10k or £30k. I wasn't interested, either way.

But conversely, my last cellphone cost me £5 in Asda, and no way, and I mean no way would I pay a grand for one. Oh, and I'll happily buy George jeans at a few quid each (£5, last time I stocked up) but I'd die before you'll catch me waeting designer jeans at £150 a pop. And that wouldn't change no matter how much money I had.

My point? Both elite-tier end budget-end products are priced by a variety of factors, but they're priced for their target market and while I might be target market for high end cars (or I was back then, at least) I'm certainly not for high-end phones.

Oh,,and by the way, my experience (from friends) is that those that really serious money often regard money in a very different way to those that don't, and way, WAY different to those that are trying to make out they do. In part, that's why they're a different market - they value things differently. Usually.


EDIT - That goes double fir those that have always had money, but much less so for those that came into it later in life.

[Zhaoman]

Well I would say less now if you want a higher end SOC - the Xiaomi F1 is 300 Euro,and has a SD845,64GB of storage and 6GB of RAM,240FPS 1080p,etc.

Even putting that to a side,I cannot even understand how a £400 phone is considered low end,just because Apple/Samsung decided to jack up prices of their top end in the last two years.

Although having said that this is the interwebs and a tech forum - I suspect anyone having a GTX1060/RX580 is considered low end by many due to £1000 to £3000 Titan class cards,even if Nvidia/AMD considered them performance/mainstream and the marketshare figures support this.

I own a Xiaomi Mi6 and it has served me very well and I hope it will do for many years to come. It has a 835 and a brilliant camera and all for £300 last year, less than half the price of Apple's 'flagship'. I'd recommend anyone not bothered about Apple's ecosystem and not wanting to get ripped off by Samsung to look into some of the lesser known Chinese brands. It really puts into perspective the price inflation that has been going on for these fashion accessories.

[preter_s]

What?
[snip for brevity]

I see a lot of unfounded points being made here, with a lot of assumptions added for good measure. We get it, you don't like Apple iPhones. That's really all you needed to say.

We get it that you are totally clueless about IT, which is why you use the iCrap. We get it.

[Platinum]

Picked up my XS Max last week, really happy with it.

[peterb]

We get it that you are totally clueless about IT, which is why you use the iCrap. We get it.

I think it's about time you went and sat on the naughty step for a few days to cool off.

[dannyboy75]

Well said, peterb.

[Platinum]

peterb thank you!

[g8ina]

Bang..... Oh, was that your foot ?

See you in a week and a bit. Hopefully attitudes may mellow given the break time.