As Smartphone Industry Sputters, the iPhone Expands Its Dominance

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/11/business/apple-iphone-17.html

by pretext • 3 years ago

11 8 3 years ago

pretext• 3 years ago

https://web.archive.org/web/20230911093739/https://www.nytim...

There’s a general rule about consumer electronics: The older a device becomes, the more competitors appear and prices fall. This was true for televisions, personal computers and portable music players.
It was supposed to happen with smartphones. But the iPhone has defied gravity.

The lock-in effect is real. The Sony and RCA of yesteryear would have killed for this sort of walled garden.

…

The new flagship iPhones that Apple is set to unveil this week will feature speedier processors, more sophisticated cameras and titanium rather than stainless steel cases, according to supply chain analysts. The changes are expected to come with a $100 to $200 price increase, bringing the cost of an iPhone Pro to $1,100 and the Pro Max to $1,200.

Such paper-thin excuses to raise the price. By all rights, the genuine tech in an iPhone has become so pedestrian that prices should have plummeted, yet they continue to increase as long as the market will bear it.

Kirby642• 3 years ago

What exactly is this "genuine tech" that should plummet pricing? Switching to 3nm chips, titanium casing, and more complicated camera setups all seem like they would cost more money, not less.

You can argue the degree, but it sure seems like it's costing Apple more money to make them. The BoM cost estimates by teardown companies continue to climb on iPhones year over year.

hooverd• 3 years ago

What do people need so much phone for? I remember getting an iPhone 3GS, and the upgrades from that were big leaps, but the difference between my OnePlus and current Pixel weren't.

fastaguy88• 3 years ago

Amusingly, the comments section for the NYTimes article is strongly pro-Android. (Apparently Android phones have had dozens of popular features long before iPhones.) With no mention of software support timelines (from the comments, one might think Android phones are supported for years longer than iPhones).

ksec• 3 years ago

> There’s a general rule about consumer electronics: The older a device becomes, the more competitors appear and prices fall. This was true for televisions, personal computers and portable music players.
>It was supposed to happen with smartphones. But the iPhone has defied gravity.

Because it is not the right comparison. Not even for portable music players which was mostly dominated by iPod.

Quoting Steve Jobs [1].

Apple view itself as a software company

I remember, possibly in the same conference Steve basically said Apple is an Software company, you just have to buy Apple's hardware to use it. In that sense. iPhone is not consumer electronics. It is not hardware only. That is why you see all the other examples are race to the bottom for Consumer Electronics. If you look at Software, like Windows, It has been in the dominating position for the past 3 decade.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEeyaAUCyZs

As Smartphone Industry Sputters, the iPhone Expands Its Dominance

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