I did NOT buy an iPhone 7!!!

[Daniel Nenni]

My family is on the "s" version product cycle with Apple. We started with the iPhone 4s then 5s. For the 6s we decided to wait until the 7 because we were duped by the press saying the 7 would be revolutionary. Well it is not and the carriers are not offering any deals for our two year contract renewal on the 7.

Seriously, there is no way I will buy (6) iPhone 7 for $4k+. Maybe I'm cheap but to me that is just ridiculous. I did look at other phones (Google) but they were also up with Apple in price. I actually liked the new Google phone but my family is very Apple.

So I waited for Cyber Monday and bought iPhone 6s for $1 each with a (2) year contract renewal at Best Buy. Seriously, is there a $649 difference between the 6s and 7? Other than you no longer have a headphone jack so you can't charge and headphone it? Oh ya, the 7 is water resistant.... so maybe I would pay $2.

And this is why the Chinese smartphone makers Huawei, Xioami, ZTE, etc... are dominating emerging markets, because they are still selling smartphones for $1. What is going to happen when Huawei and Xiaomi invade the US?

 

[astilo]

I got a Samsung S7 instead. Iphone price is just an insult to human intelligence (it doesn´t matter if you can afford it). Apple would have been in serious troubles this year without the Note7 Samsung suicide.

 

[Jozo035]

I did not buy for different reason: mobile provider was not able to guarantee me, which version i get (i wanted to avoid Intel modem problems since i live in remote areas with lower signal quality and all older Intel-powered devices had serious problems here...).

Samsung is not better choice btw. It is actually pretty expensive too, just like every other non-sponsored Android devices. Plus, i know that Andoid OS improved in last years but it still has some serious problems.

What i wanted was Windows Phone. I really enjoyed WP8 Lumia. Price was around €100 (provider got you 1 for €1 + second 1 for free). It was compute and memory friendly, so single 'little' CPU with 256MB of RAM was enough. That means great battery life even without ridiculously big batteries (week was possible). Plus good build quality, display, camera (+ processing firmware)... And it supports Unity 3D games with surprisingly good graphics. Problem is that Microsoft killed it with WP10 and extremely expensive devices... (Is here someone with maybe similar experience with Windows phone?)

 

[Daniel Nenni]

And I traded in (4) iPhone 5s for (4) $100 Amazon gift cards.... Merry Christmas.

 

[jmlobert]

When (if?) Huawei and Xiaomi invade the US, Apple and Google will finally have to give up on their sky-high margins and get down to Earth, which is supposed to be a commodity market, except that buyers haven't noticed yet and keep paying. The Apple crowd frankly baffles me that they are willing to pay hundreds of dollars in premium for...absolutely nothing. When the 6/6s came out, they were just catching up with Android features offered as much as 2 years prior. As for the (if?), Apple is superior at one thing: PR and that is something Chinese manufacturers have yet to catch up on in a big way. I believe that PR is the only reason that keeps prices so high.

 

[tty2]

So I waited for Cyber Monday and bought iPhone 6s for $1 each with a (2) year contract renewal at Best Buy. Seriously, is there a $649 difference between the 6s and 7?

That seems to be a bad comparison because fundamentally contract renewal discounts are because of carrier-subsidized phone costs that you pay via monthly premiums. Look at the various carriers which have now decoupled phones and plans. There isn't a ~600 dollar difference in practice with the exception of getting unlucky on a carrier upgrade package, it just looks that way when you ignore that your monthly plan accounts for the phone cost as well.

 

[name99]

This post seems kinda bizarre, the tone somewhere between "clever me, I scammed Apple" and "Apple is doomed because the iPhone 7 sucks".

As tty2 points out, you're going to be paying a substantial EXCESS for those iPhone6S's over the next four years. Obviously I have no idea what your family communication requirements are, and what carrier you use, but I suspect that, regardless of the details, you ARE still paying off the cost of each device in excess subscriber fees. I can say that when I decided I'd finally had enough of ATT and switched to an MVNO I essentially halved my monthly bill (from about $75 a month with all taxes etc, to about $35 a month).

So if your carrier is getting the same sort of value out of you, that extra $40 a month = $480 a year, and $960 over two years, is still a nice net for them. (An expensive subsidy --- the subsidy they gave me when I bought my iPhone 6 two years ago was only $60 --- but that's what Cyber Monday deals are: good deals for those who are willing to put up with the pain of waiting for them then waiting in line.)

As for 7 vs 6S, well that's a matter of opinion. It's certainly NOTICEABLY faster than a 6, obviously the difference vs a 6S is less pronounced but I assume it's still noticeable --- both are, order of magnitude, 45% or so faster than their predecessor. And the battery life when the device is NOT in use is utterly insane, way beyond my iPhone 6. Presumably this is all about the slow core being used for everything when the screen is blank, but it is astonishing how well it works.
This is, again, nice but probably not an important factor either way in the decision.
The screen has wider dynamic range, but since I don't care much about photography that was a minimal factor for me.

The differences (especially the speed) are, IMHO, worth the $100 difference, but if you're determined to stick with an expensive carrier, probably not worth a $650 difference.
So does this mean Apple is doomed? I don't think so! I think it mean that, just like has been true for the past 10 years or so, the difference between phones one year apart is probably not worth upgrading, the difference between phones two years apart probably IS worth upgrading.
(The Apple order of magnitude is that they expect to provide about a dollar of value/day for each product. So iPhone costs ~$700, you use it for two year before upgrading. Average mac costs ~$1400, you use it for ~4 years before upgrading. So far this pattern remains reasonably secure. And yes, I'd recommend anyone who bought a Watch Series 0 to upgrade to a Watch Series 2 --- you've got about ~450+ days of value for your $350 to $450 or so, and the Watch Series 2 really is worth the upgrade in terms of improved speed and improved Siri microphones.)

 

[Daniel Nenni]

This post seems kinda bizarre, the tone somewhere between "clever me, I scammed Apple" and "Apple is doomed because the iPhone 7 sucks".

Read into it what you want, I was just venting a frustrating shopping experience. I went in fully prepared to buy new iPhones only to find out last years model was selling for $1 and I could see no compelling difference between the 6s and 7.

I have the 6s(s) now and put one next to my iPhone 6 and I see no difference in speed even though it is billed as 40% faster. If someone can do the same with the iPhone 6s and 7 I would be interested to see if there is a difference. They all have the same QCOM modems so maybe that is the limiting factor.

I don't know how Best Buy sells them for a dollar, maybe they get a kickback from Verizon for the contract renewal. What I do know is that I will never buy another smartphone for more than $1 with a two year contract. And that is why Apple and Samsung are losing China and India to Xiaomi and Huawei and the same thing will happen in the US in my opinion.

My carrier is Verizon and they extended my existing contract for two years at no additional cost. I used to get discounted phones from Verizon for a two year contract but was told "Apple does not do that anymore".

 

[Joe Talin]

>> What is going to happen when Huawei and Xiaomi invade the US?

I think huawei already has great phones in the US. i remember reading great reviews about their "honor 5x". which costs $200 , contract free. Maybe it's just a matter of marketing etc.

 

[benb]

Alternatives to Galaxy flagship or iPhones:
Lenovo ZUK Z2 $225 (Snapdragon 820, 64GB storage, 4GB RAM)
Nexus 5X $199 with Project Fi activation (Snapdragon 808, 16 GB)
ZTE Axon 7 $349 (Snapdragon 820, 64GB)
--The Nexus has given me no reason to switch despite the 20nm chip. The latest 820 chips score very well when paired with 64GB of storage and lots of RAM. Link.

 

[yousuf mughal]

I THINK IPHONE IS BEST

Hello,

Hi guys how are you all i hope everyone is fine here,
i think iPhone has nice features and functions and if you compare to security purpose so i prefer iPhone compare to anoriod but still anoriod have it's own features and his own style.

anyone here want to say something i love to know peoples choice

 

[longzoba]

I bought Galaxy S7 later year and the performance drops down a lot after one-year usage, especially the batter life. I will definitely got an iPhone this Cyber Monday, lol. Plus, Apple recently released an free app to help iPhone users transfer content to iPhone in a short period of time.

 

[Easnerty]

I've always thought that Samsung is better than iPhone, first, the price of the iPhone, which has historically been the most expensive , It might have something to do with apple's pr ads, The second is mobile phone applications. The iPhone's closure is partly due to security concerns ,
But for flexibility, I'm completely disappointed that it's hard to share or transfer to Android , except for the iPhone ,

 

[deepshika1]

I got a Samsung S7 instead. Iphone price is just an insult to human intelligence (it doesn´t matter if you can afford it). Apple would have been in serious troubles this year without the Note7 Samsung suicide.

I swear. Samsung is just a million times better than any iphone.
We are in 2018 and I am yet to see something revolutionary come out from Apple

 

[Daniel Nenni]

I swear. Samsung is just a million times better than any iphone.
We are in 2018 and I am yet to see something revolutionary come out from Apple

The iPhone 10 is a nice piece of technology. I see far reaching applications for facial recognition, medical for example. My wife and I both have one.