Iphone 4

bryangiggsy

Why are iPhones so expensive? To get an iPhone 4 on three pay costs 669 euro. Or the cheapest contract is 40 plus vat a month for 18 or 24 months.. Which works out at 900 or 1200 euro. Are they really worth that kind of money?...for your average Joe soap who just texts,makes calls and goes on Facebook .

Kensington

Because of the high spec (and a little bit of Apple snobbery too )
I think it's worth the money, for the decent camera, polished operating system, high res screen and the app store. If you're really only into calling, texting and a bit of facebook though, there are plenty of decent Android handsets out there that would probably do exactly what you're looking for and for a lot less money.

Tones69

You can get them for 400 sim free second hand but practically brand new, warranty with apple too so its all good, got mine last august an paid 500 and shes still flying, was only a few weeks old .
And yes theyre worth the money

Bigcheeze

bryangiggsy wrote: »

Or the cheapest contract is 40 plus vat a month for 18 or 24 months.. Which works out at 900 or 1200 euro. Are they really worth that kind of money?

Ehh you do realise that you get a telecommunications service also and not just a device ?

I've got a Sky box for the last 8 years which costs me 80 quid a month. Is my Sky box really worth 8,000 euro ?

murpho999

Your average Joe soap who makes calls, texts and goes on Facebook doesn't need an iPhone.
With an iPhone you can do so much more than that, and when I say more I mean a lot more.

Yes it's pricey but well worth it.

Much pricier if you go pre-pay.

Under a contract I find it ok as you are forgetting that you get calls, texts and data packages included in that price!

bryangiggsy

murpho999 wrote: »

Your average Joe soap who makes calls, texts and goes on Facebook doesn't need an iPhone.
With an iPhone you can do so much more than that, and when I say more I mean a lot more.

Yes it's pricey but well worth it.

Much pricier if you go pre-pay.

Under a contract I find it ok as you are forgetting that you get calls, texts and data packages included in that price!

Ok enlighten me...I have a nokia e63 cost 129 and I spend 25 credit a month which includes mobile web...I go on fb..YouTube and it takes decent photos...for the extra 500 euro what more will it do for me that will be useful and used. Cheers for advice.

Feelgood

Considering they cost about 20 quid to manufacture in a Chinese factory which has a very high suicide rate....no they definitely aren't worth the money.

Android devices are going to take over the majority share of this market in the next couple of years and hopefully when they do it will drive the price of Apple devices down a lot.

I own an Iphone4 and honestly an Android device can do pretty much everything an Iphone could do. I seriously couldn't justify buying an Iphone again with the price of HTC devices.

Kensington

It won't though. Windows has had the stranglehold on the market for donkeys years, with cheap OS prices and cheap hardware, yet Apple Mac prices are higher than ever and perform well in sales terms.

Apple will always position themselves as a premium product and charge accordingly. People will still pay the price.

floggg

Feelgood wrote: »

Considering they cost about 20 quid to manufacture in a Chinese factory which has a very high suicide rate....no they definitely aren't worth the money.

Android devices are going to take over the majority share of this market in the next couple of years and hopefully when they do it will drive the price of Apple devices down a lot.

I own an Iphone4 and honestly an Android device can do pretty much everything an Iphone could do. I seriously couldn't justify buying an Iphone again with the price of HTC devices.

The flagship HTC/Android phones are in or about the same price as iPhone - maybe a bit cheaper for some of them but they lack any real internal storage.

There are pro's and con's to both. iOS is much more polished than Android. Not as flexible or customisable but more user firendly and better developed apps ecosystem.

Yes android will take market share, but most of that will be with low end devices which wont truly be able to compete with iPhone. Of the hundreds of Android phones out, there are only a few from HTC, Samsung and motorola that compete.

I think apple will continue to market as high end, polished and reliable and do quiet well with it. After all, their market share isn't too far removed from android's at the minute with only one phone out per year, versus the multitude of android phones being released.

whiterebel

floggg wrote: »

The flagship HTC/Android phones are in or about the same price as iPhone - maybe a bit cheaper for some of them but they lack any real internal storage.

There are pro's and con's to both. iOS is much more polished than Android. Not as flexible or customisable but more user firendly and better developed apps ecosystem.

Yes android will take market share, but most of that will be with low end devices which wont truly be able to compete with iPhone. Of the hundreds of Android phones out, there are only a few from HTC, Samsung and motorola that compete.

I think apple will continue to market as high end, polished and reliable and do quiet well with it. After all, their market share isn't too far removed from android's at the minute with only one phone out per year, versus the multitude of android phones being released.

You don't honestly think you're going to convince someone who comes out with that first line of tripe do you?:D

Feelgood

whiterebel wrote: »

You don't honestly think you're going to convince someone who comes out with that first line of tripe do you?:D

What tripe are you referring too?. 17 suicides in 5 years manufacturing iphones?. Hardly tripe.

1 Million Workers. 90 Million iPhones. 17 Suicides. Who’s to Blame?

Feelgood

floggg wrote: »

The flagship HTC/Android phones are in or about the same price as iPhone - maybe a bit cheaper for some of them but they lack any real internal storage.

16GB Iphone4 =599
HTC Desire with 8GB MicroSD = 420

Theres a good bit of a price difference there. Say if you went with a 32GB MicroSD on the HTC that would work out around 450 all in. Giving you 16GB more storage than the iphone for 150 bucks less.

There are pro's and con's to both. iOS is much more polished than Android. Not as flexible or customisable but more user firendly and better developed apps ecosystem.

Agreed iOS feels a lot more tidy, but I think Android will change a lot over the next year or so.

Yes android will take market share, but most of that will be with low end devices which wont truly be able to compete with iPhone.

I wouldn't really call them low end devices though. Take the HTC Desire it has a 1Ghz processor, 768MB RAM. That really isn't a stone throw off the Iphone4. Throw Flash support into the mix and I think thats some serious competition for Apple.

I think apple will continue to market as high end, polished and reliable and do quiet well with it. After all, their market share isn't too far removed from android's at the minute with only one phone out per year, versus the multitude of android phones being released.

Its a tough one to call, Apple will continue with their closed OS and trying to lock it up like fort knox and preventing people from jailbreaking and customising it.

Android will continue down the path of trying to make the OS as customisable as possible. I think watch this space!

whiterebel

Feelgood wrote: »

What tripe are you referring too?. 17 suicides in 5 years manufacturing iphones?. Hardly tripe.

1 Million Workers. 90 Million iPhones. 17 Suicides. Who’s to Blame?

€20 a phone to make? Very high suicide rate? For a factory of 400,00 people apparently it was below the Chinese average. I presume you're extensive research told you that other companies use Foxconn for their manufacturing too?

Oafley Jones

Feelgood wrote: »

What tripe are you referring too?. 17 suicides in 5 years manufacturing iphones?. Hardly tripe.

1 Million Workers. 90 Million iPhones. 17 Suicides. Who’s to Blame?

Written by Joel Johnson.:eek: Who left him out of the Gawker sewer?

James Forde

Find someone who's due an upgrade.

My father is a techno phobe. Was due an upgrade so I got an iPhone for 269 NOICE

Eire Go Brach

People tend to forget it's an iPod as well. Most see it as just a phone that plays music. For me it's an iPod that has a phone plus alot more.

I have always had iPods. I got the iPod touch when it came out. Thought it was great. So when the first proper iPhone(3GS) came out. I got that. IPod and a phone. That's how I justify paying high prices for it. Sure look at the price of the iPod touches.

Happy days.

floggg

Feelgood wrote: »

What tripe are you referring too?. 17 suicides in 5 years manufacturing iphones?. Hardly tripe.

1 Million Workers. 90 Million iPhones. 17 Suicides. Who’s to Blame?

Without reading the story, the headline alone would suggest that things may be blown out of proportion. 17 suicides in five years out of 1,000,000 staff (or 400,000 taking the lesser figure quoted below) versus a national suicide rate of 450 apparently doesn't seem too extreme.

And to be honest, that is more reflective of chinese policy than apples.

I think its unfair to kick up these fuss for apple - how many products do we use every day made under slave labour conditions in asian factories. nobody really complains though about the ethical implications of their underwear. Maybe they should, but I dont think its fair to single out apple on this.

Feelgood wrote: »

16GB Iphone4 =599
HTC Desire with 8GB MicroSD = 420

Theres a good bit of a price difference there. Say if you went with a 32GB MicroSD on the HTC that would work out around 450 all in. Giving you 16GB more storage than the iphone for 150 bucks less.

Desire is no longer htc's high end device. I bought a desire last year when it first came out and paid €180 for it, versus €220 for a 32gb iPhone on the equivalent price plan (not reduced by three to €80 on my price plan).

And there is actually a difference in the memory implementation on android and iOS - iOS all memory is treated equally and available for apps and media. Not so on Android, particularly on first desire, which has major limitations re internal memory for apps which forces you to root and hack to get anything more than a handful of apps on there.

There is some scope to move apps to sd, but only part of apps and can cause issues for some apps and widgets etc.

One of the reasons I moved.

And where can i get a 32gb micro sd for €30 (a reasonable class one)? Please tell me, i'd jump at it!

Agreed iOS feels a lot more tidy, but I think Android will change a lot over the next year or so.

Feelgood wrote: »

I wouldn't really call them low end devices though. Take the HTC Desire it has a 1Ghz processor, 768MB RAM. That really isn't a stone throw off the Iphone4. Throw Flash support into the mix and I think thats some serious competition for Apple.

I presume that's the Desire S you are referring to? No, that's not low end - though at this stage its more mid-level compared to what's being released. But there are a plethora of low-end android's from samsung (europa, ace), lg (optimus one), htc (wildfire) and more which will be snapped up. they will out sell the high end ones, particularly in developing countries.

In fact, when a co-worker came into work with a relatively cheap optimus one the other day I decided to jump ship to apple - if the market share is to
be taken up with low-end devices, it will mean app developers will avoid pushing any boundaries with their apps to ensure they are available to the widest possible audience.

Android has some amazing high end phones, but there is also a race to the bottom going on with many phones. I'd prefer for google to take a leaf out of microsoft's book and impose some minimum spec requirements for phones (though not in the same draconian manner as microsoft have done).

Also, after a year on android, flash isn't actually that big a deal on phones - it never really works that well and is hard to control. never really used it at all. It wasn't made for phones, and it shows.

On an iPad however, it is a bigger deal. With a phone, you can accept there has to be limitations because of screen size, but its harder to swallow having to turn on a computer to look at something when you have a large screen gadget thats meant to be built for media consumption.

Feelgood wrote: »

Its a tough one to call, Apple will continue with their closed OS and trying to lock it up like fort knox and preventing people from jailbreaking and customising it.

Android will continue down the path of trying to make the OS as customisable as possible. I think watch this space!

Honestly, if google were to lock down android a bit more, I'd go back in a flash. Android has some great features that should be on iPhone, and really do make a big difference to your phone use. But fragmentation, compatibility issues, and pot luck approach to updates can sour the experience.

Android is a much more capable system, but at times you have to battle with things a bit too much for my liking.

I guess its a matter of taste - if you like tweaking software, then Android is great. I will admit i was a little disappointed that it only took me five mins to set up iphone (other than syncing media) - i like playing around with new toys and getting to no it, but there was just nothing to do with the iphone other than change apps!

But if you want a slick well made piece of kit, that you don't have to coax into certain things, then the iphone is a very good choice.

Also, I agree entirely that the iPhone really adds value as an iPod. I carried an iPod around with me the whole time i had an android (even with a 16gb card with a good bit of music on it). the iphone really is a two in one device, and saved me from having to replace my broken ipod touch.