Yesterday, “Apple made a significant change to the iPod touch lineup,” Mike Beasley writes for 9to5Mac. “Aside from a few small hardware improvements to the lowest-end model, the company has — for the first time — started to close the price gap between storage tiers.”
“Is this a sign that Apple is ready to give in and drop the ridiculous $100 pricing tiers on future big ticket premium devices when the actual Flash storage and controllers only cost Apple a few bucks?” Beasley wonders. “Or will we continue to see a $100 price gap between iPhones when the next-gen model is revealed this fall?”
“Apple has now admitted that there is no real need for the $100 gap other than to pad profits. There’s no technical reason that doubling the storage capacity of an iPhone should cost $100, and Apple, one could argue, is now willing to concede the issue,” Beasley writes. “That’s a fair point, to an extent, but let’s be realistic. No one has ever truly believed that the additional capacity costs $100. If the extra storage cost that much, wouldn’t the jump from 32 GB to 64 GB cost twice as much as the jump from 16 to 32? In fact, the additional storage costs Apple somewhere in the range of $5-10… It’s possible that Apple will keep the $100 gap on the iPhone line for several reasons.”
Read more in the full article here.
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Apple slashes iPod touch prices, launches new 16GB model – June 26, 2014
Apple delivers iSight camera, multiple colors to most affordable iPod touch model – June 26, 2014
When did profit become a dirty word?
When Apple became one of the most profitable companies in history.
When the margin passes 1000%.
Did it occur to you that if Apple doesn’t base the differential on those tiers at that price point, they’ll just have to raise them all, while making the difference between them smaller?
Nobody minds that Windows should sell for $10 a copy today, instead of $125 a copy. Office shouldn’t be a $300 product at an insane markup, and let’s not forget the astounding $599+ price tag of Photoshop design suites.
Meanwhile, Apple gives you limitless OS upgrades for free on mobile and now desktop, a free office suite, all the free ilife apps, and more.
The $100 price points are pretty reasonable business points. They aren’t just storage points, either. Buy the iPhone 5 for $99, the 5s for 199, etc..
Have owned one of every generation of iPad. What I would like to see is better sound output. The speakers could be much better with a little effort. The Touch ID would be nice. Better battery life would really be nice.
If you want better sound, plug in the headphones, the speaker on an iPad is there for convenience, nothing more.
Some of us use their iPods in an environment that precludes headphones or earbuds. I use mine while pulling call at a hospital and headphones are a no-no. The speakers could be made more effective with a front facing port- kind of like the HTC One.
9toMac writers have a huge chip on their shoulder and that colors everything they say (especially on Twitter). Mark Gurman is still pissed about being called out for claiming Apple redesigned their Health app because of a rumor he reported on.