Apple’s 5.5-inch iPhone 6 reportedly to sell for up to $1300

12 years ago

“While the rest of the world speculates about upcoming changes to Apple’s product line — a smartwatch? a giant iPad? — southern Europe agonizes about a different kind of leak,” Leonid Bershidsky writes for Bloomberg View. “An employee of the Spanish telecoms company Telefonica has reported that Apple is planning to sell its new, large-screen iPhones for 950 euros ($1,253) apiece. That’s the rumored price for the mammoth 5.5-inch screen version. In Italy, it may even reach 980 euros. The 4.7-inch model may be offered for 750 euros.”

“If true, Apple is upping the stakes in its bid to remain the most profitable producer in what is now a commodity market,” Bershidsky writes. “As long as the Cupertino company is able to sell millions of devices at prices that reflect nothing but the brand’s cachet, it doesn’t have to care about its shrinking market share: it will continue to skim the cream while rivals sweat every dollar.”

“The strategy has worked so far. Two weeks before its next iPhone announcement, Apple still sells an unlocked, unsubsidized iPhone 5s for a minimum of $649,” Bershidsky writes. “I am convinced its products are cult objects made in heaven as far as its fans are concerned… Apple would be stupid not to use this incredible — and, after three years without a truly innovative product, inexplicable — competitive advantage. Its devotees will believe anything… The Apple cultists know they’re paying premium prices, and they love it… The brand’s loyalists want Apple to reap its rewards and enjoy profit leadership: Somewhat illogically, it reinforces their belief that they’re doing the right thing by overpaying.”

“Meanwhile, for consumers seeking functionality — and who, with the latest Android software, need no longer compromise on the user experience — Apple’s handsets make less and less sense,” Bershidsky lies.

Full article – laced with more clueless Apple cultist B.S., Think Before You Click™ – here.

MacDailyNews Take: This idiot claims hundreds of millions of people buy iPhones because they’re “Apple cultists.” This moron bases his fantasy on specs: Samsung has more megapixels in their smartphone, so they must be better. Bershidsky is your typical dime-a-dozen, mouth-breathing fragmandroid cretin.

Android settlers compromise on user experience in myriad ways: Continuity (of software, devices, interactivity between devices, and UI and hardware design), security, morality (supporting IP thieves), access to the latest and best versions of apps, etc.

This fool Bershidsky also doesn’t grasp that when we buy an iPhone, we’re buying much more than just smartphone hardware. With our purchase, we have access to the richest, most complete, most consistent, most secure, most fun, most beautiful, and most functional ecosystem available – by a wide margin that’s only increasing. iPhone resale values are unmatched for a reason, Lenny. It’s about much more than hardware margins. A single Apple customer is worth more than 10 Android settlers (at least) because, among other fine traits, they have disposable income and the proven will to spend it. Because Apple customers are smarter and richer, they have incomparable value; they are not cheapskates scrounging around for BOGOF phones and willing to settle for inferior app versions as long as they’re free. They love the word “free” – regardless of how much they pay for it in the end.

When Apple sells an iPhone, it’s like an IQ test. A filter. A skimmer. Apple skims the cream and leaves the rest of the barrel, all the way to the bottom, for the also-ran peddlers of iPhone knockoffs the world over. Apple doesn’t want the kinds of users who can’t even grasp Total Cost of Ownership or iPhone’s simple value proposition. Apple wants quality users who understand that we’re not just buying a lump of hardware, a collection of parts whose collective value should be the sticker price of the device. iPhone users understand that we’re are getting a lot more for our money than just the world’s best, most thoughtfully designed smartphone. For Jobs’ sake, nearly a year after its release, iPhone 5s users are still the only 64-bit smartphone users on earth!

And, this is not unimportant, iPhone (and iPad, iPod, and Mac owners) willing to reward the company that reinvented the modern smartphone (and tablet, portable media player, and personal computer) instead of inexplicably rewarding copycat intellectual property and trade dress thieves who peddle disjointed, inferior experiences to the ignorant, the skinflints, and/or the deluded like Leonid Bershidsky.