mark
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Post by mark on Aug 27, 2023 22:05:58 GMT -8
We're rapidly nearing Apple New Product Announcement season. I suspect the invitations will go out this week sometime. Latest rumors about upcoming new products. Color rumors - no more gold (it does seem to have declined in popularity), adding blue and gray in brushed titanium. Blue already existed, so apparently a darker blue. I like the blue and my current phone is blue. Big price increase ($100-200) rumored. I don't like that at all, I thought we've already reached the maximum acceptable price, this increase may just put new phones out of reach for too many. I really don't like it, it could defer upgrades for a lot longer than usual. Color matched cables, very few really care about this because they use multiple cables in various places. New iPad pro, etc. Some more Vision Pro related patents are appearing.
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Dave
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"It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future." Yogi Berra
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Post by Dave on Aug 28, 2023 0:59:08 GMT -8
Mark I agree. I’m hoping that Apple offers more than a change of color options in this presentation. And an increase in price could easily come across as showing Apple as being greedy. So it’s wait and see.
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Post by zebrum on Aug 28, 2023 3:02:30 GMT -8
I'm looking forward to the first silver-edged pro phone that isn't white! I'd prefer black but grey will do for now 😉
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Post by hrace on Aug 28, 2023 7:16:52 GMT -8
mark, I’m also not personally excited to pay more since I’ll be upgrading this year.
I did a quick search and it looks like the iPhone X was the first $999 iPhone in 2017. If that is true, that’s a pretty incredible run of price stability considering the recent inflation etc. apple has also added another camera, and many other small upgrades.
I’m not sure what the right business call is. I’ll trust Apple studied it deeply and hope I’m not in for $200 extra per phone.
Color: raw titanium would be a fun option (like the watches have offered (brushed)). Anxious to see what colors we have to choose from.
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4aapl
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Post by 4aapl on Aug 28, 2023 8:39:36 GMT -8
mark, I’m also not personally excited to pay more since I’ll be upgrading this year. I did a quick search and it looks like the iPhone X was the first $999 iPhone in 2017. If that is true, that’s a pretty incredible run of price stability considering the recent inflation etc. apple has also added another camera, and many other small upgrades. I’m not sure what the right business call is. I’ll trust Apple studied it deeply and hope I’m not in for $200 extra per phone. The article (linking back to digitimes) is only listing this increase on the Pro models, so at least there is that. Hopefully if true it means Apple will be fitting in even more stuff and differentiation into the Pro. With the 14/14max/14pro/14promax the spread and differentiation seemed tighter, though they did put different processors in to the normal vs pro line. And other things too like the camera, but the processor was a big change IMO. I don't know anything about it, but with the camera taking so much larger pictures in the Pro model, I could see jumping even the base memory config up, and deciding that should help justify a price bump too. Some products do that, scraping the lowest config when doing a price increase. In the past, Apple hasn't seemed to increase prices just to have a higher profit margin, instead often upgrading the product to at least partially justify the price increase. Better cameras/screens/batteries/chips/processors/memory configs all can cost extra. I'm still surprised at the weight increase of the 14pro over the 14, which is very noticeable when compared. Apple could also increase prices to deal with expected supply constraints (such as if the highest end processors are going to be limited), but we really haven't seen them do that, and instead they have just let supply/demand dictate the wait period, and for some that even justifies the higher price even more. We'll see what happens. But like you, I'll trust Apple put some thought into whatever they end up choosing to do.
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chinacat
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AAPL Long since 2006
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Post by chinacat on Aug 28, 2023 9:41:08 GMT -8
iPhone color has never been a factor for me; I’ve just stuck to black, including case color. So, I am a bit curious - for those who like more colorful choices, what are the factors you consider? Is it just a personal preference? Do you want it to stand out more so that it is more easily recognizable? If you use a case, is there some relationship between case color and phone color?
Obviously, Apple believes that more color choices, and perhaps the ability to change color from unit to unit, drives sales/profits or they would not have invested in the ability to offer them.
Thanks in advance for sharing.
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Dave
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"It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future." Yogi Berra
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Post by Dave on Aug 28, 2023 11:32:19 GMT -8
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4aapl
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Post by 4aapl on Aug 28, 2023 13:24:26 GMT -8
iPhone color has never been a factor for me; I’ve just stuck to black, including case color. So, I am a bit curious - for those who like more colorful choices, what are the factors you consider? Is it just a personal preference? Do you want it to stand out more so that it is more easily recognizable? If you use a case, is there some relationship between case color and phone color? Obviously, Apple believes that more color choices, and perhaps the ability to change color from unit to unit, drives sales/profits or they would not have invested in the ability to offer them. Thanks in advance for sharing. My guess is that having some color choice is slightly additive to sales, while the extra inventory hassle isn't too bad. In our local t-mobile store, even in February they didn't have many color choices, instead getting most iPhones of a specific type in just one color. If you didn't mind waiting, you could order them in the other colors from their site. And I would think Apple might have a slight advantage there, of people deciding to order them direct from Apple if they are going to wait anyways. Or buy it at a local Apple store. My guess is that even smaller Apple stores have a good color selection. In general we really like the Red iPhones, that are part of the Product RED campaign. If it's available, my wife normally picks that one. I think my 11 was a RED one, and her 8+. My daughter's 12 mini is one too, but I don't think we had a choice. But our 2 14's and the 14 pro are all the steely blue color, and I think my wife's 13 pro was too. Color differentiation is nice, both at home with 5 iPhones, but also when somewhere that a lot of phones are set down. But often the case is the one that has some character. While I like clear cases that let you see the color, the kids prefer colored or patterned cases. From the front it isn't easy to differentiate the 14 and 14 pro when they are off, though flipped over you would see the different cameras, and my wife has a little band attached to the back of hers which makes it not work on wireless chargers, but it does make it much much easier to hold on to. I never thought giving color options on the recent iMacs made sense, but historically Apple has ever since that first Bondi Blue one, including ones like the Blue Dalmatian. But Apple has the sales data, and it must make sense, with sales or with user satisfaction and bonding to it to have more of that platform stickiness. Maybe it helped create a connection, like naming your robot vacuum? And I could see that being even more the case on a portable unit that you take everywhere. Colored cords seem a bit much. But again, just because it's not my cup of tea doesn't mean it doesn't attract other people to create more sales or some other benefit to Apple. What do other people think? Do you know of anyone who switched or upgraded sooner due to color options? Or does the added personalization help?
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bud777
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Post by bud777 on Aug 28, 2023 15:38:26 GMT -8
I don't know a lot about the innards of cell phones, and I know even less about communications technology, but the one thing I would like to see, even more than a new color, is full duplex communication. After all these years, we still inadvertently talk over each other. It's almost like you have to say "over". I didn't realize this was a problem because 99 percent of my conversations are with my wife and the "Yes Dear"s get through while she is sucking in air.
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mark
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Post by mark on Aug 29, 2023 14:15:30 GMT -8
Looks like the invitations indeed went out. Date is Sep 12 at 10am PT.
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