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| The real question is... Why do manufactures charge sooo musch for equipment??
The iphone only costs how much to make??? like 20.00-50.00 per phone and at full price it cost a consumer almost 700.00??? hell you could charge a customer 299.99 for the phone w/o contact and still come out ahead (after paying for parts, employee wages, etc. etc.)
So that means that technically an iphone 3GS could be offered for 99.00 in contract
also what about a bill to stop FORCING people into data charges if they do not use it?? or lower the price of data?? I know some people that use a smartphone but never use their internet on it, they use it for colanders and such and if they need to get on the net they use it at a wi-fi spot.
I used maybe 500mb last month on my iphone and i still have to pay 30.00 vs someone else who uses 500 gigs | |
dynodbPremium,VIP
join:2004-04-21
Minneapolis, MN | said by djhexer:Why do manufactures charge sooo musch for equipment?? The iphone only costs how much to make??? like 20.00-50.00 per phone and at full price it cost a consumer almost 700.00??? hell you could charge a customer 299.99 for the phone w/o contact and still come out ahead (after paying for parts, employee wages, etc. etc.) If you believe that it costs no more than $50 to make an iphone, it's probably time to adjust your meds.
Even if that were the case, the manufacturing cost is irrelevant, as it'll always be lower than the wholesale cost. | |
Eek2121Lovin Verizon FIOS
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| said by dynodb:said by djhexer:Why do manufactures charge sooo musch for equipment?? The iphone only costs how much to make??? like 20.00-50.00 per phone and at full price it cost a consumer almost 700.00??? hell you could charge a customer 299.99 for the phone w/o contact and still come out ahead (after paying for parts, employee wages, etc. etc.) If you believe that it costs no more than $50 to make an iphone, it's probably time to adjust your meds. Even if that were the case, the manufacturing cost is irrelevant, as it'll always be lower than the wholesale cost. And you really need to adjust yours. The iPhone 3GS costs $200 counting materials and labor. The only thing to recoup would be R&D costs. Selling a 3GS for $299 would net apple a decent profit. The only 'reason' the 3GS costs so much is to allow for carrier lock in. Phone manufacturers do this because they can get away with profiting more, and carriers do this because it locks the user into service for 2 years. It's a win for the carrier, a win for the phone manufacturer, and a loss for the consumer.
How many people here would buy an iPhone 3GS w/o contract if it worked with any GSM carrier and only costed $299?
Am I saying that companies aren't allowed to make money? Not in the least, but i don't believe that businesses should be allowed to make a 300-350% profit. This is obscene and clearly shows little regard to the consume.
Remember, most large corporations treat their customers like sheep. You can say 'vote with your dollars' all you want, but sheep tend to follow the herd, and the minority (like me) who do vote with their dollars shed very little off a company's bottom line. | |
| reply to djhexer
said by djhexer:Why do manufactures charge sooo musch for equipment?? Simple answer to this is.... because they are subsidized through the phone companies.
You are essentially buying the phone on credit. It is a fact and has been proven multiple times, people will spend more money on like items if they can "finance" them.
If you could not buy a phone from a service provider directly and the phone manufacturers had to compete for your business the phones would never cost anywhere near what they cost now. | | |
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bsoft
join:2004-03-28
Boulder, CO | reply to dynodb
said by dynodb:If you believe that it costs no more than $50 to make an iphone, it's probably time to adjust your meds. Even if that were the case, the manufacturing cost is irrelevant, as it'll always be lower than the wholesale cost. Well, it's impossible to estimate exactly how much the iPhone costs to manufacture, and exactly what it would be priced at if it were sold only as an unlocked device.
However, the 32GB iPod Touch runs $300; even if we add in $100 for the GSM/UMTS chipset, camera, and GPS (there are unlocked phones for under $100 retail that contain all of these) we're looking at around $400. Which, incidentally, is what Apple charged fro the iPhone when it was unsubsidized.
A reasonable price for the 32GB iPhone 3Gs should be around $400, although as you point out it's not costs that set prices (that said, Apple would certainly be making a healthy profit at $400, at least as much as they make on the iPod Touch).
Considering that the subsidized price for the 32GB iPhone 3Gs is $300, we can conclude that the subsidy is worth about $100. | |
| reply to Skippy25
said by Skippy25:said by djhexer:Why do manufactures charge sooo musch for equipment?? Simple answer to this is.... because they are subsidized through the phone companies. You are essentially buying the phone on credit. It is a fact and has been proven multiple times, people will spend more money on like items if they can "finance" them. If you could not buy a phone from a service provider directly and the phone manufacturers had to compete for your business the phones would never cost anywhere near what they cost now. Exactly. The price for manufacturing the phone itself is severely inflated.
I remember when I bought the very first Sanyo SCP-5000 when it came out. It was a big deal because it was Sprint's highest resolution phone. I bought it direct with no contract as I was already in one - $500.
Here we are 8 years later and a phone with comparable features to that - say, any Samsung non-smartphone - is around $400-$500 retail. You're not going to convince me that the inner technology has not gone down in cost. It has. They're just not dropping the phone prices any, and pocketing the profit.
If you ask me the ETF should be the difference between the upfront cost paid by the customer and the true amount discounted, based on the VALUE of the phone at the time of termination, not the MSRP at purchase. In other words:
- I buy a Storm 2 at $600 today, on a two year contract, for $200 out of pocket. I pay that. So now the phone's remaining cost is $400.
- I make payments on the plan at around $50/month. We all know that plan rates are inflated, especially voice plans. So let's throw a random number...$10/month towards recouping the phone discount, or $120/year.
- I want to cancel service after 1 year.
The phone should depreciate for that year. I've already paid $320 towards its cost; that leaves $280. If the current value of the phone is $400, that means my ETF should be $120. No more than that. That's fair and I wouldn't have a problem with it as long as it's itemized and properly valuated, with clear disclosures. The problem is that there often is not clear disclosure about what's going on, the price is inflated, there's no depreciation, and the customer loses a lot of money. | |
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