I’m curious. What don’t you get? All of the newer phones go at retail for a lot of money. If you get a contract they essentially are getting the purchase price back over two years or sometimes more. You’re not getting a free phone. You’re paying for the phone by having a non-refundable device. If you decide to cancel your contract you essentially have to pay for the cost of the phone. Do you actually think that they give away free phones?
Of course you’re absolutely right. But the point is in comparison to Android phones… The iPhone is no more ‘high end’ than any other subsidized phone. If you buy the latest and greatest iPhone or Android phone you can expect to pay a lot, but if you buy an older, lower spec model it’s cheaper. You don’t buy Android because ‘it’s cheaper’ than the iPhone, because it isn’t.
There are a lot of lower end Android phones that are price accessible to poorer people, in both industrialized and developing countries. There are no Apple phones that are. The market for mobile phones in all 55+ countries in Africa is huge. I don’t think there’s a single Apple retail store on the entire continent.
Maybe its Macintosh vs PC clones all over again - the PC won that one, despite the fractured hardware and software. Ubiquity and low cost is a huge advantage.
Your statement is premised on the bolded portions: only the top tier new Android phones match the newest iPhone (only one tier). Neither are generally “free”, even with contract.
Basically, if a high schooler is carrying a new iPhone, that student is carrying a “high-end device”. If the high schooler is carrying a new Android phone, that’s not necessarily the case. Even if it’s a Samsung Android phone, it’s not necessarily the case. You have to say top tier Android phone, which is the high-end device argument. A lot of Android users aren’t high-end device users. Most/all iPhone users are high-end device users. Basically, iPhone has very little/no segmentation while Android has a ton.
If you don’t buy the latest iPhone, it’s also free w/ contract, just like every lower spec Android phone. No phone is free as in beer. New iPhone = new top tier Android phones. Older model iPhones = lower spec Android phones. Pretty simple.
my brother loves Apple support, in the UK though. He brought in his iPad 4 claiming there was a dead pixel in the screen somewhere, the Genius dude gave him a new one on the spot. That was at the main London store, so maybe standards are pretty high there (plus he pretty much buys anything apple on launch). Depends on the store maybe?
While that’s true that old iphones and lower spec androids can both be had for free w/ contract there is a big difference. The lower spec android is generally an old top tier model that was released 6 months ago and has now been surpassed by a new flagship release. This doesn’t take into account the various sales and promos that are readily available on the top tier android phones either while iphones are never discounted at all till a new model is released.
I don’t know what if anything I’m arguing with anyone about. My only point was that between the free iPhone 4, the $99 iPhone 4S and the $200 iPhone 5, there’s not much reason for anyone not to buy a phone on the platform of their choice based on cost.
I prefer Android, but if I got ‘stuck’ w/ a vanilla iPhone 4, I’d still have a pretty fantastic phone.