Other Why spend $1K every year on a phone?

[bushman4]

Good Judgement should guide you about buying a new iPhone each year. If there are new features which are a must have or you use you iPhone for work or your current iPhone is failing then you might need a new iPhone each year
But most importantly don’t just buy an IPhone for bragging rights

 

[throAU]

i don't.

keep phones for 3 years or so... if you're upgrading every year you're basically getting minor incremental upgrades for a lot of money....

 

[MisterSavage]

The downside is we don't get to sell a 2 year old phone every year, which is a fairly minimal, loss, and well below my threshold of caring about.

For me that was a pleasant upside. Selling a phone is an annoyance I don't have do deal with any more.

 

[Bodhitree]

You could say it comes down to disposable income, if you have the money to burn why not get the latest and greatest every year? But I think that’s the wrong way to think about it. Buying anything means you become responsible for its disposal, and the total cost-of-ownership to the environment is something we should take into account.

By buying every year you are contributing to the high rate of churn in the market, and so ultimately via a process of displacement to devices ending up on the mountain of e-waste. That’s why I am a fan of buying a durable device with good support which I can hold onto for a long time.

You could say that reselling is a good way of ensuring a phone gets some re-use, but honestly I don’t trust most people who buy second hand devices to do the right thing and recycle them properly. Certainly a corporation is almost always going to put profit before good handling of e-waste.

 

[tbuzleski]

No one needs an expensive iPhone. They all have the same core functionality. The newer models have more bells and whistles, but at the end of the day they all do the same thing. They run the same games and apps. Some have better cameras and screens, but they are all high quality if they are made by Apple. I had a launch XR that I sold after a year. It was the best iPhone I ever owned and my favorite. Now I'm on a 12 and I am far from impressed with it. It's nice, but functionally it's underwhelming. After the 12 I think I'll be done for a while, or at least until Apple shakes things up with something truly innovative.

Bought an 11 pro when it came out. First time I ever spent that much on a phone. Nice phone and good camera but not sure it was worth a grand. Next time. It gonna spend that much.

 

[vladi]

No phone on planet Earth is worth $1,000 period. That's milking. And no phone has state of the art cameras to try to justify that price.

 

[Briskit]

And if your iPhone is costing you $1k per year you are doing it wrong. Sell the 1 year old model and deduct that from the purchas price to arrive at an actual cost of ownership. Or use iPhone upgrade program pricing.

Exactly this,

People keep complaining about how iPhones are so expensive. I sell my old one and put that towards a new phone. Literally saves me 75% And i put towards a couple more hundred that i save.

 

[UltimateSyn]

I’ve upgraded every year since the 5s - right now I’m on the iPhone Upgrade Program and usually what entices me to go through with the upgrade are the camera improvements. I’m also a sucker for a nice, new design. My upgrade this year will be primarily driven by the addition of 120 Hz.

There are times where I have upgraded and then regretted upgrading, since the UX is so similar to the phone I had before (I felt this way initially from the Xs Max -> 11 Pro Max, but ended up adoring that phone).

 

[Dnguyen85]

Coming from ex Android user. I upgraded every six months with Samsung. There are time I buy other Android brands to see what they offered. It became an addiction, lol.

 

[George Dawes]

I upgrade every 3-4 years , I’ve had my 8plus for ages and I can’t wait to upgrade to anything tbh . I hardly use it now I’ve got the Apple Watch but the camera comes in handy . It’d be interesting to see the improvements on that alone for my usage . Speed etc not that important

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

I’ve never spent £1k on a phone and never will. I also don’t upgrade every year and I don’t know anybody away from here who does either. For me it’s a waste of money as I’m not overly interested in getting a new phone each year and would get bored very quickly with that cycle I think. That money goes on other indulgences for me.

 

[piattj]

Q: Why spend £1k a year on a phone?
A; Because I want to. No other answer required.

 

[piattj]

No phone on planet Earth is worth $1,000 period. That's milking. And no phone has state of the art cameras to try to justify that price.

Not worth it to you. Each to their own. It's not a fact. Your opinion only.

 

[vladi]

Not worth it to you. Each to their own. It's not a fact. Your opinion only.

It's not a fact, it's common sense that says no $1,000 phone does things even 10% better than what $500 already does. Just don't give me the camera, gaming, screen excuse. That's like whose turd smells the least argument.

 

[piattj]

OK... again

 

[piattj]

It's not a fact, it's common sense that says no $1,000 phone does things even 10% better than what $500 already does. Just don't give me the camera, gaming, screen excuse. That's like whose turd smells the least argument.

I'm not giving you a camera, screen, gaming excuse. I say this...
Q: Why spend £1k a year on a phone?
A; Because I want to.
No other answer required. No reason required. No justification needed. Because I want to. Easy.

 

[Khaleal]

I upgrade annually. But I sell my previous iPhone when I buy the new one. And iPhones do preserve their value so I don't end up paying 1k every year.

 

[cuzo]

Coming from ex Android user. I upgraded every six months with Samsung. There are time I buy other Android brands to see what they offered. It became an addiction, lol.

That was me for years, I have a 11 pro max no and honestly I think IOS is terrible but I don't want to sell and go back to my old ways. Android phones will never been like IOS, the way they make them people wanna try out 50 models each year. Too expensive for me.

 

[Stephen.R]

I upgraded every six months with Samsung. There are time I buy other Android brands to see what they offered. It became an addiction, lol.

I've heard of people becoming hoarders, and they compulsively keep all their rubbish.. but I've heard heard of a hoarder to compulsively buys rubbish!

 

[Stephen.R]

it's common sense

Common sense is not really that common.

Also, worth, or value is not necessarily shared. What you consider to be well worth $1000 I may say is worth much less, or worth nothing, to me.

no $1,000 phone does things even 10% better than what $500 already does.

So, in the US at least, Apple do sell a $1000 and a $500 phone. The 12 Pro Max, and the XR.

We can compare the differences by looking at the...

Just don't give me the camera, gaming, screen excuse.

Oh.. so, it's no more than 10% better, but we also can't discuss the actual differences because...?

That's like whose turd smells the least argument.

Wat? I don't know what your social (or professional) life is like, but I don't think I've spoken to anyone, ever, and discussed whose turds smell the least.

 

[gnasher729]

i dont think a lot of x buyers are on a yearly upgrade cycle - i plan to use mine for ~3 years.

The last number that I heard was two percent upgrading every year. Obviously the odd iPhone here and there will be crushed by a car, and then usually you'd spend the same amount of money and get a newer phone, so I assume those replacements won't be counted as upgrades. Just a matter of finances and priorities.

The only reasonable situations would be a large family, say six people, and every year they buy one new phone, and five phones get passed to the next person in line, so effectively every year one six year old phone is thrown out and one new phone is bought.

 

[rui no onna]

The only reasonable situations would be a large family, say six people, and every year they buy one new phone, and five phones get passed to the next person in line, so effectively every year one six year old phone is thrown out and one new phone is bought.

Personally, I find batteries on our iPhones are bad by year 3-4 and usually, there are new LTE bands supported in that time improving coverage/signal so we haven't gone longer than that.

With the introduction of monthly AppleCare+ (ergo persistent Express Replacement Service), that could change in future.

 

[Traverse]

Annual upgrades are a luxury no doubt. Very rarely are their YOY improvements that warrant it, but if you make enough then who are internet strangers to judge your decisions?

I'm on the upgrade program currently because I realized that I upgrade from an iPhone SE to iPhone 8 to iPhone X? and if I was going to upgrade annually on my own then it was cost advantageous to go through the plan. My justification, for now, has been the camera improvements. The quality of my iPhone camera essentially dictates the quality of my memories down the line as I don't use an external camera. The better that camera is, even marginally, the better quality my memories will be down the road.

I already look back to the pre-2011 days before I had my iPhone 4s and think about all of things I wish would have captured on camera, but had no convenient means to do so.

 

[throAU]

By buying every year you are contributing to the high rate of churn in the market, and so ultimately via a process of displacement to devices ending up on the mountain of e-waste. That’s why I am a fan of buying a durable device with good support which I can hold onto for a long time.

Yes and no, but I think high spec, late model iPhones are unlikely to end in landfill. Typically people who churn them once a year resell or gift them to others. And Apple provide a recycle program.

I don't think the above people are contributing to e-waste.

 

[TheRealAlex]

It’s only $500 a year on a iPhone 12 Pro MAX, because I sold the Previous years phone for $600. And Rinse and Repeat Each year.