Most users probably use/need 10% of what a max pro iPhone offers, but they want 100% of the max pro status.
Now they can keep the status without needing to carry a chonker.
https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/2025-economic-we...
$999 is a lot of money.
US net worth at the 25th percentile is >$20k, it’s not the case that 32% of people literally don’t have the wealth to afford a $400 expense.
Which almost no one pays up front or at all in the US with the carrier deals and trade ins.
I definitely agree about them being just about the most banal stupid toy you could spend the money on, but it's still a lot of money to a lot of people despite the cost of basic necessities making it not the huge amount that it used to be. I cringe at paying over $450, considering that every new model of phone since like 2015 hasn't really done anything worth significantly more money.
I say that because I feel similarly, but my out of college coworkers rib me for not having an iPhone. One even commented he'd probably never text me in real life, to which I of course replied that I'd never want him to text me in real life.
Genuine question - maybe I'm too in my own bubble but it seems like iPhone just completely dominates the market and is viewed as the "default" phone, which to me implies status quo, not luxury.
Is it a green bubble or a blue bubble? :)
I grew up with Nokia phones all I want out of my phone is something cheap and rugged with a decent battery life.
It's very particular to your group I think as I am in the same country, similar age, and yet it's the complete opposite for me.
But none of us care because it's not the US and nobody is using some phone exclusive messaging service enough to care about what phone anyone else is using.
In wealthy circles, no. Anywhere else, yes, it’s a thousand-dollar device.
I'm debating if I just replace the battery and let this run another year... since the iPhone X I haven't seen any major upgrades still that feel like they'll matter in my day-to-day life.
A flip would be different...
I keep looking at new flagship launches and I keep not seeing any new capability, feature or performance that would make a noticeable difference to me. I replaced the battery myself last year and generally keep the OS clean, not letting app cruft accrue. I'm not a luddite nor am I price sensitive. I remain ready and willing to buy a high-end flagship phone the moment it does anything new I actually care about. It still gets regular security updates even though a couple years ago Samsung stopped updating it to their latest customized version of Android. And despite looking, I still haven't seen any new Android OS or Samsung One UI feature that would matter to me. Bottom line: I don't think it's you or me, I think it's that phones are mature tech and unless you have a specific use case or it breaks, there's just not much reason to upgrade.
> chonker
Can't see the specs for the iPhone Air but it looks much larger than my SE 2022. I wish they would bring that form factor back. Obviously not as powerful as bigger iPhones so not useful for posing purposes.
On the other hand, the cameras on plateaus are real issues because they don't lay normally and the cameras are very easy to scratch.
(Edit: Should have refreshed I see. Feel free to ignore.)
The reason for the Max Pro is the larger screen and better battery life
Even the very poor all seem to have new-ish iPhones.
Also not sure what you're on about with "huge bulky phone".
(But if you use it rarely it's better to just rent one, and then you can get a really nice one.)
