View Single Post
Old 11-15-2012, 01:58 PM   #479
holymadness
Guru
holymadness ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.holymadness ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.holymadness ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.holymadness ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.holymadness ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.holymadness ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.holymadness ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.holymadness ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.holymadness ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.holymadness ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.holymadness ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
holymadness's Avatar
 
Posts: 722
Karma: 2084955
Join Date: Dec 2010
Device: iPhone
Quote:
Originally Posted by pl001 View Post
That's quite a rant.

First off, if you are going to look at expandable memory from a viewpoint of any compromise whatsoever is a failure, there is no reasoning with you. So I'll just say that the competition with expandable memory doesn't seem to be hampered by it in any noticeable way and leave it at that.
I try to have a nuanced view of design choices. That is difficult to express when you are talking to people whose view of the world is black-and-white.

Like any design choice, we can assign this one pros and cons.

PROS:
- cheap, swappable storage

CONS:
- compromises on size or shape of device
- AND/OR compromises on internals of device, i.e. battery life, heat dispersion, etc.
- increased complexity of device; need to introduce file system (currently absent in iOS)

So when someone claims the absence of SD storage comes down to greed, it's not only reductive but also unintelligent. Certainly, Apple makes its biggest margins on storage upgrades. That is one reason why the option is not available. It is not the only one, and it is particularly mendacious of a professed electronics designer to say so.

There is also the issue of the general anti-Apple bias that runs throughout these forums, where members excoriate Apple for practices which others engage in without comment. When that bias is pointed out, it's called a rant. So be it.
Quote:
Second, you full well know what he meant by the term price gouging. Stick to the point please. Nobody is claiming to be "entitled" to anything. Competitors already offer this at no additional cost and people tend to prefer it when given the option.
The point of calling something price gouging is to be pejorative. It doesn't describe an economic reality, nor does it provide any insight into consumer value.

The fallacy of your line of thinking here is that you assume competitors offer an equivalent product with extra features for less than Apple. The reality is that they offer a different product, with different design choices, many of which people consider inferior to Apple's value proposition.

And as pointed out above, in some cases (Nexus line), they do not offer a SD storage option at all. Where is the rage? Whither the accusations of greed?
Quote:
Lastly, we all know Apple is successful and profitable. Today. That doesn't justify charging $100 for $7 worth of memory any more than Android's dominating phone marketshare automatically means it's the superior os for everyone. And it doesn't mean they will continue to see such huge profit margins, especially as their market share dwindles. They've been on this roller coaster before after all.
I really don't care about Apple's corporate success, except to the extent that I want Apple to continue producing high-quality devices and useful services for them. I wrote that last paragraph because of the sheer ridiculousness of citing a lone survey to imply that Apple is doing badly or suffering because of its business practices. You have to be pretty deluded to think that the world's most valuable company is shooting itself in the foot with its business strategy. If I had $1 for every time I read on mobileread that Apple was going to fail because of greed, or because Steve Jobs died, or because they stopped innovating, I'd (almost) be able to afford an iMac. The meme is stupid.
holymadness is offline