Vodacom customers who opt for a four-year iPhone 17 contract pay about 44% more than the cash price

I'll put money on it that Vodascum will still win the MyBB award for "best something"
 
neoprema said:
While i wouldn't advise anyone take out a 48 month contract, its not "flashy" its a powerful tool that is far better than anything out there can ever hope to be. You have to pay for quality and power.
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You have to pay what you can afford. You can probably get to 99% of the functions at half the price.

48-month contracts on a device is not rational. No matter how you slice it.

The only reason I can see where it makes sense if you are an app developer needing the phone or you want you show off.

Anyway still better to borrow the money and then just pay cash.
 
Johand said:
You have to pay what you can afford. You can probably get to 99% of the functions at half the price.

48-month contracts on a device is not rational. No matter how you slice it.

The only reason I can see where it makes sense if you are an app developer needing the phone or you want you show off.

Anyway still better to borrow the money and then just pay cash.
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I think you will find a whole lot more people than just “app developers” have an actual need to a decent, top tier device.

That said, the pricing of these things is getting a bit mad in general - but that is still no excuse to to start offering 48 month installment sale agreements at predatory interest rates - which is essentially what these contracts are.
 
Zellephant said:
I think you will find a whole lot more people than just “app developers” have an actual need to a decent, top tier device.

That said, the pricing of these things is getting a bit mad in general - but that is still no excuse to to start offering 48 month installment sale agreements at predatory interest rates - which is essentially what these contracts are.
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I would like to know who absolute need the latest top tier device? (not questioning you - genuinely want to know)
 
Johand said:
I would like to know who absolute need the latest top tier device? (not questioning you - genuinely want to know)
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Well, businesspeople for starters, including myself.

I keep a phone anywhere between 3 and 5 years, depending on how well it holds up (which is another reason I choose iPhones - they hold up better, and when I hand them down through the family, they still work well for a good fed years.)

When I am travelling, I often don’t even touch my laptop for days on end. I need my phone to be able to last a full day on a single charge, while making up to 2 hours of phone calls, attending teams meetings, often from the road via CarPlay, prepping for presentations by going over my slides, then actually running the presentation from my phone. I need to be able to open and read large reports, make on the fly edits to spreadsheets and a whole lot more.

I also need to take high quality photos on a regular basis for a whole variety of reasons, from verifying product details, to having content to forward to the social media team and everything in between.

Then the phone is also the primary camera used to capture family holiday pictures too, runs my entertainment system at home, in the car, and at any number of hotels, bnbs etc.

I need it to do this in temperatures ranging from -10c to 45c, across multiple networks all over the world, swopping easily between various eSIM providers etc etc etc.

It is also the primary tool I use for tracking project and product expenses, with apps integrating directly to our bookkeeping system, scanning receipts, handling time tracking, travel cost tracking etc.

One of our project lines deals with software development and IoT systems, so I also regularly use cheap Android devices for testing software (I have nothing to do with the programming/dev side), and I promise you, there is no phone on the market today under R20k that will suffice for my needs.
 
Zellephant said:
Well, businesspeople for starters, including myself.

I keep a phone anywhere between 3 and 5 years, depending on how well it holds up (which is another reason I choose iPhones - they hold up better, and when I hand them down through the family, they still work well for a good fed years.)

When I am travelling, I often don’t even touch my laptop for days on end. I need my phone to be able to last a full day on a single charge, while making up to 2 hours of phone calls, attending teams meetings, often from the road via CarPlay, prepping for presentations by going over my slides, then actually running the presentation from my phone. I need to be able to open and read large reports, make on the fly edits to spreadsheets and a whole lot more.

I also need to take high quality photos on a regular basis for a whole variety of reasons, from verifying product details, to having content to forward to the social media team and everything in between.

Then the phone is also the primary camera used to capture family holiday pictures too, runs my entertainment system at home, in the car, and at any number of hotels, bnbs etc.

I need it to do this in temperatures ranging from -10c to 45c, across multiple networks all over the world, swopping easily between various eSIM providers etc etc etc.

It is also the primary tool I use for tracking project and product expenses, with apps integrating directly to our bookkeeping system, scanning receipts, handling time tracking, travel cost tracking etc.

One of our project lines deals with software development and IoT systems, so I also regularly use cheap Android devices for testing software (I have nothing to do with the programming/dev side), and I promise you, there is no phone on the market today under R20k that will suffice for my needs.
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I'm the opposite. I barely use my phone. I'm at my computer most of the day, and if I travel I prefer to not be online, I have no need to be. My 2 year phone contract expired more than 2 years ago and I'm still using the same phone, with no issues. So I have no need or desire for a new phone.
 
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my alt account said:
13 was getting long in the tooth. 17 is available. Easy math.
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Same boat here - even given my usage requirements above - which I think many share - My iPhone 13 provided solid service for the best part of the last 5 years, but the battery was starting to lose some endurance, and the camera, although still great, was showing its age compared to the newer models - so the upgrade to 17 just made sense. I fully suspect, barring theft, to get another 5 years out of this one.

As a bonus, I was travelling via Dubai, so I only paid R15k for it - For the value I will be extraction from it over the next 5 years, that sounds like an absolute bargain to me.
 
Sorry - I wasn't questioning who needs the phone in general - I was questioning who absolute needs this phone but have to pay it over 48 months. E. G. Why a previous generation phone might not suffice. I am not anti-tech I am just skeptical about people digging themselves in financial holes to have the latest tech as status symbol (luckily we don't have the different colour tick mark discrimination here).

I think the 48-month contracts are taking advantage of financially illiterate people. Vodacom is not subsidizing the phone and because it is a "service contract" and not a loan it is a lot less flexible than a loan.

So my question is who absolute need the phone that have no other financial means but a 48-month contract..
 
Craig_ said:
I'm the opposite. I barely use my phone. I'm at my computer most of the day, and if I travel I prefer to not be online, I have no need to be. My 2 year phone contract expired more than 2 years ago and I'm still using the same phone, with no issues. So I'm have no need or desire for a new phone.
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All good and well then. my wife is in a similar position, and she tends to normally just get my hand me down phones, because they are still more than suffiient for her - but since the last two iphones have been as good as they have and lasted as long as they have, we have had to start buying her new phones as well in between my "upgrades" - plus, she really really wanted "lavender pink" phone, so after years of getting my boring black hand me downs, it felt fitting to get her something shiny and new as well - even thought she definately doenst need it.

But my response was towards @Johand and his assertion that nobody, other than perhaps app developers, needs top-tier phones. I am definitely not an app developer, and perhaps it could be argued I don't "need" an iPhone 17 - my work and personal life would definitely be negatively affected if I didn't have one. I would go as far as to argue that the way many people work today, what they really don't need is a top-shelf business-grade laptop costing R35-40k. Most people in senior managerial, roles could get away with much cheaper laptops, or even just a large tablet with a keyboard.
 
Johand said:
Sorry - I wasn't questioning who needs the phone in general - I was questioning who absolute needs this phone but have to pay it over 48 months. E. G. Why a previous generation phone might not suffice. I am not anti-tech I am just skeptical about people digging themselves in financial holes to have the latest tech as status symbol (luckily we don't have the different colour tick mark discrimination here).

I think the 48-month contracts are taking advantage of financially illiterate people. Vodacom is not subsidizing the phone and because it is a "service contract" and not a loan it is a lot less flexible than a loan.

So my question is who absolute need the phone that have no other financial means but a 48-month contract..
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Okay, lekker, then we are in full agreement.

I think it's very sad that we live in a society where something as meaningless as a smartphone can become a status symbol. But then I recently learnt about LARPing (Live Action Role Play) - where people buy replica Porsche or Ferrari key fobs off the internet, and then drop them down on the table at coffee shops/restuarants in a way to make sure people notice them, and that there are websites where you can order "replica" chanel or gucci shopping bags (not I said shopping bags, like the free, carboard bags you would be given if you had shopped there), so that they can walk around on the street looking like they have just done a massive shopping haul at these designer stores - and then I realised once again that consumerism is what is eventually going to destroy civilisation.

These 48 month cellphone contracts should not be allowed - I really think the NCR should get involved here (although I suspect by making them "service contracts" they might perhaps be able to circumvent the Credit Act) - and also, the NCR was happy to allow car loans to stretch out all the way to 96 months already, and homeloans to go to 30 years - So maybe they really just dont care that much about predatory lending practices.
 
"Our 48-month contract strategy aims to make high-end devices more affordable to our customers."

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SHL said:
"Our 48-month contract strategy aims to make high-end devices more affordable to our customers."

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Translation: We aim to increase our profits by taking advantage of financially illiterate individuals who cannot normally afford high end devices.
 
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