Latest / Best of Business / Peter Griffin: BusinessDesk tech columnist on Apple unveiling its first foldable iPhone

Transcript

Peter Griffin: BusinessDesk tech columnist on Apple unveiling its first foldable iPhone · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from Newstalk ZB. Follow this
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: Speaking of pricey things, Apple has unveiled the new iPhone.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: It's called the Duo. It's Apple's first folding phone. Prices
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: start at $ 4, 200. Business Desk's journalist, Peter Griffin, is with
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: us now. Hello, Peter.
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: Hi, Heather.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: That price is mental, isn't it?
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: It's sort of getting ridiculous. You know, this is a
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: phone for... press conferences and influences, really. I mean, it
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: looks beautiful. By all accounts, I haven't touched it yet,
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: but by all accounts, it's incredibly well engineered. But you're
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: talking about the wealthiest consumer tech company in the world.
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: It's taken years to develop this. So you'd expect the
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: product excellence. And we sort of expected it would be expensive.
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: But really, everything that was released today, the Duo, the
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: foldable product, But also the iPhone Pro, we're looking at $ 2, 549.
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: That's $ 200 more than last year. The Max is $ 2, 749.
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: I mean, we're in tears of exclusivity here where Apple
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: isn't really a company for mainstream people anymore. They're quite
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: happy to sort of go after these small groups of
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: people who literally have the money to fork out for
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: these devices.
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: Is this a smart move from them, though, potentially, to
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: go for more exclusive stuff? Because everybody has basically got
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: a phone now, right? We hold on to them for
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: quite a long time. So if they're just pumping out
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: iterations of the same thing, we're probably not going to
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: upgrade that much, are we?
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: Yeah, look, it is actually working for them. As you say,
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: it's become a very mature market, and what they've done
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: is shifted everyone up. They didn't even release a base
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: model yet. this time. They'll probably do that next year,
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: but they just want everyone to go into the, quote,
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: pro category straight away. The saving grace is, as you said,
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: we're holding onto phones much longer now, so my advice
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: is don't go out and pre-order this. Actually hold onto
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: the phone that you do have, and when you do
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: need to upgrade, If you can get a deal with
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: one of your mobile phone operators, there are phone dollars,
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: there are things out there. Do everything you can to
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: reduce the overall cost of that. And by the middle
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: of next year, that duo will cost maybe $ 3, 500. Now,
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: what about.
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: The fact that it flips and you get a bigger screen?
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: Is that cool?
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: It is cool. I've got one myself. I'm using Samsung's
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: version of it. It's passport-sized. And I think This is
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: a smart move because the first few generations of foldable
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: phones was basically just two phones squeezed together, and it's
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: still a little bit clunky, but the passport-sized one, which
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: the industry seems to be going towards... is very much
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: like a little book that you flip out of your pocket.
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: It's easier to put in your pocket and that sort
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: of thing. So I think they're smart in going that direction.
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: And the screen real estate, once you get used to
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: it and start multitasking on it, is actually a much
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: more productive way of doing things.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, interesting. Hey, Peter, thanks very much. Really appreciate your advice.
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: It's Peter Griffin, Business Desk tech journalist.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: For more from Newstalk ZB, listen live, on air, or online.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: And keep our shows with you wherever you go, with
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: our podcasts on iHeartRadio.