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Comment by hodder | Hacker News Reader

Rapid depreciation isn't necessarily a bad thing for business. iPhones rapidly depreciate, and iPhones are pretty much the biggest business on earth.

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Not that I disagree that iPhones are big, but cmon, "the biggest business on earth?" This is a planet that has Oil business, Telecom business, medical products, rice, coffee, fish, illicit drugs, pharmaceutical drugs. There are other businesses that are in a class well beyond a mere consumer electronic device, iPhone or no.

AAPL, GOOG, and MSFT all have market caps larger than XOM

http://dogsofthedow.com/largest-companies-by-market-cap.htm

Sure, but the market cap is a projection of future profits, not the actual size of the business.

Saudi Aramco blows all of those out of the water.

Google has a massive search business that composes the majority of its profits, apple has huge enterprise contracts for stuff like apple TV and the like that have nothing to do with their iphones, Microsoft has the obscenely large business side of the operation that has little to do with the Surface.

> iPhones rapidly depreciate

I've never heard this before-- and in fact most people seem to say the opposite.

Just looked on eBay and according to recent sold listings, as of the past few days a 5 could easily bring $100-150 depending on configuration. That's a 4+ year old phone.

It lost 85% of its value in 4 years. Most people would call that rapid depreciation.

Going from $500 - $700 to $100 is a pretty big depreciation in my book. I guess it is better than going to $0 if that is what you are comparing it to. However, if you compare it to a durable good I do not imagine it compares well. (Example durable good: well built wood furniture)

Compared to good furniture, yeah, but things like a car or a microwave will have a depreciation curve closer to what the iphone has.

Why would I compare to well-built wood furniture?

Let's do a comparison that makes sense. The Samsung Galaxy S3 (released at roughly the same time)is currently selling on eBay for $20-50.

If it was $500-600 new, it has lost ~80% of its value in 4 years. I think you can safely call that rapid depreciation. Maybe less rapid compared to other phones.

I think people that have never had to buy an off-contract or replacement phone don't realize the actual cost of the device.

> Maybe less rapid compared to other phones.

Well, duh. I wasn't comparing the iPhone to an actual investment. The Galaxy S3 (released at roughly same time) is now selling for ~$50 on eBay (sometimes a bit higher).

The $100 4+ year old phones cost considerably more than $100 new 4+ years ago.

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