Very long years or cheap iphones where you live.

He's probably referring to the iPhone Upgrade Program, which is $32/month and gets you a new iPhone every year.

Commercial space travel shares things up a bit.

It's interesting how you didn't compare it to buying a new computer every year, but rather to cars/clothes, i.e., as a form of conspicuous consumption, a way to enhance social status. But this makes sense as this is how Apple markets its products.

If you sell your old phone the math works out fine

Where are you getting a $365 iPhone from?

At the end, there was a slide about the Apple iPhone upgrade program for $32/mo. That's just about $1 a day.

$32/month for the unlocked iPhone every year program from Apple is $384/year, close to $1/day.

Does it mean you're just renting the phone?

My understanding is that you own it once it's paid off. So it's not a lease. It's more like they're loaning you the money and you're paying off the loan.

The prices are not bad either. They seem to range from $32.41/month up to around $46/month for the most expensive possible model, which translates to about $1/day up to $1.40/day. It includes AppleCare as well.

Not really; after 2 years you're done paying for it, and it's yours.

It's actually a pretty good deal. It costs a little bit more than buying the phone outright on day 1, but you get to pay over time.

If you trade in after only one year, you basically paid a dollar a day to rent the phone. But if you had bought one outright and sold it at the end of the year in order to buy the new model, you would not be a whole lot better off -- and you might have had to deal with potentially scummy eBay or Craigslist buyers.

> It costs a little bit more than buying the phone outright on day 1, but you get to pay over time.

And the cost difference is the same as the cost for Apple Care, which is included. So if you were going to sign up for that (which I have to do) you're already breaking even.

The high resale value of Apple products means you only pay full price for the first one.

If you don't break it, that is (or you run into issues after the warranty is over)

Check out the high prices people are paying on eBay for iPhones and iPads with broken screens, or dead batteries, or which are locked (probably because they are stolen).

$700 new - $350 selling old one on Craigslist?

I just looked up prices on CL, and it looks like the used-iPhone market is approaching saturation... The going rate for 1-year-old iPhones is 150-200.

Craigslist in my experience is full of lowballers and hagglers (and objectively, zero safety for buyers/sellers).

eBay probably has a more accurate picture of price for the average person.

Reselling the older model, most likely.