The real prices of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini

Re:The real prices of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini by kube-system on Wednesday October 14, 2020 @03:32PM (#24780572)

"Starting at $x" ads like this are by far the least egregious any of those examples. I don't really see much of a problem with advertising configurable products like this, especially when it is called out specifically as a starting price. The F150 can be priced from $28,745 all the way to $81,000+ and anything in-between. People know trucks have options, and they know that when Ford says it's "starts at $28,745" they're not talking about the top of the line trim. Nobody is being hurt by these practices.

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Re:The real prices of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini by ashtonkem on Wednesday October 14, 2020 @03:35PM (#24780602)

Fun fact; the F150 is so customizable that there are times and places where it's impossible for some car websites to parse their VINs back into a make, model, and style (trim). This is an issue that we didn't have with any other OEM, but it required that all systems assume that Style was optional.

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Re:The real prices of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini by rhplus on Wednesday October 14, 2020 @03:58PM (#24780842)

> Nobody is being hurt by these practices.

Price obfuscation makes it nearly impossible to do a like-for-like price comparison between two manufacturers. If the consumer isn't being hurt by these practices, then why do car dealership groups need to continue lobbying the government to uphold laws preventing direct-to-consumer sales? They know that open-pricing would drive competition and erode their middleman profits.

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Re:The real prices of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini by kube-system on Wednesday October 14, 2020 @04:12PM (#24781002)

> nearly impossible to do a like-for-like price comparison between two manufacturers

Not really.

https://shop.ford.com/build/f150

https://www.chevrolet.com/trucks/silverado/1500/build-and-pr...

The price isn't obfuscated. Manufacturers even publish nice tools that transparently explain their pricing model. The pricing is necessarily varied because the product configuration is varied.

Dealers are a whole different story; I agree dealer protection laws shouldn't exist, and manufacturers aren't really a fan of those laws either.

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Re:The real prices of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini by jonathanberger on Wednesday October 14, 2020 @04:48PM (#24781412)

The key test to me is - can the thing actually be purchased at the listed price or not. In the case of hotels, for example, the resort fee often isn't optional.

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