[Grishnakh]

Good point on Apple (their stuff is overpriced and underperforming--their screens are crap, for instance), but with Tesla, yes: their cars aren't that expensive, that honor goes to companies like McLaren, Rolls-Royce, Bentley, etc. You can easily get a Tesla for well under $100k. That's a lot compared to a Honda, but not compared to a Ferrari or Bugatti or a high-end BMW or Mercedes even. There's no shortage of cars topping $100k out there.

More importantly, Tesla's whole approach is to aim at the higher end of the market (people with $70-110k to blow on a car) to fund their R&D so that they can push to the middle portion of the market ($30-40k is the target price of the Model 3). So they haven't gotten there yet, but all indications are that this is where they're going in the next couple of years, so yes, affordability is a key component of their decision-making.

Even Apple isn't that bad: their phones are overpriced, but their direct competitors aren't that much cheaper for the main product (phones or tablets). Apple makes a bunch of money by trapping its customers into its walled garden and making profits off the apps they buy, the music they buy, profits from overpriced accessories like cables and headphones, license fees from 3rd-party accessories by using proprietary patented connectors, etc. So there's a certain focus on "affordability" there too: they try to price their stuff low enough that fashion-middle-class people aren't going to completely balk at it (monthly payment plans linked to carriers help a lot here), but high enough to get a good profit, while using the other tactics I just listed to get really obscene profits overall.

Almost every company has to worry about affordability to some degree. The only exceptions are ones which cater to truly wealthy people, companies like Vertu (horrifically expensive phones costing $20k!), Rolls-Royce cars, various handbag companies, etc. If you want the middle class to buy your stuff, affordability is going to be part of the design process somewhere, to some degree.

[mslkmdf]

Not sure why you're comparing Teslas to Bugattis, McLarens and Ferraris. They have a completely diffrent target customer base I'm talking about mainstream consumer cars, not specialized racing and/or luxury cards.

[chillacy]

Isn't that the point? In business in order to capture the entire market you have to release products at different price points. Some people want to pay Ferrari prices for their car, some people want to pay civic prices.

Apple does this: even though the 7 is the current line, they still sell the 6 and SE. You have to figure people are actually buying these older models, even though they're not that much cheaper (the SE starts at $400 and has the iPhone 5s design)

I'll add another example: Campbells makes soup in three tiers, from the cheap condensed stuff, to the premixed stuff, to Campbell's Slow Kettle Style which comes in nicer packaging and better design (I haven't tried it, maybe it tastes better too)