[throwaway2048]

Apple products, while expensive in a general consumer goods sense are not anywhere near the pricing of a typical Veblen good, they have never been particularly status driven throughout their history in either computers or phones, and their sales violate the textbook definition of a Veblen good, sales dropped substantially when prices increased.

Apple is much more in line with a premium brand driven good like Nike, or Sony.

A true Veblen good phone would cost like $20000, be gold cased and nobody you know would own one.

[arethuza]

Vertu tried that approach with phones - didn't work out too well:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertu

[Only ever saw them on sales at Heathrow Terminal 5 and Courchevel 1850]