| >their products have only gone up in price (as with the yearly iPhone releases) Hmm, not sure I agree with that. The iPhone 12 mini base price is $699 with 64GB. iPhone 3GS in 2009 with 8 GB was $599, or $727 in inflation adjusted 2020 dollars. Never mind the incredible increases in data rate, speed, display quality, and other capabilities. Or, take the iPhone SE, an incredible phone compared to the 3GS and it has a base price of $399 with 64GB. 200 dollars less before inflation. Apple has introduced premium models at higher prices but that leads to an incorrect comparison. It's just not reasonable to point to a 2009 iPhone and a 2020 iPhone Pro and suggest some sort of relevant price comparison. In actual or inflation adjusted dollars it costs much less to own an iPhone today than it did a decade ago and you get a lot more phone. I agree that we shouldn't expect a cheaper laptop, but I don't think it is because they care about cannibalizing their own sales. They set margin goals for each product and have demonstrated an unwillingness to discount below those goals solely to pursue market share. https://www.usinflationcalculator.com
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone |
Yet look what competition is able to do with $300 budget - 5G, 120 fps screens (although lesser quality), similar (or better) cameras, similar performance, bigger batteries (similar life tho).