[halgir]

Owning Apple gear signals status among a significant portion of the population. Maybe not for you, me or the majority of HN's clientele. But even for those who don't buy into this definition, adhering to it can still bring tactically social advantages.

I have a very hard time believing you're not aware of this, and feigning ignorance in order to criticize the fact is just disingenuous.

[bitcharmer]

Could you please define what status advantages Apple gear offers?

[halgir]

Apple gear is, to a degree, a classic Veblen good. [1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veblen_good

[lotsofpulp]

Then why did Apple lower the prices of iPhones, iPads, and MacBook Airs?

According to that link’s definition of a “Veblen” good, if Apple had raised prices, then demand would have increased. Either someone in charge of pricing Apple products missed out on huge revenue increases by failing to raise the price, or it’s not a Veblen good.

And there is no contention that the amortized cost of an iPhone SE, iPad Mini, or MacBook Air gets you the lowest cost to quality ratio of any competing product that also last the longest.

[samatman]

They didn't.

The iPad Pro, the iPhone X, and the Mac Pro were all shockingly expensive. I remember the chatter on Hacker News like it was yesterday.

The first two sold like gangbusters and the last is less of a Veblen good and more of an anchor price for the rest of their lineup.

Apple's 'affordable' version of a product is always "a good price for an expensive X", rather than actually cheap. And they go up from there.

[lotsofpulp]

And the iPhone SE, iPad Mini, and MacBook Air are extremely competitively priced, especially if you amortize over their lifetimes versus competing products' lifetimes.

There isn't even a competing product for iPad Mini.

Maybe a case can be made for the highest end Apple products are Veblen goods, but that's a far less interesting comment than all Apple products are Veblen goods.

[samatman]

Veblen goods as defined on the Wikipedia page (Veblen himself is more careful) are a bit of a spook, a product which sells more every time the price is raised to no limit is of course impossible.

In contradiction to your post which I replied to, Apple has raised the price of their flagship iPad and iPhone, and continued to bust through sales records. That's Veblen enough for me.

They have also lowered the price of their most affordable product in a category, and in any case, this being tech, each new product isn't the same as the predecessor, which complicates the analysis.

I don't think "people buy the latest flagship iPhone because it's expensive" is as true for Apple as it is for, say, BMW.

But it's reasonably true, and there's a trope to go with it: Apple keeps releasing products where the commentariat say "that's so much money for an X! who is going to buy this?" and then sell millions of that product.

[halgir]

You're right, there's not a direct and linear increase in demand as price goes up. I concede my Veblen point.