[mwfunk]

They're in the premium market segment, not the luxury segment. They're analogous to BMW or Audi, whereas the luxury segment of the auto world (for example) is more the Bentleys and Rolls Royces. It's an important distinction because premium markets are very different from luxury markets.

Premium products are more expensive than mass market products, typically with higher margins, but at the same time they tend to have greater value for the price than mass market products, provided the price isn't out of reach. Luxury products are much more exotic than premium, with much lower sales numbers, and their price is often almost entirely based on things like scarcity, manually intensive assembly, use of precious metals, etc.

A well-designed premium product should be as good or better than the equivalent mass market product in terms of getting what you pay for, but in the luxury world there's really no concept of value. It's expensive because it has to be and because the vendor wants it to be, but the value proposition is often nonexistent.