[citation][nom]Johmama[/nom]Since this is Tom's, I expect a thousand anti-Apple comments here, but I'd like to try to get a mature and neutral analysis on this article.Apple company/logo aside, if any company was doing this stuff, I would be very upset with them. I can understand having to recoup marketing and research and stuff, but a 300+% markup!? There is no way they aren't just upping the price for pure profits, and the sad part is: they'll still sell an insane amount of them. Corporate greed like this sickens me.So according to my neutral analysis of this article: Apple is a greedy company that sells underpowered devices for ridiculous prices. It's always nice to take a step back, check to see if your convictions hold any ground, and be re-assured.[/citation]
The red flag in your comment is the fact you said you were doing a "neutral" analysis twice, yet there was nothing neutral about it, much less mature.
I am no Apple fan myself, but you make the comment "corporate greed" making your bias obvious from the beginning. That right there means you are not coming from this in any neutral way. You also do not even try to make any sort of educated estimate on what Apple's R&D and marketing costs are. That means your "neutral" analysis is not mature.
Are they upping the price for pure profit? Of course they are, THEY ARE IN BUSINESS. Do you insist only making enough in salary to pay your bills? Do you have any left over to put in savings or to make a personal profit? If so, your personal greed sickens me.
The fact is, no company will ever be successful by charging more than the market can bear. If their product is too expensive, it simply will not sell. If someone else wants to spend their money on the product, that is their business. How someone spends their money is no business of yours. You also ignore the fact that this is non contract pricing. Pricing for non contract phones will always be on the high side to make it attractive to be on a contract. Your "neutral" analysis provides no educated estimates of just how much of a percentage of iPhones will actually be sold off contract.
Not to mention have you ever seen how much an Android phone costs off contract? $649....
http://smartphones.techcrunch.com/q/197/4792/How-much-does-the-Motorola-DROID-RAZR-MAXX-smartphone-cost-without-a-two-year-contract
Hm, that seems to be the exact same price since the Razr Maxx comes with a base 16GB storage.
The fact is, the off contract prices for the iPhone 5 is nothing out of the norm for high end cell phones sold off contract.