I'm just trying to figure out which companies the previous poster considers Apple's peers? Apple is basically a consumer gadget company focused on non-standard gadgets. Sony was the same thing back when the Walkman was the hot new thing. Samsung is the consumer gadget company focused on standardized gadgets, but Samsung has a lot of other divisions (semi memory, LCD), so isn't the best comparison.
Usually when the cheap standardized company catches up in technology to the high priced non-standardized product, the lower priced manufacturer wins. I'm skeptical Apple will continue to be able to charge the prices it's asking for new products when competitors are making almost the same thing for 20% of the price.
For example, check this out.
Here's the iPhone 5 with 16GB internal memory, no plan, 46,500 pesos
lazada.com.ph
Here's the phone I bought recently, reasonably similar specs as the iPhone 5, 4GB internal memory, dual SIM, front and back cameras (with a voice only free phone included) 4,900 pesos.
lazada.com.ph
The iPhone is of course a better brand, but it's not a 9x better phone. My wife bought the iPhone 5 within weeks of me buying the cheap Chinese smartphone, and the look and feel and usage of the two is very similar. Of course hers has a brand name and mine does not (it's made by Cherry Mobile, who?), but when the iPhone 6 is not really much better than the new Cherry Mobile phone which costs 10% of the iPhone 6, people are going to increasingly buy Cherry Mobile. |
