Sure and to put it more simply people demand a certain value when they spend their money. As far as the new iPhones go, the 5s is priced competitively to its competition based on its hardware. I don't think there's that much debate on this fact. With regard to the 5c, people may think its priced high but I think there are three pieces of evidence that counter this claim: 1) Apple's market analysis teams thoroughly study consumers, finding out their particular demands for a particular amount of money spent. The 5c's price is not arbitrary by any means. 2) Apple has long sold its year old iPhone at this the 5c's price point to great success. The 5c is essentially the "yeah old iPhone" but notably has a few improvements. So actually consumers are getting MORE value for this "year old iPhone" than they did in the past. 3) People complained that the iPad mini was priced far too high for it to sell well. I think the incredible sales figures for the mini have proven those skeptics wrong.
All this marketing-speak does not cover the special image, the brand did have - and which becomes more and more damaged. The value of owning an Apple product goes down with focusing on this strategy of trying to stay on par with something like Samsung and becoming known for selling yesterday's hightech with the iPad Mini and iPad2. The logo is not a signal for something special, anymore. What is the keyfeature of Apple at the moment? - Asking for more money, than the competitors are asking for.
Another weakness in most of your argumentation is the ecosystem. For creating dependence to this system, it is needed to make a person using it, first.
This is a difference, anyway: Now, there are competitors. Apple has to offer better products, than they do. But even a lousy increase in flash storage is seemingly much too much!
It is, last but not least, a big difference: Last years top product - or something kindergarden, which is crashed by design. To say it clearly: I would - a thousand times - prefer buying the iPhone5 to an iPhone5c.
(To the 5-S, I want to say:
What are the improvements? A few new colors, which offer better camouflage for scratches. Looks good - what a pity, the good looks will become destroyed by iOS7's retarded looks.
Stuff, only useful for gaming kiddies. Nice, to have a desktopy processor. But it would be even better to have a functioning adaptor for becoming able to have the easy usage of USB flash sticks. iCloud lost charme in times of NSA scandal.
A slightly improved camera. A fingerprint sensor, which will - in times of the NSA scandal - hurt selling in all countries outside the US. We, here in Europe and Asia, did listen! This was, what Barrack Hussein Obama's government said: We only spy on non_US_citizens! And a few days ago, documents came to he light of day, which clearly state, that, as soon as one is syncing an iOS device to a comp, the NSA can easily have ALL the data stored on the device. And now... add he superstitious fear of becoming amputated by an amateur. And if the chip is able to check for pulse - can I be sure, every stupid drugged lowlife on street is aware of this problem?)
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Even those this is a joke someone posted awhile back some of the colors are better than what they released. And the front matches the front which helps a lot, if you are going to use color then use it.
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I would hope or think EVERYONE would see this. It was confirmed at the keynote when we saw pricing and that it is just an iPhone 5. I would rather have an iPhone 5 then this. So they will end up selling more of an old product because they gave it odd colors and made it inferior to what would normally get a price drop. Not falling for it, ever!
It would have been much more cool and clever, to "quote" the colors and the semitransparency of the old iMacs. This wonderful plastic, they are using for the 5C, is looking blocky and cheap. This does not change with a video of an ecstatic and euphoric Ive, telling me, how good it feels in the hand. All I see, is an obviously colorblind person, who tries to sell something trashy looking for high price.