Every time there's an article like this, we get three types of comments:
- "Cue barrage" type comments—predictions that, gasp, there will be comments on an article. These comments are both more predictable and annoying than the "barrage" that follows. This type of comment is an attempt to preemptively dismiss any complaints that follow as illegitimate.
- Legitimate complaints about recent Apple products, their features, quality, gimmicks, and prices.
- Dismissal of those complaints. "If you don't like it, don't buy it!" As if Apple customers, or would-be customers, hadn't already thought about that, not to mention been told a hundred times.
Just like any company, Apple is not perfect, but dismissing any and all criticism of Apple lately implies that they are perfect. You can like Apple, and still want to buy their products, while complaining about them, wishing they had more of a focus on their customers, and wishing that their products were more reasonably priced. There is a spectrum of possibilities between "Buy whatever Apple offers and whatever price they offer it at" and "Buy nothing from Apple never again."
It's perfectly legitimate and reasonable to want Apple to do a better job, and to complain when they don't. What's unreasonable is to act as if complaining about, for instance, the markup on SSD and RAM upgrades is not legitimate.
Apple's direction lately—and they've almost made this explicit—has been, there's not much more room for additional marketshare, so let's get more money out of our existing customers by charging more for our products. That's a reasonable business approach, at least in the short term. If they're capable of pulling this off, why not?
But there's a few problems with this approach. One, it's a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy: If part of the reason for selling more more expensive iPhones, for instance, is because customers replace them less often, customers will replace them less often because they are more expensive. Also, high prices will discourage first time Apple customers, and send prior customers elsewhere. The long term effects could be detrimental to both Apple customers and shareholders.
You can't blame people for wishing Apple had better quality products at more reasonable prices, and especially not for longing for the days when Apple focused on "insanely great" products. That focus is what created a loyal fanbase for Apple, as well as enormous profits. Disappoint the customer base too much and too long, and the profits will disappoint, as well.
Giving feedback to Apple about prices is just as legitimate about giving feedback on the Apple Watch. Hopefully Apple will listen.
