Citing a comment appeared in one of another Apple fan sites.
Quote-Overpricing of Apple products is not new. Apple have been succeeding in establishing the high end image and convinced users to pay higher price. Good for them, and I admire them.
And I for one did not mind paying “premium” price for good products, but certainly not “over price”.
This walled garden practice is not new either, and initially, Apple fans, myself included”, embraced it, and we were deep into the Apple’s ecosystem, which really gave us a real convenience. It worked well. But lately (under Cook), I am increasingly feeling that we have been corralled into this walled garden, and by the time we realized it, we were too deeply trapped in it. To make sure that we won’t easily be able to jump out of the Garden, Apple has also been tightening up the “my way or no way” approach. You can see these in non-upgradable, soldered components in Mac products, normally user replaceable power cord for HomePod is tightly locked, use of pentalobe screw head so that we cannot do any kind of DIY work (it’s a deliberate attempt to interfere with the users’ choice/right), only a couple of the storage capacity choice for most iPhone models, such as only 2 choices (64Gb and 256Gb) with a huge price jump (i.e., we are paying more than $200 for the difference, i.e., Apple is selling overpriced memory chips), recent debacle of not giving users a choice between CPU clock down vs. battery replacement on some newer phones to urge upgrading, charging $79 for the battery replacement but lowering to $29 when caught, and the list goes on and on. Apple always argue that it was for the protection of the consumers. Really? I guess not.
What is increasingly blatant under Cook is that the mentality that they can control everything and absolutely no kind of choice given to consumers. Once we were locked into this situation, Apple have had almost free-hands in doing what they wanted to do, particularly for overpricing, and not allowing user upgradable measurements etc. Hey, those of us who are deep into the Apple’s ecosystem are Apple’s “captive market” that has been supporting the growth of Apple. Return us the benefit in return for the loyalty of faithful Apple fans, rather than further exploiting and milking us. You are milking the wrong market. HomePod is useful mostly for those in Apple ecosystem, and they overpriced it. On the front of the iPhone, Cook seems to be enjoying applying his past expertise and knowledge of supply chain management, controlling tight inventory, less choice in anything (colour, No. of available models, choice of storage etc etc), a very efficient cost control. But not much else. Apple is the Apple Inc., mind you, not Apple Phone Inc. So far, nothing significant has come out of his “pipeline”, as he does not care about anything but the phone. There is a rumour that a slew of new products might be coming out next month. We’ll see. Sorry for ranting.-Unquote
HomePod is essentially the copy of other similar competitions. Apple has been increasingly the follower that the innovator these days. I am happy to be in the "walled garden" and tolerated overpricing. But once in a while, I wish Apple gave us a break (more competitive price, or other forms of benefit) for those who consistently buy Apple products, partly because of ecosystem, particularly when they offer a prodct like the HomePod, which is apparently targeting the Apple faithfuls.