This is because apple have carved a non-market niche out for themselves in phones as status symbols. They protect this with a big advertising budget more than

This is because apple have carved a non-market niche out for themselves in phones as status symbols. They protect this with a big advertising budget more than really necessary for most users spent on development and when all else fails design patent lawsuit. Most markets are not this dysfunctional, if you have decent competition and new technology reduces the cost to provide the goods / service then either the price goes down or you discover you have a dysfunctional market.