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But they do have a problem… it’s the precipitous cliff they are hesitantly approaching. The classic notion of supply and demand as a smooth continuous curve is

But they do have a problem… it’s the precipitous cliff they are hesitantly approaching. The classic notion of supply and demand as a smooth continuous curve is a massive oversimplification… as Apple raises prices (in order to improve prorated margins) they impact the demand in complex ways that are hard to predict. For instance… I happily bought three sets of AirPods… until the inflation and exchange rates … literally doubled the price… it was expensive but worth it at a bit over $250 AUD… and I eagerly got some as soon as I could… but at just under $500 AUD… fuck off, I’ll keep replacing, the case and individual left/right ear pods until Apple stops letting me… because the new ones are no longer worth it as an up front cost. And it goes further… I was considering a new watch band since I was going to try and get to the gym more, having a watch band that’s better suited to this seemed logical… then while in the store I realised that these fucking assholes want to change me half the cost of a brand new charging case for my first generation AirPods Pro… for a nice strip of fabric… fuck the hell of you greedy assholes. No, sorry, I don’t have any way to reconcile this predatory pricing and instantly I got on with my day and decided to not buy anything else until I have to… Apple are worldwide facing this precipitous pricing cliff in people’s minds. They are trying to maximise profits on everything simultaneously which is exposing them to the risk customers will see this shit for what it is and consequently transform from frequent customers, to infrequent customers, (as I have) which magnifies the importance of the pricing balance for Apple and their situation is far from unique… lots of other lucrative industries are wading through this price dynamic swamp as the global financial… whatever the fuck were calling the last 12 months and onwards.

newaccount74 4y ago
Exchange rates suck, Apple stuff got a lot more expensive last year in Europe as well. Probably not as bad as Australia, but still bad. Regarding accessory pricing, Apple just offers premium products. They don't offer reasonably priced stuff. Whether their watch bands are worth the price is for everyone to decide for themselves. You can get third party watch bands for a fraction of the price, so I don't really think it's a big deal that Apple charges a lot for their own bands.
- techdragon 4y ago
  The issue is that I am a premium product person… I’m one of the guys that wants a washing machine that costs three times as much but never dies, who values the fact my iPhones can last upwards of 6 years in total when I pass them on to my partner and they continue getting security updates. I am happy to pay extra for quality when it feels justified. The new watch band is a ripoff not because of its intrinsic price/quality proposition… but because I can no longer look at it think “sounds about right for a quality product”. This isn’t intrinsically Apple making a price point choice, this is the entire global economy shifting at a rate faster than my brain as a consumer can keep up. I can’t as a rational consumer be expected to do research into global fabric watch band production, long term elasticity and sweat resistance, and decide that $60 in AUD is a good price for the item in question, my brain has multiple decades of prior data built up into the kinds of simple heuristics that everyone develops, and these heuristics based on past economic data set off the “fuck off mate, that’s too much for that” thought in my brain and thus Apple loses a sale. This sort of subconscious (sometimes conscious) thought process is going to be happening thousands of times a day in Apple stores... and it’s made worse because the more clued in customers know that Apple could sacrifice some of their ludicrously juicy profit margins to try and mitigate this feeling their customers are starting to experience… but we all know they won’t do that because that’s not good business, which just sharpens that feeling of “fuck off, that’s too much” because we know not only are they making a premium product that will cost us more, we know they are deliberately choosing to exploit the trust we have in them to make quality products, to overcharge for those quality products because we aren’t necessarily sure where else we will get sufficiently good quality. When everyone in the world except the richest people and companies are making less money because of inflation related margin squeezing, the richer the company the more egregious it looks and this runs the risks of alienating customers from the brand, or more likely, driving down ancillary sales as customers can only justify the main device and buy fewer accessories, perhaps eventually even hurting Apple’s beloved “Customer SAT(isfaction)” metrics they are so proud of. I know I’ve been less satisfied with the products for years now based almost entirely on the price. Like I said, I don’t mind paying extra for quality, I resent being taken to the cleaners for it.

newaccount74 4y ago

Exchange rates suck, Apple stuff got a lot more expensive last year in Europe as well. Probably not as bad as Australia, but still bad. Regarding accessory pricing, Apple just offers premium products. They don't offer reasonably priced stuff. Whether their watch bands are worth the price is for everyone to decide for themselves. You can get third party watch bands for a fraction of the price, so I don't really think it's a big deal that Apple charges a lot for their own bands.

techdragon 4y ago
The issue is that I am a premium product person… I’m one of the guys that wants a washing machine that costs three times as much but never dies, who values the fact my iPhones can last upwards of 6 years in total when I pass them on to my partner and they continue getting security updates. I am happy to pay extra for quality when it feels justified. The new watch band is a ripoff not because of its intrinsic price/quality proposition… but because I can no longer look at it think “sounds about right for a quality product”. This isn’t intrinsically Apple making a price point choice, this is the entire global economy shifting at a rate faster than my brain as a consumer can keep up. I can’t as a rational consumer be expected to do research into global fabric watch band production, long term elasticity and sweat resistance, and decide that $60 in AUD is a good price for the item in question, my brain has multiple decades of prior data built up into the kinds of simple heuristics that everyone develops, and these heuristics based on past economic data set off the “fuck off mate, that’s too much for that” thought in my brain and thus Apple loses a sale. This sort of subconscious (sometimes conscious) thought process is going to be happening thousands of times a day in Apple stores... and it’s made worse because the more clued in customers know that Apple could sacrifice some of their ludicrously juicy profit margins to try and mitigate this feeling their customers are starting to experience… but we all know they won’t do that because that’s not good business, which just sharpens that feeling of “fuck off, that’s too much” because we know not only are they making a premium product that will cost us more, we know they are deliberately choosing to exploit the trust we have in them to make quality products, to overcharge for those quality products because we aren’t necessarily sure where else we will get sufficiently good quality. When everyone in the world except the richest people and companies are making less money because of inflation related margin squeezing, the richer the company the more egregious it looks and this runs the risks of alienating customers from the brand, or more likely, driving down ancillary sales as customers can only justify the main device and buy fewer accessories, perhaps eventually even hurting Apple’s beloved “Customer SAT(isfaction)” metrics they are so proud of. I know I’ve been less satisfied with the products for years now based almost entirely on the price. Like I said, I don’t mind paying extra for quality, I resent being taken to the cleaners for it.