You are delusional, the iPhone was cheaper at launch than it has ever been after. If they changed the price, it cannot be just a small change, and they cannot

You are delusional, the iPhone was cheaper at launch than it has ever been after. If they changed the price, it cannot be just a small change, and they cannot lower the quality that much (because the much cheaper alternatives are not that far). It seems pretty obvious that Cook's greed got the better of him and instead of absorbing the startup price of this new venture he decided to pass all costs to consumers (plus the usual fat margin of course). If they drop the price in half at the second gen, it will look extremely bad, even by Apple's standard. In any case that ship has sailed...