It’s too expensive.

I’m in almost six hundred dollars, and I’m not sure the end is in sight.

SIX HUNDRED DOLLARS?

Well, first the phone. Which is $369.36.

But they advertise it for $199!

But I bought the 32 gig model for $299, upon which I got a discount of $30. The rest is…tax. You see you pay it on the full price of the phone, not the discounted price you get for signing up for two years.

And then there’s $131.72 for AppleCare and a case.

AppleCare! Don’t you know extended warranties are b.s?

I agree. But not on a phone. If you haven’t dropped your phone in a puddle (or the toilet!) you don’t have one. Water damage is rampant. I killed a BlackBerry. This way, I can get a brand new phone for $49. I can go for that.

And then there’s the case. Gotta have a case. Actually, two. One for $29.95, the other for $9.99, but the latter was late in the shipping and I wanted my investment protected.

Then there’s the cables… I’ve got a plethora of the old 30 pin jobs around, but I now need Lightning. They’re $19 apiece. And another charger for on the road… That’s $29. And I still haven’t gotten a car charger for this notoriously weak-batteried phone.

Now I’ve got a 2006 Mac Pro, tricked out to the nines, that I’m still using as my desktop machine. Cost me nearly $5000. But it’s over six year later. I’m gonna throw out my iPhone 5 in two years. I’m gonna want the latest model!

Which is why Apple is in a pickle.

Everyone’s become inured to upgrading. And even Apple stokes the fire. You’ve got envy after one year, you’re waiting for your contract to end to buy the latest and the greatest as you’re approaching two years.

$300 every year, just for a damn phone?

Oh, you say, I could get a 4 for free, or a 4S for a hundred bucks.

Yes, let me sell you a two year old car. Without all the safety features. With an incredibly costly contract to boot. No one wants yesterday’s merchandise, they want TOMORROW’S!

So they spring for Android. Which you can get for free. Even though it’s not as intuitive and the app store is a mess and you’re subject malware. It looks cool, even though you can’t do as much with it.

But we all know the money is in the contract!

Yes, but people can’t see past today when it comes to debt. They can’t see a free phone is just an enticement to an expensive two year contract. Buying on credit and not thinking about tomorrow… That’s the American way.

But Apple has the largest profit margins! And the most use! (Just check web-surfing stats.)

But Apple became the world’s most valuable company by domination, by owning the sphere.

It was all about the iPod. It owned the space. From beginning to its sunset years, today. It was about hardware, and software, and price. Apple kept introducing new items at a lower price, no one could compete, Apple locked up flash storage to ensure this.

You could buy a Shuffle and have Touch envy.

But now that’s it’s all about software, can you make a cheaper phone that’s desirable?

Apple tried to do this with the iPad Mini. If you think Amazon’s Kindle Fire is competition, you’ve never used one. But cheap Android tablets…they could make inroads.

In other words, to succeed in the future, Apple has to dominate.

And they’re not going to dominate in the future with this phone strategy. Apple has to come up with a way to compete on price.

Oh, I know, Apple never competed on price with its computers.

And it never dominated in computers.

Apple was first with the graphical interface and mouse, but Microsoft crushed them soon thereafter.

The big boys employ a scorched earth policy. They want to take it to the limits of antitrust. They want to allow you to compete, they just don’t want to allow you to win.

And that’s how Apple won in the past.

How is it going to win in the future?

P.S. The price takes nothing away from the phone. If you think Android compares, you’re either a cheapskate or an Apple-hater.