The bite out of the fruit of the Apple logo was never more appropriate than when the company brought out its $1000 iPhoneX. It symbolises the bite it has been taking out of its customers' wallets.
Twitter, of course, quickly filled up with people self righteously declaring themselves to be having none of it and lampooning those preparing to shell out when the price point was revealed.
As has become very clear, it’s Apple that’s having the last laugh.
Forget technological innovation: It's price innovation that is Apple's genius. That and its considerable marketing savvy. Testing that $1000 barrier has proved to be highly successful.
The tech giant’s third quarter results demonstrated that. They showed that people are only too willing to pay what it takes to be able to visibly peck away at a status symbol whenever they’re at Starbucks.
Revenues of $53.3bn were a fresh record, beating both Apple’s own, and Wall Street’s, projections during what tends to be a slower reporting period because consumers sit on their hands ahead of the updated iPhone’s traditional September launch.
The firm still shipped 41.3m units. While that represented a rise of just 1 per cent on the previous year, the average selling price of $724 increased by 4.5 per cent.
So who cares.
The X remains Apple’s most popular model despite, or perhaps because of, its outlandish price point and a profit margin that looks like witchcraft.
Logic would suggest that there is a point at which Apple’s pricing strategy starts to fall over; when the benefits of those margins are superseded by the negative impact on sales.
But we haven’t reached it yet.
As ever, the tech blog-o-sphere has been buzzing with talk of the latest model. The suggestions are that it will be possible to house two sim cards in it, facilitating switching between, say, home and work use.
With the drumbeat steadily rising in volume ahead of the launch, at which fanboys will doubtless be asked to pay even more of a premium for this innovation, and will duly queue up outside stores to hand over their readies and give the media some nice pics, it’s hardly a wonder that CEO Tim Cook smiled beatifically and talked of his confidence
He had every reason to do so. He’s managed to get his customers cheering while he picks their pockets. Quite a trick, that.
It should be noted that outside the iPhone’s blistering performance, the company recorded growth of 31 per cent in “services” - iTunes, the AppStore, AppleCare, ApplePay, and AppleGiveUsAllYourSpareChange.
Those with an interest in the company’s long term success have good reason to feel pleased about that.
There may be a future where people talk about something other than the iPhone at Apple’s results, even if right now that hardly seems necessary.
