Why Apple Doesn’t Care About Its Competition ⇥ blogs.reuters.com

Felix Salmon, last year, argued that Apple’s customers are crippling its user experience:

Apple products have always cost more than the equivalent products elsewhere. It’s one of the reasons that Apple has historically had very high brand loyalty and very low market share — a classic luxury-good combination. But now that Apple has become a mass-market brand, it’s reaching millions of sensible people, who like to save money.

Read: the high cost of Apple’s products is detrimental to them when dealing with the broader market.

But just a year later, he’s totally sold on the price of the iPad Mini (via Gruber):

Apple, famously, has the same pricing philosophy as Louis Vuitton: it sells premium products at premium prices, and it never discounts. That philosophy has made it an aspirational brand worldwide: you don’t see vendors in China selling fake Google Nexus 7s.

I totally agree with Salmon’s latter article, but the former still sticks out as one of the worst pieces of writing I’ve read from him.