Pretty much, this.

You're like buying the brand when you buy their products, it has been the same for every mainstream product

i would be caught dead before buying their overpriced crap

When you say overpriced, what do you mean? Relative to the competition?

Apple is not just selling computer parts, they're giving you an overall package. You're essentially paying for their ideas, which is not unlike how Nintendo runs their business. How ridiculous would it be if we compared the budgets of Nintendo games, and the budgets of GTA and Call of Duty, and tell the Wii/DS majority that they're getting ripped off?

Now, I understand that in the case of these Apple products, it's not exactly the same, but the user experience does matter (where Apple puts a lot of focus into). People aren't just mindless sheep that buy things because they see an Apple logo on it, the reason they keep coming back is because Apple gives them what they want, at a price they can handle. The profits / loss do not come into play when making decisions, I wouldn't buy a PS3 at $600 even if it costed $2000 to make it (assuming I can't just sell it back for more). When I bought my Wii, it would have made no difference to me whether Nintendo is making $150 or $100 of profit per sale - there's no reason it should factor into my decision at all.

I'm sure it's possible that some people are ignorant of Apple's products being more expensive than anything else, but I doubt it. Everyone I know that buys Apple knows what they're getting into, the "Apple tax" is just worth it to them. Not that I'm speaking for all of their products, the iPad may be overpriced, I haven't been paying much attention to it myself.

In the end, the production costs by itself should not mean a damn thing to us paying customers. However, with a difference this large, it does increase the likelyhood that there's a viable substitute product out there (if not now, maybe someone will get on it later). 

If they love it, then you can hardly call it rape. Maybe you're just jealous because your lover doesn't have so much strength and passion.

This subject has already been posted, but it strangely segued into car talk. Mike and Garcian have pretty much covered anything I have to add to the subject.

i could do everything that can do with the iphone plus make a call! and txt message! wah :O

they have built that vibe that any apple product is gna be beyond $1000 expensive but quality so when they put something out costing $499 the whole world goes O.O but in reality it still is hell'ya expensive compared to cost and profits. These guys r some smart sons of *******! lol

I did a breakdown of the Materials/manufacturing cost for Modern Warsfare 2, it costs $1.76 to produce the game box, game art and disk. And they are selling it for $60? What a ripoff! that is over 30x the cost to produce it!! Activision products are overpriced!

I wonder if there is something missing from my analysis. Oh wait, it is the massive R&D cost for developing the product in the first place. Along with ongoing support costs for supporting the infrastructure, advertising budgets and customer support. Oh, and profit, which all companies love.

Selling computer hardware is different from video game hardware, making a nice profit off of every piece of hardware sold is more important.

What if Activision would sell MW2 at 60$ after it went budget just enlarging the game box and changing the font of the manual? That's pretty much what Apple is doing...We are not blaming them for making profit (thet is what a company has to do) but for selling something useless and without anything which makes it better than a laptop, while it's obviously worse than an iPod.