OP, you realize you could cast this very same premise against ALL of the other products Apple makes, right? All of them have a very healthy Apple premium vs. comparable offerings from others. Anyone feeling too poor for an expensive iPhone can get an Android smart phone for a fraction of the price. Anyone too poor for MBs can get a Windows laptop or Chromebook for a tiny fraction of MB pricing. Fire tablets can be purchased for $100. In fact, for a budget of $350, a person can buy a
smart phone +
laptop +
tablet... just not an
Apple phone OR laptop and/or tablet.
No doubt that Vpro can look expensive vs.- say Oculus... just like iPhone can look expensive vs. select Android phones... or Mac SSDs can look insanely expensive against off-the-shelf M.2. There's a stock, middling MBpro priced at $3499 right now. Is that "too expensive" and/or only for the rich?
I get that "we" are wanting to cast Vpro as only something the rich can afford. I fully acknowledge that $3500 can seem like a lot of money to many. But this Apple crowd is the crowd who will fall all over themselves to spend upwards of $1200-$1500 for a new phone every couple of years... and the base MBpro with minimal specs STARTS at only $1K LESS than Vpro. We're not exactly shy about finding meaningful amounts of money for Apple hardware vs. much cheaper alternatives that would be much more affordable.
Why do we do that if money is not plentiful? At least part of it is we will "halo" the offerings... that is, we will look at Apple stuff through a "half full" lens and build up our perceived value until we can justify the relatively high pricing. With this one product, some of us are very much only looking through a "half empty" lens- if not completely empty- and thus not engaging in the usual exercise of finding perceived value to help rationalize the price... even as others are talking up what they like/love about this product.
That shared, to your question: of course, those with more disposable income will find owning Vpro easier than those struggling to pay their monthly core bills. So yes, higher earners will be more likely to buy and/or keep Vpro vs. those with less money. But of course, those with less money may feel exactly the same about iPhone or iPad or Mac computer pricing too- no need to single out Vpro as if it is significantly different in terms of pricing vs. the rest of the product mix.
In general,
Apple is relatively expensive in ALL offerings. They sell a thousand dollar monitor stand. They sell $800 wheels. They sell $20 handkerchiefs. For that GEN 1 watch, they rolled out a $17K version. Etc. Those with more money can better afford the Apple premiums on all of it. Those with less money must think more carefully about whether even "the precious" is worth the price vs. Android options that can be had for as little as 1/7th the price. And yet, even the very poor seem to find a way to come up with the money for "the precious." Why? Because they rationalize the value enough to sacrifice in many other ways to find the money.
And it's basically the masses- not the elite- who have made Apple compete for richest company in the world. There's not enough of the 1% to get Apple there.
