>Can Apple afford to spend more per product?

Yeah, Apple has sucked almost all the profit of the Smartphone sector for a long time.

It is just one thing: volume. Their volume is so great and prices so high that they get almost all the profit. Their volume also gives them terrible negotiation power with suppliers, they get the best there it is(like electronics), for cheap. The rest of the companies just fight for the spoils.

https://appleinsider.com/articles/18/04/17/apple-grabs-86-of...

Samsung while being the best in the competition, but is is very far from Apple.