>I wish Apple operated that way, as lowering Apple device price will very likely increase the absolute amount of dollars coming into their back acct.

I've always thought they should make a $10,000+ model. iPhones are essentially a status symbol unless you buy it for privacy purposes. There is a decent market who would pay a lot of money to have a iPhone that the plebes can't afford. Hell, even a lot of broke people would save up to buy one

It's like cars, if you just want a tool to get from point A to B you can buy one cheap. On the other hand you can also spend hundreds of thousands on luxury cars.

Make some limited edition iPhones every year and I'm sure there would be demand and an eventual collector market