[1] http://www.retaildive.com/ex/mobilecommercedaily/ikea-takes-...

I fail to see how Apple's walled garden lock-in approach melds with the IKEA Concept.

No, no. You've bought in to Apple's marketing (as they want you to). Apple sells nice enough devices at high enough prices that they feel premium, but are still accessible to practically everyone. Their pitch isn't "we sell premium devices", it's "if you stretch a little more, and buy this phone, then you too could feel like you're premium".

That alone is serious money. Up to 1 month before releasing a new version, an Apple product still has the same margin or more than on day 1.

All this assumes that the purchaser takes care of their stuff. Other people seem to actually want disposable gear and treat it as such.

Unless one is going for a used device I highly doubt this. I know a lot of people who truly can only afford the 50€ to 100€ phone that usually lasts them 2 to 3 years.

I'd also disagree about luxury glitz. Apple has continued to make devices with shiny aluminum shells. It's not importantly more robust (in fact it dents quite easily) and it's a lot heavier than other choices, whether plastic or magnesium and carbon fibre. It's all part of their image. There are many other ways Apple conveys a luxury image.

On the subject of materials, Apple makes quality devices which look nice but that doesn't make them high-end luxury devices any more than IKEA is selling luxury furniture because they have good designers make their products. For what the actual luxury market looks like, check out:

https://www.vertu.com/us/en/home/

https://gresso.com/smartphone-collection/

https://www.theverge.com/2015/1/5/7498785/88-tauri-tonino-la...

The contrast is obvious: most of that is showing expense for expense's sake, whereas Apple's designs are primarily focused on being functional rather than showing off your wealth.

If you really want to compare phones to cars, the iPhone is a BMW, it's still affordable to the middle class but that's about it. But the market is quite different than cars, by proportion and features the others you mentioned aren't luxury, they are exotic.

Along with the inappropriate image-conscious choice of materials, there is also the glowing Apple logo. It's a beacon to club members.

Apple just doesn't cater to the cost conscious consumer. Ikea does. They have $19 tables. There's absolutely no comparison in the Apple world, they don't even want to try to address that kind of market.

I don't know about the US, but here in Sweden you can get a brand new iPhone SE for $30-35/month on a contract. That, while not completely trivial money to many people, is very far from BMW territory.

I would also like the point out the market reality, that while Apple dominates in some areas, primarily cheap Androids are the main element for these reasons, along with factors such as more expensive and proprietary accessories. This is because people make choices relevant to their situation.

Apple certainly has premium priced products, but they have been directly targeting mass market consumers since at least the original crazy colored iMac G3s.

But phone plans made otherwise expensive devices very affordable to even the average consumer, because the payments are deferred. That is also a model that was quite popular here in Australia before the iPhone, but I believe was a bit less common in the USA before the iPhone launch based on some other articles I read about that model basically being genius for launching the iPhone.