You do realise that you've posted this question on a forum full of apple apologists, right?
Hardly. I'd say there are more "disgrunters" than fan bois.
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Is it me or is Apple really, and I mean really, turning into a greed machine?
There was a time when the Apple Tax was a very real phenomenon, but I don't think you can say that's true today. Apple products will never be the cheapest available, but they seem to be more competitive than they need to be for the most part.
People like to point out that the Mac Pro is four years old and has barely dropped in price and point that out as a sign of greed. I really don't think that's why they haven't slashed the price though. I think it has far more to do with not wanting to destabilize their pricing tiers.
If they keep the entry level at $2999, even though the machine probably should be closer to $1999 after four years, it makes the next release of it seem like a bargain. Once you lower the price, it becomes the price people learn to expect so if the next version comes out at $2999 after you've discounted the old generation to $1999, most people see it as a large price increase.
It could also be that they've kept the old Mac Pro around to frame your perception of products like the iMac Pro. Restaurants do this all the time. There's often an item on the menu whose purpose is to set your expectations on what a high price is. If the first entree you see is a $79 filet mignon, then suddenly the $29 dinners start to look very very reasonable. The restaurant doesn't care that most people think the $79 dish looks outrageous nor does it care that nobody wants to order it.
Other computer makers probably wish they could do this. It would make their lives a lot easier, but when you're Dell and someone could just as easily buy an Acer, you've got to price your products as the commodities that they are.
That's a key difference when your product is a commodity vs when it's not. Makers of commodities don't have total freedom in defining their prices. They have to react to the market as it is now.
Other companies that sell products that aren't commoditized practice similar pricing strategies. Take dSLRs for example. You usually don't see Nikon or Canon slashing their prices when their cameras have become 2 or 3 year old tech. They'll only cut their prices when the next model comes out when the new model replaces the old one at the same or similar price point.
