In a free market, prices are NEVER "criminal" nor "greedy." In the case of Apple, they are bafflingly high sometimes, but there are sound economic reasons for this, whether you like them or not. The
1) The value of any consumer good is entirely subjective and is determined solely by the value a buying consumer ascribes to it. If some consumers with deep pockets believe that a $6k desktop with a feature set from 2013 is a reasonable proposition, that's the correct price. Evidently SOME consumers are still paying those high prices, which is why Apple isn't lowering them. That's what the market is saying. Either that, or Apple has only a few hundred units left and they can afford to wait for those deep-pocketed fans to pony up the dough–but this is still something of a game of "chicken," as those ashtray MPs aren't getting any faster sitting on a shelf in a warehouse.
2) No one is forced at gunpoint to buy a Mac. Every single transaction that has made Apple a nearly TRILLION dollar company was, is, and will always be a VOLUNTARY one. Apple customers believe that things like TCO, a positive user experience, and other such considerations are worth paying substantially more than less expensive competing products which use similar technologies. Only when Mac users, en masse, defect from the platform in economically significant numbers will Apple either lower prices or find other ways to add more value to bring their consumers back. That really isn't happening, so prices remain right where they are.
3) Apple is not immune to the economics of competition. If another company offered a better value and an overall better user experience, consistently, for a lower price, Apple would have to respond quickly to such competition or whither away. Remember when Nokia was king of the cell phone market? Remember when the go-to smart phone was a Blackberry? Pepperidge Farm remembers...
4) Corporations aren't charities. They offer products and services for a price they think consumers will be willingly to pay, and value their customer's cash over the value of their products/services they offer, or they wouldn't sell them. Consumers are equally convinced that the product or service they're buying is worth MORE to them than their cash, or they wouldn't make the purchase. The entire transaction, by definition, is entirely VOLUNTARY and WIN-WIN.
IMO, "criminal" and "greedy" just edgy epithets some people use to mask the fact that they are simply whining about how they can't have what they want, when they want it, because they can't afford it. You can't have an ashtray MP for a bargain price, even though they are woefully outdated? Boo-hoo. Life is certainly unfair, isn't it? Criminal, greedy, evil Apple isn't willing to participate in your wish fulfillment--how dare they stomp on your dreams by obeying the basic economic principles of pricing and supply and demand! The nerve!
