While others pile on over the use of the inflammatory term “scam” and still others readily accept Apple's questionable tactics under the guise of the shopworn meme of “Just don't buy it”, I’d like to challenge the basic premise of Thomas's original post.
Tim Cook is always trying to find ways to cut corners and give customers less while either not lowering prices or actually increasing prices.
Hmm…
There are so many counter examples. Here's a biggie. Under Cook, we got the M1 chip, a major breakthrough in computing power and efficiency. That gave customers more, far more than we had before. He was not always cutting corners.
Under Cook, Apple recently brought us the 15” MBA at a reasonable base model price — the first of its size in the Air line — and *LOWERED* the price of the 13” M2 MBA.
The Apple Watch 7 brought us a bigger display at the same price.
The iPad 9 was a high quality, lower cost iPad, offering a good set of features at a great price.
The iPhone 11 (and later models) added Night Mode, a big plus for many.
For sure, in some cases, Cook raised prices yet that also often came with more and better features not fewer or lesser ones!
In fact, you've disproved your own assertion right in your post.
That wasn’t always the case. Even all three generations of cheapest low-end budget model iPhone SE (2016, 2020, and 2022) received the exact same CPU that was in most expensive high-end iPhone model at the time.
So, you've just contradicted yourself. You asserted that Cook *always* cuts corners, yet also noted that wasn't *always* the case! In fact, it wasn't true in 2016, 2020, or as recently as 2022, just last year! Each time, Cook provided these less expensive iPhones with the advanced chips. ‼️ (Yes, in one case, he raised the price $30, but with significant feature upgrades.)
How was that cutting corners, giving us less, and charging the same or more?! Or, as you asserted “always” doing that?! 🙈 🔥 ❌
You are on good grounds to criticize Cook's frequent nickel-and-diming customers, and often or regularly offering incremental upgrades — sometimes at higher prices — but that’s a far cry from your claim that his general m.o. is to cut corners, offer less, and charge the same or more. That claim falls apart on even the briefest inspection. It is not something that he generally or *always* does.
