If you're an enthusiastic fan of Apple products, then I suggest you stop reading now. I thank my lucky stars OP posts can't get downvoted.
I'm sure you've heard of it already but if you're one of the few lucky people who haven't, the Apple in question mainly refers to the Apple iPhone, a mobile phone. The iPhone's main attraction, arguably, is its price in which consumers have a positive relationship with unlike most other products, that is, the higher the price of something, the more demand there is for it. The bandwagon principle may also apply (eg. everyone has an iPhone, I want one too). The iPhone's second most attractive "quality" is its ecosystem (iTunes etc). Similarly, this "feature", where users are effectively locked to a system runs inverse to attitudes elsewhere, where free (as in freedom of movement) is considered better (eg. open source software etc).
Long story short, people who buy iPhones are basically buying products that are simultaneously overpriced and under-performing (eg. old CPU, can't support 4G etc), relative to similar products in its price range, and heck, even when compared to products half its price range. An economist who subscribes to the "perfectly rational consumer" school of thought would be sweating right now. Note that there is a difference between being rational and rationalising but that's neither here nor there.
Anyway, a common running joke around these parts (these parts being OzBargain) is to call a non-phone product the "Apple iPhone of x". For example, expensive luxury sport cars aren't necessarily significantly better performing or better looking than cars 1/10 of its price but they still command the price they do. But this expensive car basically functions like an Apple iPhone, people buy it because it's expensive.
Here's a list of "Apple iPhones" in their respective product categories I've collected in my time at OzBargain. I'll add more when I come across them.
Dyson AM06 Desk Fan $399 RRP
For this price, I'm guessing it has like pollution-proof and smoker-proof functions or something.
Beats by Dr. Dre Studio
Step 1: Make headphones using poor quality material
Step 2: Attach the name of a cool hip black guy to the product name to draw in the young gullible consumers.
Step 3: Get Apple to purchase selling rights (because Apple knows its target market).
Step 4: Charge several hundred dollars for the Beats, even though for the same price (or less), you can get better quality headphones.
Step 5: ???
Step 6: Profit
Glass Bottled Voss Still Water
Step 1: Find a free source of taxpayer-funded Norwegian tap water.
Step 2: Put the tap water into some glass bottles to ensure that one of the few possible benefits (portability) is gone.
Step 3: Using the money saved by stealing taxpayer-funded water, pour it into the facebook marketing division eg. pretentiously taking photographs of bottles of Voss in admittedly nice locales
Step 4: ???
Step 5: Profit (noticing a pattern here?)
Dyson V6 Vacuum Cleaner range
Are you telling me the V6s are 7 times more powerful than your standard $100 vaccuum? I don't think so. And what are all these attachments (worth an extra $100+) that I'm not going to use anyway and should've got for free? I can only see the V6 Absolute be worth its price if it came with an attachment that resembles a head of the opposite gender… At $700-$800, I expect a Dyson V6 to make good on the first letter of its name.
Telstra Broadband
Nobody enjoys being a monopoly more than Tel$tra. Firstly, in its inception, they get the help of the Government (money and labour) to set up the communications network and becomes Government-owned as it should be. Then the Government sells it to private interests without taking into considering the fact that Telstra dominates both wholesale and retail. Now Telstra owns the communications network (given to them by the Government remember) and every other ISP has to piggy back on it. So the retailers get screwed, the consumers get screwed, the future of the country gets screwed (NBN etc). Okay, I'll concede that Telstra has the best performing and stable network, but that is the bare minimum I would expect from a monopoly.
Apple MacBook
I'll just him explain
28/1 New Overpriced: Nandos
Why am I paying twice the price of KFC for the same amount of crappy chicken? I almost feel tempted to smother my entire chicken with your crappy Nando(tm) sauce just to feel less of buyer's remorse!
28/1 New Overpriced: Grill'd
Why am I paying twice the price of McDonalds/Burger King for the same size of burger? Granted, it is quite tasty but don't give me that "healthier option" BS. I'd almost feel okay with paying for your overpriced products if I could trust that you wouldn't underpay your employees… which you did so welcome to my s***list!
28/1 New Overpriced: Top of the line gaming graphics cards
Congratulations! You've just bought the most expensive and most technically advanced graphics card in the market! You've now got 2 problems. The first problem is biological in nature: you still need to upgrade your eye. So your game is running at 9000 frames per second/9000 hertz/9000 gigawatts. Too bad your eye can't see past 30fps, 60fps if you're lucky. The second problem is financial. In 1 month your $9000 brand new graphics card is now worth $90. "Future-proof" my ass!
@infinite:
TV's and cheap periphs do not make for an ideal experience. As per your OP, we are not looking for "technologically gimped".
A large 1080p TV has horrible pixel density, slower response times and in some cases, terrible upscaled refresh rates. A 4k TV means much larger PC hardware requirements. If not, your dealing with terrible response times if you need to upscale.
Slower games (RPG, MMO etc) can be okay on a TV. Anything requiring fast input response and high FPS will give you a bad time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sxvu7qf6rDw
Also depends on other factors, most people don't want a loud desktop sitting in their living room. They may also have families and getting some time on the living room TV can be painful. A study and monitor is more ideal but more expensive.
In the end, some people choose console, some people play PC on a TV, some people enjoy quality peripherals and a monitor. Because that is what suits their lifestyle. You can't paint everyone with the same brush.