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Why don't Consumer Electronics companies, except for Apple and Samsung compete at the high end of the economic spectrum. Microsoft is perhaps beginning to "get it" with their Surface line and Surface Books, but all other makers are selling their products at or below break even operating margins! -- PING!

Pinging dayglored, ThunderSleeps, and Shadow Ace for their ping lists. . .

Apple Dominates the CE market in operating profit margins
which translates into huge profits
Ping!

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Premium products (or market share) at a premium price is a long known business strategy. Businesses have used the strategy for as long as there have been businesses. The downside for many has been that the high margins conceal inept management.

> ...Apple is the one exception to all of this, with between 25% and 30% operating margins during the latter half of this chart, while everyone else scrambles at 5% or lower margins. How does Apple achieve this distinction? Well, it's due to a combination of factors but it's probably best summarized this way: Apple provides premium products at a premium price, and is able to justify the premium through differentiation based on a tightly integrated approach to hardware and software...

That is precisely what I've been saying all along to the folks who claim Apple's success is only due to a supposed cult-like slavish devotion of rabid, deluded fanbois. Apple doesn't screw around at the low end of the market, and they make SYSTEMS that are designed as systems: tightly integrated hardware and software, and a carefully controlled ecosystem.

The trick to that approach is you have to resist the temptation to ever dive for the cheap crap market. Apple's fundamentally elitist attitude has paid off handsomely over the years since 1997, watching as others fight over scraps at the bottom of the barrel, as this chart shows.