[jyl]

Apple hardware has always been more expensive - nothing new there. Apple's services are priced comparably to equivalents. Consumers who are price sensitive above all else won't choose Apple.

You can see why Apple is challenged in certain markets. India, Africa, parts of LatAm are very price sensitive, so Apple has to compete on price which it won't or can't. In China, local incumbents (Alibaba, Ant, Tencent, Baidu) already dominate the services, and Apple's privacy/security advantage is ineffective or not valued, so Apple has to compete on shiny new hot devices, which it sometimes can and sometimes can't.