Yeah but who's the silly ones in that situation? The ones that pay £500+ for a branded product just because said company says that's what it's worth, or the one buying the same product Sans branding (aka fake) for a fraction of the cost because that's what it actually costs to produce.
If all these companies didn't take the piss with their prices then people wouldn't buy fake copies.
I know you get what you pay for with certain things but most of the time you pay a serious extra chunk just for branding
to be fair to the likes of apple etc, they HAVE to charge more for the product. the amount the item costs to make is only one piece of a much larger puzzle. remember they also need to cover the overheads involved in having numerous walk-in stores around the world where you can go in and get a problem seen to immdiately (i.e. a better level of customer support), and they also need to cover the huge R+D costs involved with designing and developing a new mobile. China just wait till it hits the market, buys one and pulls it to bits and then clones the parts to make the same thing - no shop, no R+D = huge savings in the total cost.
Same problem with the likes of halfords, your paying the premium to get the product there and then, if your fuse blows and you havent had the foresight to buy a box online in advance online (and for etc. your lights have packed in), then they have got you by the balls and you will need to pay what they want. again the ovrheads involved in running shops with staffing etc need to be paid for somewhere.
I think the prices Halfords charge are fair for what it is, it only seems expensive when you compare it to some online shop that is being run from someones shed with no overheads to worry about.