Re: Whose worst nightmare? Samsung's! Not Apple's.
"and sold to people with more money than discernment (Ah yes, that'll be it)"
When I lived in that part of the world, a Hampstead café owner had a Rolls-Royce with a gold plated flying lady mascot.Today, blinged iPhones remind me of this.
I happened to have an acquaintance who also owned a Royce of the same era. He had bought it when his mother died and left him lots of money. He had asked his wife if she wanted one too, and she said no, too big for London, she wanted a Honda Civic.
Over the next two years the Royce was off the road more often than on while the Civic just ran like clockwork between routine services. I believe he eventually decided, not long after I moved, that the Royce would never be fixed to the point of actual reliability, and disposed of it at a huge loss.
...begin rant
Now, I am not suggesting that Apple stuff is as unreliable as a 1970s Rolls-Royce. Nor is it in the same class of over-pricedness. But for years I did afford Apple kit. Gradually I noticed that failed motherboards, failed hard drives, and OS problems were just as common as with Windows machines and it wasn't clear what benefit I was getting. After the bodged transition to OS X a load of Apple kit was either sold or became landfill, and our business ran happily on the business products of Acer and Redmond, to the benefit of the bottom line. I swore a mighty oath on the bones of my ancestors that the Furies of Alan Turing would abide with me and my house if I ever was suckered by Apple again.
Now what was I going to say? Oh yes, it's a bloody computer, not an objet d'art or, kayn anoreh, a status symbol. If the Chinese can churn out Honda-Civic equivalent mobile phones at Chinese prices, a combination of inverted snobbery and desire for value for money will eventually eat into the Apple market share outside the US. Because sometimes using a spade with a plain steel blade doesn't actually mean you can't afford a stainless steel one, it just means that a spade is only a spade, not a life affirming aesthetic choice.
...end rant