Don’t we have more important things to do with our money? At some point it becomes a vanity issue to have the newest incrementally faster CPU or the slimmest or the longest battery life. Phones have become a haves vs have-not item, and this is not a good trend.

Think of the people who struggle to live on far less than $769 in a year. Think of the environmental damage and social instability caused by the mining of toxic metals used in manufacturing these toys, mostly in countries where child labor is common and environmental regulation is non-existent. To put it plainly: these are “blood phones,” in many cases, and we should be having a conversation about it. I’m as guilty as anyone. I bought a Nexus 5X for $300. Shame on me.

Don’t be evil? Shame on Google! It’s clear here what they’re doing. Google is positioning itself to take on Apple’s retail strategy of cranking out over-hyped, over-priced branded technology with planned obsolescence on a clockwork schedule. (Look for Google Stores to open soon in every high-end shopping center in the next 2 yrs.)

I was attracted to Nexus phones in large part because Google was NOT playing Apple’s game. But Google smells blood in the water in the wake of Samsung’s colossal failure. From what I’ve read, Google/Alphabet is under investor pressure to rake in gobs of cash in the wake of recent money-losing high-visibility projects. In light of current industry and market dynamics it’s surprising they haven’t “gone Apple” on us before now. But with the over-heated tech arms race and the over-heated market demand for all things expensive, the green eye shades guys will demand that you turn your back on the folks in the cheap seats and go all in on the luxury/vanity market. Plenty of rich folks out there think $769 for a phone is a price they’d happily pay for a phone with slightly longer, faster, thinner, lighter, better… until next year’s models come out, and then we’ll have to sell ’em an even more expensive version of this year’s!

So charge more for a device when it lacks features of less-expensive Samsung phones. If people fall for the marketing hype, they’re morons who don’t do their homework. But that’s what capitalism wants people to do: believe the hype and be uninformed consumers. I’m glad I’m not one of those people.