A two thousand dollar phone
Why is it strange for an iPhone to have a similar price to a MacBook Pro? For many people the phone is their primary computer, the most important and personal device in their life. Not me. Not Oremus. Probably not you. But I bet there are a lot more people out there who would rather have a $2500 iPhone and a $700 MacBook Neo than who would want a $2500 MacBook Pro and a $700 iPhone.
I agree with Gruber’s take generally here: I think the folding iPhone is going to sell well; I think the engineering is remarkable. But the above quote does not ring true to me.
I know people for whom a phone is their primary computer. They are not the sorts of people who would pay two thousand dollars for a phone. These people have the cheapest iPhone they can find, usually a hand-me-down or a refurb model, and they hold on to it until long after it stops receiving updates, precisely because it is the most important and personal device in their life, but more precisely because they're not likely to see a device as very important or personal at all.