I just posted this on GigaOM. Hope you get a chance to read it.

No one wants to think about the fact that Apple, like Gucci and BMW has achieved what I call aspirational escape velocity. If Chinese are ready to line-up for a product (iPhone 4S) and pay a premium for it, even though likely that a cousin is involved in putting it together, something must be going right. So why isn’t buying an Apple product like an iPhone or an iPad the new normal?