I doubt we have high duty rates from China, and since most of the stuff we get here is imported from China it helps keep the cost down. Not to mention the lower than usual value of our dollar. Competition is huge here with electronics in a big way, but also with retail product in general. We buy more stuff period. Lots that we don't even need. It is burned into our brains that novelties are necessities. We must have this new product whatever that is. Apple knows what they are doing by making a product that gets little to no change every year, but we all must have it because its the new I-this or the new I-that. Even if they release the I-phone 5.25 everyone will want it. And it will keep people extending their phone contracts every year to get the newest phone. Its even worse with the apple tablets making a smaller version called the mini which is a half of a half of a laptop. Who needs all of this stuff? Hell even the stupid infomercials we see that advertise crap products put an "I" in front of the product name because the target market sees the "I" as a familiar name meaning good product. It could even be an I-toilet. Companies know this. They have also adapted to lowering costs as well to be more competitive. The Samsung Galaxy SIII commercials went right out bashing the I-phone. It hilarious. You can get a galaxy SIII here for a hundred dollars with a new contract VS I-phone is around 300 dollars with contract. Samsung has the better deal obviously so it shows they want to compete here where we own a big majority of smartphones. Not just with phones but car makers here do the same damn thing. Every 4 to 5 years companies revamp the flagship model because they know the typical car loan here is 5 years. And when the car is paid off, its time to trade it in and get another 5 year car loan. The system is built to keep us in debt, but make it cheap enough so that we feel we are getting somewhere by all of our possessions. This isn't hitting the nail on the head fully, but it's just my observation.

P.S Microsoft has been spending a lot of money here advertising their new touchscreen computers and laptops too. And they don't really cost much here as well. I do see some lumia commercials a few times a week too.