How on EARTH do you make money with 30 different phone versions? Do apple/google/samsung TOGETHER even put out 30 phones a year? That seems absolutely not profitable but what do I know I guess!
There were even a time when they release a model, that were few millimeters off (height, width, thick and camera location) on the same named model for different countries. Have fun to buy a proper case for it.
By segmenting the markets to target different audiences. Same goes for GPU markets.
why doesn't apple make more different devices then? I guess they have been trending that way.. But still, how does "compartmentalizing" make up for 30 different production lines and whatever else can't be parallelized? Like the tiny differences the other reply noted, what is the difference in a consumer who picks the 3 mm bigger?? Do these "segments" of the market exist naturally or is it manufactured to some degree? ie If one year they suddenly consolidated down from 30 to 5, what % of customers would they really lose?!