Explaining Apex

In the latest installment of his weekly column for the New York Times Magazine, Rob Walker explains the perverse cache of bargain electronics brand Apex, which is most notorious for those profit-defying $30 DVD
players that were so popular this past Christmas. Astoundingly, 10% of the DVD players sold in the US last year were made by Apex, second only to the far more established consumer electronics company Sony, and Rob chalks their success up to "the cultural capital of savvy that goes with finding a great bargain."