I'll help to try and clarify BitZtream's point a little... not adding an Apple logo onto a computer that does not yet have an Apple logo is worlds different from scratching an Apple logo off of a computer that does have one. "The Apple branding on my devices isn't important" means that one does not care if it's there or not. Not caring about whether or not there is an Apple logo means that, without added incentive, one is not going to add an Apple logo if it's not there, and one is not going to scratch it off if it is. It does not necessitate scratching off an already-existing logo, because it has already been posited that one does not care.
Furthermore, if one scratches the Apple logo off of one's computer without an external incentive to do so, then it can be safely assumed that one does, indeed, care whether or not there is an Apple logo on the machine.
In fact, I believe that it would be enlightening to see how many people would pay $50 less to get an Apple computer that doesn't sport an Apple logo versus an otherwise-equivalent one that does.

It sounds to me like you're making an implicit straw-man comparison here. I doubt that most people who buy Apple products do so solely because of the logo, though that may play a non-zero role in the decision-making process, and the branding likely does get reflected somewhat in the price of the product. For instance, Mac OS X does not come pre-installed (legally) on any other manufacturer's computers that I know of. Say what you will about the relative merits and demerits of that operating system versus others, Mac OS X is more valuable to some people than Microsoft Windows is, and those people will pay a higher price for a Mac than they will for a "Windows machine" of equivalent hardware specifications.

I completely agree with your stated position, though I can only really claim a mere 15+ years of using computers and gadgets, myself.
One potentially good reason that one might buy an Apple machine, if you are genuinely looking for such a reason, is to be able to develop applications to sell on the App Store. That kind of exposure could be lucrative under the proper conditions. It's not a good reason for me to buy a Mac for myself, but I believe that it is a good enough reason for the rational consumer who does have those needs.

Downloading a copy of a Ke$ha song and listening to it for one's own entertainment generally does not lead to passing it off as one's own song.
On the other hand, copying down what an expert says about one's topic into a paper without citing that expert is, in fact, passing it off as one's own work.
It's the difference between downloading Firefox and downloading the source code to Firefox, removing references to the people who wrote the code, compiling/packaging it, and giving it to someone, calling it "this awesome web browser I wrote".
(I know, that analogy is flawed in some ways, but it illustrates the main point...)

If the math is the same as what you're doing, then the statistical extrapolation is no different from what you did; I just used more months to illustrate that, as you point out, that extrapolation is flawed, since applying it can potentially result in impossibly large numbers.

So you've hit on what I'm trying to say: you shouldn't project that a browser's market share will increase by k% each month into the future. All browsers' market share figures must add up to 100%. So, right off the bat, the projected share will be greater than 100% after some amount of months.

Unless there's some reason why using 6 months is OK but using 27 months is not? Because with k=40 (see above for what I mean by k), the number is over 100% after 6 months too.

There are other better reasons why you shouldn't use this figure for projections, but I haven't been able to both give those reasons and keep this post kinda short, so I just left it at the one.

OK, then, I shall try again.

If I follow your math correctly, then in just 27 months, over 105% of internet users (17% * (107% ^ 27)) will be using WebKit browsers!

If I follow your math correctly, then in just one year, 101% of internet users (17% + (7% * 12)) will be using WebKit browsers, leaving just -1% left to split between Mozilla-derived, Opera, and Internet Explorer!

Some Japanese hotels like Hoshi have literally been around for ages.

Also, check out Tower Publishing, around since 1772, and JPMorgan Chase, with us since 1799.

Take a quick peek at Wikipedia sometime. Though I can't prove that all of these companies will be around forever, I think that companies that have been around through several generations come close enough for me.

I doubt any company can truly be immortal, but the companies on that wiki page are as close at it gets.

Sting me once, shame on... ...you...

Sting me twice... ... ...sting me once, can't get stung again!

Well said.

George Hotz ("geohot") tried his hand at it, given that he had been rather successful at cracking Apple's iStuff. He found an exploit that gave hypervisor access, and in response, Sony removed OtherOS in a firmware update, as geohot's hack required use of OtherOS.

So this can all be traced back to geohot getting involved... though in my opinion, Sony shouldn't have responded by removing OtherOS, causing all the collateral damage. It inevitably was going to result in a lot of really serious people getting involved and, by extension, more stories like this.

Nearly every legal expert who has spoken on this topic has argued that Wikileaks has not violated US law.

Publishing classified documents is not illegal, unless the documents fit certain criteria that (so far) these leaks do not. The person or organization who leaks the documents does have some liability, but not Wikileaks. As has been said many times before, Wikileaks is analogous to the New York Times in the Pentagon Papers incident.

Thank you for a comprehensive, readable explanation of the supply-and-demand model as it applies to digital (and other) sales. May this post be modded up to +5 Informative.

It makes for a pretty fun day at the museum, though.