The Capital District (Albany and surroundings) of New York State has been trying to rebrand itself as "Tech Valley." There are some good educational and research facilities in the area, led by RPI. But the centerpiece of the transformation was supposed to be a new, ultramodern chip fab plant. AMD's manufacturing subsidiary, GlobalFOUNDRIES, got huge tax breaks as an incentive to build there.
Construction took years longer than first estimates, and slowed to a halt a few times. Rumor says that lack of money was the cause. The plant is supposedly nearly complete, but they still haven't ramped up to anywhere near full production capacity.

The process is *theoretically* safe, but alas, we don't live in a theoretical world.
And studies of a process that don't examine the consequences of a worst-case scenario should *not* be used to justify allowing that process in the real world.

How long before makers of replacement lenses start touting UV vision in their ads?

Reminds me of an old joke from "Cheers."

Sam: "What are you up to, Norm?"
Norm: "My ideal weight, if I was 8 feet tall."

No, they have gotten where they are primarily on user experience. Your failure to list that particular strength of Apple products tells me that you have never actually used them for more than a few minutes. That is why your take on their future is so distorted.

Another clueless fandroid who will never be a successful business owner.
As every member of Apple's board is will aware, market share does not matter. Profits matter.

Seriously, the odds of that happening (asskicking on epic scale) are similar to the odds of Linux becoming the dominant desktop OS.

These are the same people who tell their friends that their bosses literally kill them with overtime.

Projection based on latest data. Last quarter was still under 10%. Hardly meets my definition of "large and growing."

"Likewise, people sometimes have an axe to grind or just doesn't like some company - like here on Slashdot that would be Apple - "

Fixed that for you.

Sure:
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2011/12/02/kindle-fire-eats-into-ipad-samsung.html

Apparently you are delusional.
Market share for tablets shows Apple still at around 65%, down from 70% before the Kindle Fire was released. Meanwhile, Samsung's share went from approximately 8% pre-Fire down to just under 5% post-Fire. And Asus isn't even on the radar screen, having less market share than RIMM's pathetic 0.6% for the PlayBook.
You need to understand that figures for units shipped are very different from sales figures. A tablet that is sitting in a warehouse somewhere or gathering dust on a store shelf does not equal a tablet that has been bought and used by an actual human being.

You must have been sent a special message from Jeff Bezos, because all the Amazon marketing for the Fire has emphasized all the *other* stuff it supposedly can do. Book reading is strictly an afterthought.

This is typical of all emigrant populations. They tend to "freeze" their language in the form it had at the time of the main emigration. Thus Canadian French is very close to Seventeenth Century European French.
Personal note: My family is of Finnish descent. All 4 grandparents were immigrants to the US. My parents are both fluent in the language of the "Old Country." I can only say a few basic phrases, but my kid sister made the effort to pick up a fair amount from our parents.
When she made a trip to Finland a few years back, her speech caused some amusement to native Finns. They were surprised to hear a young woman talking like a "mummu" (grandmother).

But in Finland, the President is not actually chief executive. It's more of a ceremonial post, if I understand correctly.
Still, funny comment.