See? I told you they had a great marketing department.

Not necessarily. The point of marketing is to make you want it. It doesn't have to be great, you just have to believe it's great.

I feel your entire post was only trying to say "People buy Apple because 'it just works!'(TM)".

So do everyone else's. It's why I purchase a lot of Asus. I have good experiences with their hardware and they make what I like. But as you pointed out, everyone has their own stuff that they actually care about. To some it's the raw power. To others it's the trackpad. Past experiences contribute as well. Raw power cannot be subjective. Software is (which can make the raw power seem different depending on the person). Even history with the company is subjective to each individual. Trackpads? It depends on the software sometimes, but sure, other times there are clear differences between IO peripherals. Am I going to give the whole thing a better rating for build quality because of a trackpad? Probably not.

Well said, sir/madam.

Yes, yes they do. You're just being ignorant.

Listen, you like what you like and we all have reasons for buying what we do. I'm not going to judge you if you buy it because you truly like it. That's fine. But justifying your purchase by asserting higher build quality is bunk. First, you personally do not have the resources to prove that. The people who do don't find any brand consistently higher than everyone else. That is fact. It's evident in regular tear downs and reviews. Need I remind you that much of the equipment is shared across brands? Grow up.

He didn't solve a dilemna. This argument is completely set up from the start. For one, Apple is one of the richest companies in the world. iTunes is a huge part of their success, but also their Apple branded products. Being as how insanely expensive the majority of it is by comparison, and how much of a choke-hold they had on profit margins whenever their products were sold, I'd say profits was a very large business goal and not just a "side effect". Not that that's bad or anything, it just makes Jobs out to be some kind of saint that was only in it for the inventions when he was actually just one helluva marketing guy. The innovator in Jobs was only a step to where Apple ended up.

Except that if anything, Apple is a marketing machine. They could have sold shit on a cracker.

Exactly. I can totally see how the huge changes it's made since 10 years ago can be confusing.

Then show me the donate button. Seriously, RAM is cheap. If you own a machine that only supports up to 8 however...

After whining about my workstation having only 3.1GB of recognizable memory and my desire to have at least 8, I had a co-worker ask me why I needed more than 2GB of RAM. I asked him if he was really a developer. Yes, he was serious. Yes, my jaw was on the floor.

Not to mention they make it easy to re-claim/export your data.

OK, trying to apply the "don't be evil" mantra to this situation is really reaching. The issue of blocking iframes is security-related, end of story. Second, if a website doesn't like people iframing their shit, they can block it too. It's only a double-standard if Google complains.

Antitrust, at least in the U.S., means you're using your market position to influence the market unfairly.

Antitrust != monopoly.

Nothing. It's bunk. Most reputable laptop manufacturers all have comparable build quality unless you're getting the damn thing for free, but even then I'm willing to bet the thing will live long enough for you to replace it because you want something faster, not because it broke down.

After the first paragraph... simply not true. Just... ugh. Really? Why deny that Apple's hardware is simply more expensive like 99% of the time? Because it is. I've never once paid more than $999 for a laptop, and I've always gotten top-notch hardware. It's no super high-end gaming rig, but even if I was looking for that I definitely wouldn't be spending up in the MacBook price range. Absolutely ridiculous.

Your claim on build quality is absolutely nuts. Apple people love to throw this claim around like we all will just automatically accept it. It's expensive, it's gotta be the best, right? Complete bunk. I'm not saying Apple is shit here, because it's not. They make perfectly decent hardware. But it's certainly not the best. End of story.

Anyway, I really replied just to say no buttons on something that's supposed to act like a mouse would absolutely drive me nuts.