Isn't the fact that apples products are over priced, over simplified and completely controlled and locked down the main selling point?
ie isn't that the market that they are after, the rich IT illiterate people?
What people who're really into tech forget is that it's still only a fraction of the populace who're tech savvy.
I started on a C64 and Amiga before going onto Windows and later onto Linux. After ten years or so of Linux and Windows I decided I wanted to try OS X. I don't game anymore and any gaming that I do is console based. And when it comes to Linux I've spent enough time using it to know that I really can't stand messing around with the operating system and just prefer to use my computers (hence why I like friendly distros like Ubuntu, Fedora and OpenSuSE (SuSE 9 was my original foray into Linux way back in early 2000's I think, long before it became OpenSuSE)). So OS X was a good half way point between not having to bother with Windows crap and not having to bother with Linux crap. That's not to say that there is crap with OS X I hate having to deal with (every OS has it's crap. No OS is impervious to it). But it's much less than I personally have with Windows or Linux. If that's down to it being more locked down, I don't really care. It does not impact what I can and cannot do with my Apple hardware (despite what vehement Apple haters proclaim) and I've yet to run into a situation where the walled Apple garden has prevented my hardware from simply doing what I want.
When it comes to my home server I use Ubuntu Linux, again to avoid as much dealing with crap when it comes to Linux and just getting the boxes up and working. In the past I've run everything from Gentoo to FreeBSD. When it comes to my phone, I just want my phone to do what a phone should do, hence why I still haven't upgraded to a Smart phone (still using a Nokia 6300) despite trying them all (and a nasty period with WinMo). If I was really into being "free" and "open" in regards to using a smart phone I wouldn't use Android or Apple. I'd probably use the OpenMoko FreeRunner.
Elitests in any camp are boring and regurgitate cliched arguments for and against (which, on the internet, is not just in discussions or arguments about hard and software, put politics and philosophy (or keyboards
)). At the end of the day, you use what gets the job done. A computer is a tool. It's not a movement or philosophy despite what Apple fanboys, Windows fanboys or Open source fanboys would have you believe. If people want to buy a screwdriver to remove a door, so what? There'll be someone somewhere who will use a bread knife. Neither way of completing the task is wrong, just different. Some prefer to buy the tool that'll do the job with the least amount of fuss. Some prefer to use the tool that'll do the job with the least amount of cost.
