I think it's nature right now with so many companies screwing consumers to try and find someone that you believe in. Apple sells stuff that if you aren't tech savy, works, is expensive, and you think you are using top quality stuff, if your a moron.
My girlfriend is going through this with her law partner. He's bought a new Mercedes, a 1996 Mercedes, thinking these cars are like the reliability of the older Mercedes. NOTHING is further from the truth. The guy is spending thousands of dollars on repairs, where the dealer barely knows what's wrong with the car, or fails to fix it.
He's loosing time, as well as money. About 5 years ago, a local guy who runs a German car repair center told me never even think of buying one of the new ones. The stuff in them breaks, is extremely hard to diagnose, and repair, and everything is super expensive.
He works on them, makes a living doing so, and drives a Toyota pickup truck. That says it all for me.
Apple reminds me of people's perception of Mercedes from the old days. Instead of using quality components, and building cars impossible to destroy, or wear out, they now are much more highly 'refined', meaning they are much more Jaguar like then the old Jaguars.
So is it with Apple. I've often thought Apple got what they paid for in Jobs. A mouthpiece who's interest was to market himself through Apple, and to claim the credit for other people's hard work.
I remember watching Jobs after OS X came out, and how he was promoting a beta operating system, on a bunch of shitty, over-priced, under powered software.
Let's remember that Apple once again took the roots from Linux/BeOS/etc.
and cobbled their OS on top of it, taking credit for 'their' product, and, trying to keep any possible influence from it's originators away from it.
What I find so offensive about Apple is their ability to steal others ideas, try and patent them, and then send lawyers in to fool judges and juries, denying the real innovators their credit.
I have a friend that designed a handgun cartridge, and Freedom Arms did the same thing to him. Business practices like this make me want to throw up, or shoot someone...
