You guys might not think its related but I dont think stuff like this and stories about AAPL dropping 20% is unrelated. Public perception of Apple is changing. And not for the good. (I Still think there is money to be made and bad press to change but Apple has to change first)
Apple has always been seen as a strange company. To give you a few examples, my father (who also lives in the UK and is a UK citizen) works for a large American restaurant chain, and as part of working for them he's issued with a mobile phone and a laptop - he was told to pick one, tell them the one he was going for, and then to order it with the company credit card.
The company said "We recommend you get this Dell XYZ123 laptop as we've had good reports on it". It was around £1200 to buy. My dad came back and said "Actually, I'd rather get the 13" MacBook Air - its cheaper and will perform better."
Do you know the response he got? "Oh you cant have an Apple - it's a luxury item - we cant allow you to have that".
How stupid is that?
Then there was his phone. The company made everyone get a blackberry. Within a month several people had bought an iPhone out of their own pocket and started using them. When the company found out - they BANNED the use of iPhones as they felt it "gave the company a negative elitist image".
There's also the stigma of owning an Apple product. In the UK it's seen by many as having too much money to spend, or being a bit snobby.
People do see Apple products as VERY limited in what they can do though - and in a lot of ways, they are correct.
For me personally, I buy Apple products because they do what I want them to, but I'd switch to another product instantly if I felt that the Apple product was no good anymore.