I'm curious, could you provide a few examples? What competitor products are drawing your attention and why? What should Apple be doing differently? How are they kicking the enthusiast to the curb? I'll grant that much has changed over the past decade, but I personally see almost all of the changes as being for the better. As a long-time customer (32 years now!), I'd like to hear what is driving another long-time customer away. No judgement, just curious!
Some examples? Sure:
Phones:
-Sammy Galaxy S4: Issued to me by my work (large telco). After using it for a week, I gave my kid my iPhone 4s. Way bigger, brighter screen, better pics, customizable as all get out, expandable storage, IR sensor. A pocket PC-do-it-all device. iPhone's a bit more smooth, but not significantly enough. And I detest iOS 7.
-Nexus 5: If I were buying, this is what I'd get. Same as above, but better-loking, pure Android (no bloat). I'm a guy; no bright, girlie colors for me, please. I'd get it black-on-black.
-Wife traded in an iPad 2 and iPhone 4s for a Samsung Galaxy Note 3. She is not a techie (like me), but says she's never been happier, and that her device is "better than the iPhone/iPad combination by a lot".
Tablets:
-Love the iPad hardware, hate the OS. A lot. No separate user acounts, no customization whatsoever, forced to jailbreak to get what I want. Sammy's/Google tablets looking more attractive by the minute, especially since migrating phones. Apple's app store is great, but I've yet to not find equal or equivalent software for what I use a tablet for. For the time being, my iPad 1 suffices (and doesn't run iOS 7-up)
PCs:
-Portables, nothing. Will hold on to my early 2011 MBP 17 'till it dies, and then I'd fix it. I baby this thing. My MBP is (even more than) a portable iMac: TB port, ethernet, disk drive (took it out and put another HDD in, RAID 0), FW800 (still the standard in audio interfaces-I'm a musician), and Expresscard expansion slot (allows me to connect to anything: e-sata, usb3, etc., thus future-proofing). For it's size, thin and light (my 9 year-old daughter carries it all over the house, to my chagrin). Nothing in the market compares. I do like the Lenovo Yogas, and don't mind Win 8 too much (I like Metro waaay more than iOS7), although I'd go the Linux route 1st.
Retina MBP too small/insignificant for my taste, and Apple jumped the gun with port-elimination and SSD exclusivity (because of capacity vs price), soldered-ram, and difficult user-access for the sake of a little bit more thinness. SSDs are nice, but capacity wise they're still too pricey and HDDs are not going anywhere for a while. Way too early to kill it in ALL their portables (save the 13 with the POS screen).
-Mac Pro: Niche and pricey. Again, brilliantly ahead of its time. Can't afford it/justify it if I wanted one. Non-standard components means I'm stuck with what they give me. Unnecessarily externalized too. Circular design is cool but impractical (can't stack or lay on side, etc). Cabling nightmare. Would've been happy with the (unnecessarily huge but flexible) updated "old" Mac Pro more than the tube.
-iMac: Logic board and graphics card failure after 2 years of in-home, consumer use, costing $1,000 to repair. Bad design to have high-heat components behind a high heat humongous screen. Couldn't even upgrade the HDD without the fans going crazy (something to do with custom drives). New ones are even worse, with a glued (!) screen. Pretty, but flawed. Never again.
-Mac mini: Looks like this is the last Mac desktop I'd buy, just so I can run OSX (I'm NOT switching to Windows). However, an iMac without the screen would be best, if Apple made it.
All this means is that, at least since 2011, my Apple upgrade path has come to a screeching halt. If OSX goes the iOS 7 route fully, then Apple will get no more money from me. I'm content with staying right here or going Linux or even (gasp!) Windows. But the bottom line is that all Apple products are now appliances, or moving towards becoming one.
The competition is catching up.
