Cook will not be any different to Jobs, if anything he will be harder than Jobs, Apple buying out supply chains to stop them dealing with rivals is Cook's work, the lawsuit against Samsung is Cook's work, anyone who thinks that Apple will be softer under Cook is in for a hell of a shock if anything they will be even more hell bent on crushing their rivals into the dirt.
As for the Apple tax well if people stopped buying then it wouldn't happen but in the UK after 5 months you can't get an iPad2 for love nor money in the UK from the likes of John Lewis, Currys, PC World, Apple Store, they sell out within seconds of going on sale even after all these months so that tells Apple that people don't mind paying an "Apple tax", why sell out iPad's at £479 when you can sell just as many at £579 ?
Do you actually have any proof that iPads have sold out in the UK as I've definitely seen them on sale in the likes of John Lewis, Currys, PC World and my local Apple Store in Liverpool One as well as HMV and Carphone Warehouse. If they've supposedly sold out, then they either would have to put a notice up saying that they were sold out or take an order from the customer concerned..
Look at it this way, I'm definitely not bothered about the inconvenience caused by importing from the US which is what I'll be doing for the next iPod Touch and waiting till November next year to buy an iPad in Singapore as it would be way cheaper to do so even with Customs and various taxes in the UK thanks to being able to claim GST.
You may not have a problem paying Sales Tax (or whatever tax you Americans pay for a product), but I resent making Apple even richer by paying an extra fee on top of the taxes that are charged for a Apple product in the UK just because I live there. I have no problem with paying VAT for a product (even if it is 20% VAT thanks to the greedy Coalition bastards!), but when we get charged an extra fee on top, you know that Apple is just taking the piss!
Not everybody who want to buy an Apple product in the UK or certain other countries are gullible idiots who are willing to pay the "Apple Tax". They want to save as much as possible when buying an Apple product and if it means jumping through a few extra hoops to do so, so be it!
At the end of the day, why should I pay over £600 for a top of the range 64GB iPad with WiFi and 3G in the UK when I can get it on import for under £500 instead from another country.
And before anyone says that if I don't like what Apple are doing then I shouldn't buy an Apple product at all, I didn't buy a iPod Touch because of the marketing crap that Apple peddles to the sheeple (and believe me when I say that a certain episode of the Simpsons had the right idea with that parody of Steve Jobs), I bought it because of the Apps that are available for it first and as a MP3/Podcast player second.
One more thing... If you'll read my signature, you can clearly tell what I think of Steve Jobs. He may have cancer and I feel sorry that he has cancer as my grandmother died of cancer five years ago, but at the same time I don't like the guy because he's treated a lot of people like dirt including his own daughter and biological father. Look at it this way, he's acquired a lot of bad karma over the years and somebody's come to collect!
