Anyone who's been awake in the past few years knows what a crock of kool-aid you're drinking, friend. The biggest counter to your Apple Apathy theme is their aggressive "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" advertising campaign. If Apple was so confident in its products and pricing, and was so oblivious to market competition and market share as you boldly suggest, it would not have aggressively maligned the PC and Vista in particular in those ads. Its confidence would have precluded the beckoning of Windows users to try the Mac. They wouldn't have even bothered with Boot Camp and all the marketing suggesting folks could run Windows on the Mac. One could argue to take your premise to the extreme and presume Apple would never have shifted to Intel processors.
Like I said, I've been drinking the Kool-Aid for 27 years. In that time, I've witnessed countless individuals predict Apple's demise and countless consumers post silly things to websites (and before that, newsgroups and magazine reader letters) claiming they know what's BEST for Apple. And, here we are, 27 years later. Apple has $25+ billion in the bank, no debt, and yet people STILL think they know better than Apple. Sorry, but I find it pretty darn funny!
Furthermore, aggressive marketing and switching to Intel doesn't change anything I said. What's your point? Apple is very confident in the superiority of their products. They market aggressively. They're not oblivious to market competition. They've been fighting since DAY ONE. They're a business, after all. Your comments are hardly a rebuttal of my argument. You're merely stating the obvious.
Apple isn't going to open themselves up to clones. They're NEVER going to license OS X. NEVER. They aren't going to open the Touch platform to other stores and software distribution methods. They're (probably - I'm not 100% confident on this one!) not going to release any sort of "cheap" mini-tower. Etc. No matter how hard a small vocal minority whines, these things aren't going to happen. That was my point (which you obviously missed). It has nothing to do with marketing their products, switching to Intel, etc. These are completely different topics.
No sir, there are many purist-apologists like you which seem to forget Apple is a business, albeit successful, that I think (despite rumors to the contrary) really IS influenced by consumer market share and opinion. I'm thankful they are - as I've noticed Apple RAM prices have come down to reasonable levels for consumers ... have you?
Sure, and I'm glad they've dropped. But, again, what's your point?
When the iPod/iPhone sales ebb to some value below which it can no longer comfortably shore up the profit margins to shareholders, I suspect Apple will disappoint folks like you. When it begins its next wave of endearing Mac commercials, they won't be targeting luxury car drivers and spoiled brat college students (Apple scored this demographic years ago). They'd be wise to target a few more groups like Soccer Moms and Gamers (the REAL ones). There are enthusiasts that would love to buy a Mac (price be damned, even) - if there were more options in upgrade other than the RAM (for the most part).
They don't care about these groups. How many times do they have to make it clear? Where games are concerned, it's a chicken-egg problem. Unless game developers support the platform, why would Apple build a sick gaming machine? And, so far, game developers have only moderately (at best) embraced the Mac. I'm sure that, if and when, Mac gaming gains moment, Apple will deliver a great product. But it's neither here nor there at this point. And, for the record, I find the current Apple hardware satisfactory for gaming. I'm not a hardcore gamer by any means, but this notion that Macs can't run games is ludicrous. I won't argue for a moment that more powerful gaming hardware can be had on the PC side, but if price is no object, buy a Mac Pro.
Apple isn't DULL, er DELL, or any other generic box manufacturer. They're all about design. They spend a ton of $$$ on R&D while every other PC manufacturer just slaps cheap hardware together in basically the same cases they've been using for decades. Apple is not interested in building the cheapest machine possible. They sell an EXPERIENCE. It starts with your purchase at one of their stores. Can you go into a DELL store and take free training classes? Oops, what DELL store? If something goes wrong, you can speak with someone in the US, not "Sally" in India. You can bring your machine into an Apple Store and get one-on-one assistance from someone who actually knows the products and isn't reading off a script. And if your machine requires repair, it's the most hassle-free experience I've ever had. All of this costs money.
So, my point remains. Either get on board, or shut up and buy a PC. You have a choice.
