It is that some people like the design, machining, and quality that goes into the production.

With Apple v the others it is a similar issue, except Apple is not much more expensive, or the same as an ugly pc.

Also many like the shell that Apple provides. From what I understand it is more intuitive than their competitors. Also upgrading and adding stuff seems easier, not so much having to figure out about compatibility and installing. Printers etc just seem to work when plugged in.

I have to wonder why anyone who considers themself a liberal would use an IPhone/Pad, etc.

Must be that they voted for Obama... lol

I would wonder why anyone who considers themselves a liberal would want to dictate which phone or consumer goods they would buy. Google is a multibillion dollar company that has been charged with scanning peoples computers while photographing for google maps, and storing that illegally obtained material.

Would I tell people never to get an android phone because Google engages in criminal acts, no. The level of corporate criminality that one decides is worthy of boycott should remain personal.

Amazing that you would question someones "liberalism" because they use Apple products.

As the first major computer company to make Open Source development a key part of its ongoing software strategy, Apple remains committed to the Open Source development model. Major components of Mac OS X, including the UNIX core, are made available under Apple's Open Source license, allowing developers and students to view source code, learn from it and submit suggestions and modifications. In addition, Apple uses software created by the Open Source community, such as the HTML rendering engine for Safari, and returns its enhancements to the community.

Apple believes that using Open Source methodology makes Mac OS X a more robust, secure operating system, as its core components have been subjected to the crucible of peer review for decades. Any problems found with this software can be immediately identified and fixed by Apple and the Open Source community.

Apple chose the strategy long ago of valuing a certain user experience, based on a common user interface, hardware and software reliability, and system security, over market share, believing that the market share at a certain price point will be enough to give them a profitable company. Yes, it is about control of those factors. The balancing act seems to work well enough for them. If it doesn't, I suspect they will change it.

And over here, where I was handed a cellphone (local to not have to hassle with incompatibilities of U.S. cellphones) as were all students and other faculty in this program, I have become more firmly convinced to resist getting into the cellphone culture upon my return, to resist giving out my number to more than immediate family.  Why?

Because the fool in charge of putting out the phonelist for the program here screwed it up, with lots of wrong numbers -- and listed my number as the one for the hottest guy student in the group.  So I have been subjected, with the time difference, to not only post-midnight calls from his mother but also from young women here and back home, not only post-midnight but also in predawn hours and every hour in between.   And even when the phonelist was corrected, the careless and thoughtless use of cellphones by these and others continued ("oh, that's right, you told me yesterday that this was a wrong number . . . oh, oops, giggle") and convinced me that they will not get to put me in their power.

Add those calls to the incredible noise level of this culture, and I can hardly wait to get home for my first good night's sleep in a month -- and home is in a student housing area, the most densely populated area of a major U.S. city!  But it will be peaceful nirvana compared to the noise here, in a supposedly bucolic small town from a medieval time and in a land far away. . . .