Answer to "Why Apple is popular" question The question: http://www.italki.com/groups/2944/topic/19887.htm I'm guessing the answer is very simple: marketing. Technology advances in leaps. First you discover something simple - which in tact causes huge changes in our everyday life. Once man discovered electricity, over a short timespan telegraph, phone and various other electrical devices overflowed the markets. There were new things to research, things to invent and things to promote and sell. Now, the era of inventions has ended. Science needs another great discovery to start the next leap. Can you recall any great achievement in science the mankind did over last 50 years? The last one was probably a computer. Yeah, CPU speeds are increasing, computers becoming smaller with each year, and so on. But nobody really invents anything. They are just enhancing what was discovered more than 50 years ago. Problem is, people always want something they read in fantasy books - teleportation, time travel, antigravity, lasers, space-travel, etc. - but science cant give it to them (yet). Still, scientists are putting some effort into researching and selling what they had researched for money. So, here is when Apple comes in play. Instead of trying to invent another bit of something that people want - they dictate the people what they 'really' should be wishing for. "Why would you need those nasty little PC's when you can buy a nice whitish Mac?" "Why would you need your old MP3 player when iPod is much cuter (while doing same thing being 3 times more expensive)?" "Omg, you are still using simple phone? What you 'really' want is a touchscreen phone! Yes, really. We guarantee you need it and cant live without it." "Look what can you do with your new iPad! You can even crack nuts with it! And no no no, you do not need bluetooth." Then, the simple-minded part of customers rushes to buy the 'kewl new devices', boosting their popularity. Being popular leads to being bought by other customers. Everyone is happy but nobody really needs any of that stuff. If you own any apple product try asking yourself - what would you loose if you didn't buy it or if you bought a 3 times cheaper alternative? Was it really worth it money? The answer in 99% cases will be 'no'. The funny part is where your money really go. The money you spend on apple products mostly go to the marketing departments. And marketing department does very simple thing - makes you feel happy that you own an Apple product.