Cash? =P

In terms of tech alone Apple products are fairly expensive.

They're fairly expensive but not as much as people would lead you to believe. Macs come pretty jam-packed with both hardware and software features that are only found on the highest end Windows equipment (if at all).

It's just a matter of deciding whether those features are something you want or need.

My MBP was pricey (just a hair over two grand) but it came with a top of the line i7 chip, 8 gigs of RAM, OS X, iLife, a beautiful 1680 15.4" screen, aluminum casing (with the best trackpad on the market by a country mile), HD camera, Thunderbolt, blah blah blah. If you were to price out a similar Windows machine, it would have run me well over $1500 for the same hardware but it would still be missing Mac's awesome iLife software package and it still wouldn't have that awesome trackpad.

It's just a matter of what you value in a computer and what you don't. Macs certainly aren't for everybody but they have served me well for a long time.

The screen is gorgeous. I can't wait to see the new MBP which is rumored to have the HiDPI screen at double the resolution (and it will be thinner because they're ripping out the optical drive). I won't buy the first gen model because so few programs are going to support the new res but after a year or so, I'll jump in and replace my current model with one.

Becoz Apple products are so shiny, stilysh and white.

The only, and only Apple product I liked in my life was the old iPod with the click wheel, I still have my iPod video from 2006. The new touch screen based iPods suck

Wrong. They don't have the top notch specs, they never did. But they have specs that work very well as one system, software that works very well with this exact architecture, etc. That's why it's "expensive" but that is also why it is "better" in some ways (if you need a machine like this)

Apple was about performance, loading times, no need to handle your hard drives, no need to defragment, always the full power and no system crashes. You also don't need to worry about safety unless you go public with your systems and use Windows networks. That's what made Apple big back in the day and that is why it is used in media and art. It's easier to use and wasn't in your way while you produced your art with blue or black screens, sudden shutdowns or whatever.

They became big with iPod and iPhone. Well, iPod ... nothing to say about that I guess. iPhone was a hit and is still okay. But back in the day your were "special" if you had one, now you are "special" if you don't ("special" because actually you are not sepcial at all because millions of people are like you) because you have the "special" Galaxy S2.

I won't argue about smartphones (it seems that's pretty much the only thing you are on about although you are talking about tech companies ....) but you are just like Apple-only or Samsung-only users - and they are both equally bad. Never ever try to even understand how other systems work and why they are designed that way. If you decide to be against something or think you are smarter than a lot of other people, why not be glad and proud, save your precious time and keep your greatness to yourself? Seriously.

Apple products?

They say they are

Man, a friend of mine from work pulled out a Zune that he had gotten from a friend when he was serving in Iraq. The thing had a billion songs on it and some episodes of Family Guy. I opened my big mouth and said I knew how to put movies on it. He's been on me ever since to do this. I've brought the Zune home with me a few times, acting like I couldn't figure it out. I brought it home again last Wednesday but I didn't try to figure the thing out until Monday.

Long story short, the Zune is awesome and I want one. This thing plays everything from my HDD--even converts the automatically. I was blind. So blind.

The original Zune was mediocre. Later versions started to kick ass.

The Zune's biggest failing was that Microsoft, as usual with them over the past 10+ years, was late to the party. The market had been decided and the Zune wasn't *better* enough to garner attention. Add in the fact that the Zune Store sucked ass with its strangling DRM, lack of content, and overall mediocrity that there was no reason for the public to really pay attention to the device. By the time MS got things sorted on the device, the iPhone market was closing the door on the standalone portable music market and completely shifting the customer paradigm with the launch of the App Store.

Which is why MS took the one outstanding feature of the Zune, its user interface, and put it on Windows Phone. But, again, Microsoft is running into a wall because they were two years late to the smartphone party with WP7.

I really wish they would get their shit together.

But don't you guys realize they milk the sh*t out of there brands aswell?

I mean the Ipad was big and did really well when released. But then less then a year later they slapped a camera on it and slightly upgrade the hardware then drove the price up as much as they could with it. Then the Ipad 3 or Ipad?? (have no idea why they just called it the same name as the original), they made the screen resolution better which barely made a difference to being with, most people wouldn't even notice the screen was always great on the Ipad 2, and of course slapped a high price tag on that and money in the bank, it's ridiculous, atleast try to introduce new useful features.

Same as there phones.

How much did they cost initially?  I just checked Amazon and I can't find one for less than $450!  I hoped it would be cheap since it's basically a dead product.  No such luck.