Apple has to be leaps and bounds ahead of the competition. Cause if Apple ever made a product just as good at the same price as the competition, would not buy the Apple product. A lot of Apple's sales are simply cause of the fact that the others (who they want to buy from) are not worth their salt. If they ever are worth their salt then Apple might not see so many sales from Apple.
And by worth their salt I mean on par with the Apple products in terms of quality, innovation and price.
You do realize that making statements like "leaps and bounds ahead of the competition" is purely subjective thinking, right? Sale numbers don't always = best product. Want proof ? The new 3D Justin Bieber movie is getting something like 85% on Rotten Tomatoes. It will likely rake in huge sales numbers as well. Yet somehow, I sincerely doubt that Bieber or his movie is for everybody out there. Sure ain't for me.
Apple has had nothing but time on their side for the last few years, with ZERO competition. Blackberry ? Haha... Right. Nokia... PFFFT. Windows ?! LerLz. The Android platform is the first one to really give the iPhone a good run and this is a great thing for everybody. If the boys and girls over in Android land weren't doing anything to get Apple's attention, you can be assured that the slow to the market features which the iPhone usually gets, would be slower to get there than usual.
Let's not forget something and be realistic for a moment. Apple tends to take already existing ideas and likes to embellish upon them, make them better (with their own limitations of course, since they have to keep you in the walled garden). The original iPod wasn't the first Mp3 player on the market, and it wasn't even the best sounding or feature packed. But Apple had a lot of marketing leverage and made the product something different because of how the hardware fit so well with its dummy proof software.
This has always been their way. But not everybody wants their food spoon fed to them. I digress. Again, I respect what Apple has done with the iPhone, but it is far from being leaps and bounds better than anything else on the market. I have enough friends and family with them (iPhones) to know that after a short period of time, it bores me to death, and I'm much happier going back to my EVO. I of course realize the crowd I'm speaking to, but you guys should also realize that yours is not the definitive word on what is or isn't the "best". There's plenty of room on the playing field for everybody to play nicely, IMO.
I was thinking about the iPad in this respect, too. And wondering about its ability to let me work how I need to with my photographs, without the use or need of iPhoto, because I won't be using it, for sure. But how else am I to upload, keyword and tag photos on it ? I hope there's something aside from iPhoto because if not, my will to get an iPad will have gone out the window, and I'll be looking to get an Android based tablet instead.
Doug