No Stupid Questions

The reasons you hate these things are the reasons other people love them.

Other people are not you. They have different preferences and values. They like what you hate.

I can answer this from the perspective of someone who, until 18 months ago, was all-in on Apple stuff.

The short answer is: As long as all of your devices are reasonably new and running the latest software, they're all really good at talking to each other. Got a Mac and an iPad? Great, you can use Universal Control to operate the iPad using your Mac's keyboard and mouse/trackpad. And that is a genuinely useful technology. Got something on your phone that you want to share with your partner on the TV? AirPlay it across to Apple TV. And so, and so forth.

Thing is, once you're in that situation, you're kinda stuck. If your Mac ages out of OS feature support, the only option is to replace the Mac if you want it to match the interconnectivity features of your new iPhone. So the answer in that situation is to buy a new Mac, one that supports the new features available in the newest OS. At that point, your options are to either shell out £1000+ on a new Mac, or completely change your workflow to one that can be achieved using open source or paid alternatives. The vast majority of people have neither the time nor the inclination to set up things like that, so they factor in the cost of a new computer, phone, or iPad every few years.

But Apple's real secret sauce is that - and judging by the attitude you're swinging around in your post, OP, you're not going to like this - they make REALLY good hardware.

My primary computer is still a 15" M2 MacBook Air. That thing is super thin, super light, completely silent to use and has never given me a moment's trouble in three years that I didn't somehow inflict on myself. Using Crossover, I can play Windows games on it just as easily as using Steam/Proton on my Linux PC. I can play RDR2 on my fanless ARM laptop and get a perfectly fine 30fps when I'm not at home. The battery is three years old but still gives me a full day of use. Sure, it only has two ports, but both of them are Thunderbolt 4, and it has a dedicated Magsafe charging port.

I still have my 2011 MacBook Pro at home. It's currently running Debian and is still rock solid. Looking a little rough around the edges these days, but still a perfectly usable computer - that's 15 years old.

Apple has inherently worse hardware

This just isn't true. At all. The build quality of their hardware is the best in the business.

Sure, they effectively paywall things like 120hz screens to the higher end Pro models, but they have enough market research telling them that people who buy a mid range iPhone don't care about refresh rates, or even know what they are. Why spend money on a QoL upgrade that the user will never notice?

But yeah, their cost for memory and storage is downright criminal, and always has been. The only thing that's changed in recent(ish) years is that now everything is soldered or proprietary, they've made it effectively impossible to upgrade it yourself at a far, far lower cost. And that's incredibly shitty.

These days I'm primarily a Linux user. My work PC is Kubuntu, my home server Debian, my gaming PC CachyOS. None of those machines are as easy to use as my Macbook running macOS 15. They can (theoretically) achieve more, but in the 2 years I've been using Linux I've had to teach myself how to use a command line; something I very, very rarely needed to when I just used macOS alone.

But I reached a point where I got sick of Apple's bullshit, their performative stance on progressive politics that didn't match the image of Tim Apple licking Trump's ring. So I traded in my iPhone 13 mini for a Pixel 9 onto which I immediately installed GrapheneOS. That one act completely broke the spell of the interconnected nature of Apple products for me. I still have an iPad mini, but 90% of its use is as a peripheral for my MacBook, where it does still have genuine utility.

So yeah, Apple don't do anything particularly groundbreaking, they just make good hardware running software that's mostly good and useful. People, it may shock you to learn, generally prefer to use devices that don't need much tinkering to keep them running.

1. Apple has always designed things for people who want to do things without having to be a technologist. For which I will always credit them, massively.

2. Apple has always designed things to work together seamlessly. Again, massive kudos, even though I condemn their using this to lock people in.

Then there's Job's cult of personality, marketing Apple as for people who are better than the plebes.

I've never been a fan of Apple as a company, but I've always given massive credit for the good ideas behind making things that just work.

I’m a nearly everything apple user. It started with a macbook air that I was gifted. It was an incredibly stable laptop that basically just always worked. I had no troubles doing things like finding the printers in my department or the library (something which was stupid frustrating with my prior laptop). I had that laptop without any other apple products for 7-8 years.

The iPhone started my move into everything else. I used to have a fit bit but when the battery died, I got the apple watch because it was so much easier to connect/keep connected. I got airpods for the same reason.

I want stuff that works the way I expect it to work and works all the time. Everything I’ve had is very stable.

One of the funniest essays I ever read was by porn actress Bobbi Starr. It was about porn's addiction to Apple products. Someone copied it from an issue of FOX Magazine.

The idea was that a girl could shoot, edit, and distribute all her own stuff on Apple devices.

People love to feel superior and having blue text bubbles does that. Not green text bubbles (yuck) but blue text bubbles. It was that easy! /s

Why is it that, when Apple has inherently worse hardware

Uhm ... no? They have some of the best hardware, it's just expensive.

It may be hard to believe, but some people actually buy apple products because they like them.

Apple isn't a brand. It's a cult. They don't have to compete with actual market - they just need to build stuff that justifies cultists.

How it started? From Steve Jobs. After he departured from Apple it went into slow death until he went back and make iPod and then iPhone. Cult of personality. It works in US for some reason. Same with Elon Musk, really. And with Trump, and bunch of other public figures.

Apple actually learned their lesson, and after Jobs was gone, they targeted their marketing to shift public worship from him to the brand.

Their products are shit gimmicky pretty looking overpriced garbage that have few redeeming qualities (like iPhone camera which is really good actually) but otherwise they don't compete with the general market.

It would probably be easier to answer the intent behind the question, if the question itself wasn’t embellished with wild exaggeration.

"How has capitalism tricked the masses into vapid consumerism?"

They have an interconnected proprietary ecosystem. This is simultaneously one of their biggest strengths and biggest weaknesses.

I think there are many reasons, some of them are:

• Apple has a very straightforward design that is instantly recognizable. People love that, it's the same people who want to have a "great unboxing experience"
• They combine hardware and software - it is not Apple vs Android but Apple vs Samsung, Motorola, Sony and whatever; on the mobile and desktop market there is so much crappy hardware. Apple users just buy the BigMac they already know, even if there are much better burgers around
• you always never get pure Android, it is bloated by phone manufactures. You have the Samsung app store and the xiaomi app security checker and other bloat.
• Apple knows marketing very well, they tricked their customers into thinking apple cares about privacy. If you only have the Google surveillance mother ship as an alternative, they rather choose the product that promises to care about their data
• Windows is a huge pile of crap. It is such a frustrating and bad OS that has annoyed people for decades. Yes there is Linux, but it usually does not come preinstalled
• apple users join a cult when they buy Apple products. It is very important for people to "be different" or to "be smarter"
• by paying a higher price, people have the feeling of buying "premium" (which by itself is a marketing word)

I could go on and on and on. I have never used an apple product in my life and am a Linux FOSS enthusiast by the way. But I think it is pretty east to understand.

Think about the average person. Now, remember that half of all people are less intelligent than that.

As of last year, approximately 57% of US Americans were iPhone users.

I think I've said enough.