Man, sure are a lot of folks who don't care for Apple in the Apple subforum
I used to love tinkering with my windows mobile phone, installing custom ROMs, etc. Then I got out of college, got a girlfriend, etc. I don't have time for the BS anymore. I use Apple products because they just work. Doubly so if you use an all-Apple ecosystem. Sure, other products "can" do feature X, Y, Y but how much time will I waste installing drivers, troubleshooting codecs, installing custom ROMs, and so on? If I plug in my digital camera iPhoto just opens, imports the pictures, sorts them into events based on date, tags peoples faces, pumps them over PhotoStream and they just show up on my phone and iPad. I don't have to think about it, click on any dialog boxes, or otherwise waste any energy messing with it. When family comes over and asks about wedding pictures I just grab my iPhone, tap photos, tap AirPlay, then bam.... I can show them on my TV. No muss, no fuss. When I create an appointment on my iPad, it just shows up on my phone. When I buy a new game on my Mac, it just shows up on my phone and iPad. My friend wants to see that new app I was talking about? I just hit AirPlay, Mirror on my iPad and he can see what I'm doing on the TV.
I used to build my own gaming PCs and upgrade every six months. I was the first person in my area to have dual Voodoo2 SLI, Quake was my playground Now? I just play an Xbox 360 'cause I can just turn it on and play for an hour and move on with my life.
Of course now that I have an app in the iOS app store I am a somewhat biased source as every iOS user is another potential customer
Use whatever works for you buy please don't pretend Apple is a fad or just marketing or whatever. They make a certain value proposition about simplicity that a lot of customers find very attractive. If they are failing then I'd love to be that big of a failure!