In article , J. P. Gilliver
(John) wrote:


Nospam has a huge bias for Apple products, where he *thinks* (erroneously)
that I have a bias against them - but I actually don't. I just *understand*
them for what they are, and more importantly, I understand that Apple isn't
in the business of making the best products - they're in the business
of making the most money off their customers - which they do very well.

Not _entirely_; they also want to keep tight control of things, so that
any one thing their users do doesn't break things for that user. I
personally don't like being subject to such control (Windows seems to be
going the same way), but I do see the advantages - for both Apple and a
(large?) proportion of their users.

not quite.

apple has defaults that work best for most people, but those can easily
be overridden if one prefers.

I _do_ also find their products
vastly overpriced, even allowing for the - probably not insignificant -
costs of maintaining the environment as I've just described.

nope.

prices of apple products are competitive with other products of similar
specs, often less expensive.

As an avowed freeware and freedom junkie, Apple's business and
technical
models are the antithesis of mine. However, I use Apple products in the
schools that I teach at, and I give Apple phones as gifts, and I've

That's an interesting one - why do you? You can get an Android 'phone of
similar or better technical spec. for a lot less than any given iPhone;

nope.

priced of android phones and iphones with similar specs are about the
same, and sometimes an iphone costs *less*.

for example, the very popular galaxy s8 is $724/£689:
https://www.samsung.com/us/explore/galaxy-s8/buy/
http://www.samsung.com/uk/smartphones/galaxy-s8/

the larger galaxy note 8 starts at $929/£869:
https://www.samsung.com/us/galaxy/note8/buy/
http://www.samsung.com/uk/smartphones/galaxy-note8/

compare to the iphone 8 and 8+, at $699/£699 and $799/£799.
https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-iphone/iphone-8
https://www.apple.com/uk/shop/buy-iphone/iphone-8

the google pixel 2 and 2xl are $649 and $849:
https://store.google.com/us/config/pixel_2?hl=en-US

andy rubin, who created android, just released the essential, at $699,
with an add-on 360 degree camera for an additional $179:
https://shop.essential.com/products/phone

there are even higher priced android phones, such as the red hydrogen,
for $1200 or $1600, depending on aluminum or titanium.
http://www.red.com/hydrogen

there are certainly phones that cost less than all of those, but that's
because they have lesser specs.

for instance, the least expensive iphone is the iphone se for
$349/£349. it's not as capable as an iphone 8, which is why it costs
less.