Curse You, Apple.

I think it's a really good thing we don't have an Apple Store in the town I live in.

Why?

Because I have the techy's fundamental need for the latest and the greatest gadgets. To me, this includes almost everything Apple produces. I don't know why everything they touch is magical; it just is. There's just something about, say, the iPhone that's so alluring. Some might say it's just the looks of the phone that make it so much more popular than other phones. I'd say this definitely plays a part. I currently own an LG Voyager, and it's just so much more clunky and dated-looking, even though it's only around six months old. The Palm Pre really just isn't attractive at all to me, though it sounds to have some really good features. Looks have come to be a huge part of the gadget market, whether it be phones or laptops or music players. And this is a primary reason why Apple has such a corner on the market.

But it's not the entire reason. After all, there are now many phones from Samsung or LG or plenty of other companies that emulate the smooth styling of the iPhone. The difference is the App Store. When it first came out, the iPhone was just another phone; good looking, but light on features other smartphone owners boasted about. The App Store changed all of that. Instead of being just a phone, the iPhone could now be anything. It's limited basically by the imagination of the programmers making the apps. The iPhone is now a competitive handheld gaming device, a VoiP phone, if you wish, a to-do list, a connection to Twitter and Facebook, even a newspaper if you want it to be. Other phone companies are trying to catch up on the app market, but they really have no chance. Apple has cornered the app concept as firmly as they have the digital music market. Sure, there are other retailers selling music, just as there will be other retailers selling apps. The situation is the same: Apple will be the largest and most successful for a good long time.

So for all those who cut down Apple fanboys, consider that Apple has taken over the market. In most everything they do. For whatever reason, the public eats up whatever Steve throws out at them, and someone's going to have to be very very good to usurp that throne. Sure, there are flaws with Apple's products. But they're shiny.