Either way the % market share of Apple is on the decline thanks to the onset of competition and/or better products....

I hate apple, hate the whole system they have and will never buy an iPhone.

The iPad is actually brilliant--what it's useful for is amazing.  The only problem is they didn't open it up to user hardware/firmware upgrades and third party development.

I can speak for the Nexus 7...a great device at a fantastic price, but the ecosystem for it was pretty much terrible.  Maybe it's improved since then, and I'm sure it'll keep improving.  It only worked if all you wanted was a great browser and decent OS.

If I had the cash I'd prefer an iPad...and I don't buy Apple.

At least with Windows RT tabs every single app is built for a tablet, a current version of the OS, uses the resources available...

Can't much say that with Android (or iOS, though I'm sure it's better off.)

I have no Apple products but I don't exactly hate Apple, either.  However, I certainly don't like Apple's advertising strategies, marketing strategies or attitude:

I don't like Apple's advertising because it is smug and makes out that its products are the best and superior to everyone else's, that they are must have items, because if you don't have them you're not one of the in-crowd and therefore far less acceptable, like some kind of social pariah or something.  So, Apple makes some quality products, but its advertising need not make out that nobody else does, and that if buy a competitor's product you're an idiot.

I don't like Apple's locking in or out of things. If I buy music or movies, I want to be able to play them on a device of my choosing, not like iTunes have to go out and purchase another copy to play on another device or elsewhere.  I don't like it that perfectly good and respectable software is locked out of the Mac ecosystem, thus restricting the users choice to Apple software alone or having to do without. 

I don't like Apple because it is law suit happy and sues anyone and everyone with even remotely similar ideas and will use any means, fair or unfair, to win.  It's like Apple is trying to eliminate competition so it can climb to the top of the heap, not because its products are better, but that there is no viable competition in that specific area because it has been wiped out.

I don't like the fact that it gets all of its products manufactured for something like $2.50 an hour but sells them at premium prices like they were made for $25.00 an hour.  The savings it makes on manufacturing offshore [as compared to onshore with more costly union labour] are simply not passed on to the consumer.

Yes, and I've had Apple fanbois try to alter/influence my way thinking with various arguments before... as you can see, they failed.  So if you're thinking it, don't bother, orright!

Starkers - It's not like Microsoft is any better.

I'm trying to avoid companies that use child labor in production.  The Foxconn / Apple connection is well documented.

Maybe, maybe not, but Microsoft doesn't come across as being so smug or up itself.  For me it is the lesser of two evils....and at least I can afford a PC with Windows on it. Unlike a Mac with its locked in system and little or no room for upgrades or expansion!  Besides, I can build my own Windows PC to my own specifications, with plenty of scope for upgrades and expansion.  Can't build a Mac.

I think I pulled any desire to associate with Apple when I saw they'd invested in Suicide catch nets.....

Yeah, that certainly tarnished its image moreso in my eyes.  There was talk that Apple was addressing or had addressed the concerns of production line employees and staff, but the nets are still up. That says to me that Apple hasn't done enough.  I did see somewhere that a spokesperson for Apple reportedly said that the company preferred workers didn't jump to their deaths, but for every one that did, well there was a 100 more outside queuing up for his job.  Don't know if that's true or not, but regardless, I won't be buying any Apple products any time soon.

If that were true I expect it is extremely likely he was pushed....didn't jump...and is no longer employed as a spokesperson.

From what little I read [it was just a quip in a small article], the person who supposedly said it was speaking to one of his colleagues as an aside during a tour of the factory, and was overhead.  Apparently it left him somewhat red faced and having to do some serious backpedaling as he apologised to the 'eavesdropper' and her colleagues.

Like I said, don't know if it's true or not, given the 'great' integrity of some journalists.

Foxconn is also Chinas biggest manufacturer iirc, and Apple is pretty much the only company REQUIRING the info be made public.

For all you know, everyone else is doing worse...and not reporting it at all.

I dislike Apple, but pointing these things out just seems like grasping at straws.