There's a lot of blame to go around:
- The press writes biased articles which are meant to generate "ad-clicks".
- The readers check out the articles and swallow every word without exercising any critical thinking.
- Wall Street pumps the products to high heaven, in order to increase the company's stock price.
- Consumers buy the products, despite the exorbitant price and lack of keyboard, Ethernet, HDMI, USB, microSD and Flash!
- People -- like yourself -- go online to write posts damning the product that they've admitted to own.
I have a different analogy:
A guy builds a "vehicle" for $50. He manages to keep his production costs down by removing "non-essential" components from the vehicle such as: doors, windshield, passenger seats, trunk and air-conditioning. He touts his vehicle as the thinnest and most innovative ever made! He calls his vehicle a "car" and prices it at $1,000, claiming it's an absolute bargain! His marketing department convinces people that this so-called "car" is gonna make everyone look hip and cool. Result? Huge profits!
Yes , its simple and easy.
That's exactly what Apple uses as logic.
Cycle is also good for health , right ? You can market it in 1000 ways.
Things you said about cycle is true , there is no brainwashing in that.
It offers exactly what being advertised.I don't see how that's brainwashing.
I never seen Apple showing an Ad as hipsters except Nokia/Samsung who encourage that mentality.
Except the fact you forgot many things , like Industrial Design and Quality of the service and longer software updates , more better quality apps etc.
For example , if you purchase OS X Mavericks for $20 , you also get fonts worth $1000 which many people don't see.
Don't see Apple products as hardware wrapped in a package but look at services offered and user experience.