[ZeroGravitas]

I like a lot of things about Apple, and I've bought a lot of their products and often recommended them to friends (still do, only recently bought my parents an iPad).

I can honestly say that their profits have never been something I've been impressed by, and indeed, for most of that time they didn't have impressive profits, so if I was impressed by profits I would have bought and recommended Windows PCs instead.

[sjwright]

> > > > They set out to make the most money

> > > they set out to build the best device

Surely it's equal parts of both: Apple try to make the best products (in order to) make the most money (in order to) make the best products (in order to) make the most money (in order to) make the best products (in order to) etc etc...

In the sandpit where Apple plays, you can't have one without the other. A beautiful symbiosis of business and craft.

[ZeroGravitas]

It would be nice if that were true, but actually network effects and path dependency mean that the best products will rarely "win" in IT markets where those factors dominate (see arguments about who has the bigger app store, or developer base, or patent portfolio, or pile of money).

I hope people don't lose their sense of surprise that Apple is "winning" with nice products or start to think it's inevitable, history tells us otherwise.