34 thousand iPhones sold every hour, 24 hours a day.
That's nothing short of amazing, especially considering the competition.

I was always under the impression they were World leaders in market share but apparently they trail behind Samsung and have been for some time.

Truly amazing where all the cash comes from to keep buying these latest hi tec gadgets, yet almost everybody seems to be able to afford one, no matter how hard up they claim to be.

Whenever I use my Spanish mobile, pay as go, which cost me a tenner and does the job, any Spanish people sitting near me nudge each other and start giggling before returning to their Iphones.

I was offered one as a Christmas present but turned it down because of all that swiping nonsense, I can always use my wife’s whenever she stops swiping,

I inherited an Iphone from my daughter when she up graded. I keep redialling numbers without realising it. Much preferred my previous 'phone that I broke.
Having said that my wife loves her ipad.

As a tech industry follower, I find the current prominence of Apple interesting to say the least. A very unlikely company to morph itself into the front end consumer driven mass production leader that it now is.

Prior to 2001, they were dwarfed by Microsoft who effectively captured the PC market. Although not as popular, Apple Macs always had a strong presence in the printing industry. They also attracted a niche following with Apple logo.
In spite of this, they were considered to be an ailing business. That is until they invented the letter I.

I'm always fascinated to watch people in supermarkets filling their trolley with branded goods, even though many own brands are as good, often better and certainly cheaper. Same with Apple. The power of marketing eh!.

I used to have an iPhone, and I openly admit is was a jolly good piece of kit.

But it was inadvertently broken - details are irrelevant

So, in a panic, I bought one of those €149 no-name Chinese 5" Android phones fully unlocked with 2 sims and a slot to add up to 32MB of cheap storage -and with all the usual bells & whistles.

And whilst it's not nearly the "quality" of the iPhone - both in terms of display and the user interface, it does just about everything the iPhone did for a fraction of the price. And if this one gets smashed, I can afford to buy another one. I've seen same thing for as little as €99 lately.

I just bought a cheap 10" pad the other day for €69. It's shockingly good considering the price.

What I think is amazing about Apple is that even with that kind of fierce competition, they always manage to stay on top. That's really, really brilliant, and very very hard to do.

Same with me. I actually bought mine in Carrefour (of all places) last time I was in Spain. Excellent battery life. I consider it a bargain.

Apple products are of the highest quality and design. Even their packaging is superb. That said they are very expensive compared to comparable products. The answer to that lies in their huge profit margin.

It is a triumph of marketing to maintain a 39% margin in a hugely competitive market.

Their greatest marketing ploy is the Apple "Eco System" where all their products complement each other and share so many features. For example, if my iPhone rings when I am in the study in front of my iMac, the computer rings and I can take the call there.

If I start writing an email on the iMac I can continue it on the iPad. If I take a photo on my iPhone, it is immediately available on the other devices.

These are seriously useful features which are mainly unique to Apple. Once you buy your second Apple device you begin to realise this and now you are locked in.

If someone gave me the most expensive Android phone on the market I would sell it - it would be next to useless for me.

I wish I had bought some Apple shares ten years ago!

Well they sold them in the Big River Company

I have never been a fan of apple being a oldie who really just wants a phone to be just that.
I have a Samsung smart phone and probably use less that 20% of what it is capable of.
However the next generation of lightweight tablets with large screens equal to laptops will be a different matter.
The serious and business user needs more than a 10in screen with limited software capability.
I do not care if it can take photos, play music, films etc but if it performs better or at least equal to a good mid range lap top then that company will have a winner and leave the rest in their wake.

We keep hearing about Amazon, Starbucks, Amazon and the like because of their propensity to tax avoidance.

Apparently Apple have never paid Corporation or Income tax in any tax jurisdiction in the world and have a cash mountain the size of an average sized national economy. Apple say they have paid all the taxes "they are liable to" - note the weasel words, it's the whole point of tax avoidance, it is 'legal' somewhere.

Personally I have never bought from Apple, not even from iTunes, because of the Apple Eco system - I have always wanted freedom of choice and instinctively dislike the Apple hegemony. When I worked in IT I was always a proponent of 'open' systems and I even sat on a couple of EU ISSS and ISO work groups. Apple was never represented, IFAIR, although Microsoft were inevitably there.

The key word being "apparently".

There was a recent story about how Apple Europe, registered and paying tax in Ireland (a comparatively low EU tax jurisdiction, which for some, makes it dubious in the first place), was selling products in other EU countries through their stores registered in those countries, and claiming to make no profit (and paying almost no taxes on those profits), by using a common loophole of charging those stores in other countries an unprofitably high amount for the products they purchase from Apple Europe (Ireland). Effectively, it enables them to legally pay the lower tax rate of Ireland instead of the higher tax rates elsewhere. It's a common loophole and one that quite a few companies use. Because they can.

But nowhere has anyone ever been able to provide one shred of evidence that even suggests "Apple have never paid Corporation or Income tax in any tax jurisdiction in the world". Do you think Ireland or the US (US/California amongst the highest corporate income tax jurisdictions in the world) stands idly by and says "yeah, Ok, what the hell, you don't have to pay anything - because we like you" ..????

So I reckon you always call hacienda and ask "How can I pay as much tax as possible?". Think about it.

And as for the "open standards" argument - at least Apple adopts the "open standards" that Microsoft likes to keep re-inventing and solely implementing in their own products. It's not exactly a secret that developers have traditionally been burdened with having to develop two platforms in any web application - a) Open Standards and b) for users of Microsoft products. Microsoft products are legendary for being incompatible with "open standards".

I have also always been a strong supporter of the Open System concept, which has fuelled unselfish innovation and common standards.

What amazes me is how Apple stayed under the radar in terms of predators. They remained independent because none of the big IT players at the time were interested in Apple's limited niche market. Very few predicted their change of direction in the early 2000's, where they effectively became a consumer electronics company.

Although they have evolved into a highly successful consumer brand, history won't see Apple as a driving force in terms of core IT innovation. Many other companies have had their 'inventions' adopted as industry standards, which has promoted the rapid growth of 'Open IT' that we see today.

I think that's a tad unfair. I admit that Microsoft has not fully adopted some standards, but their protocols are broadly in line with the wider industry.
Internet Explorer has been the major bug-bear, although this has largely converged with other browsers with the adoption of HTML5. However I accept your point.

In terms of the Internet, I think it's fair to say that neither company can hold a candle to the contribution from other key industry players.

I've never liked the seemingly fat profits that the likes of Apple et al make. Legally correct but morally wrong.
Having said that, we have an i-Mac, an ipad for when we go away, and my wife has an i-phone. Very good bits of kit. No virus software needed, etc.
Despite all this technology, I've yet to discover an effective product that will clean the white Apple keyboard. Not even the Apple shops seem to sell anything.