Your implication is that purchasers were being stupid, which you verified. Indicating that I and a dozen friends and family are stupid does, in fact, get my ire up.
No, envy that the product you believe is inferior is vastly, vastly outselling the one you like.
If you are interested in being civil, then do not act the part of the grand inquisitor, trying to draw out the dire inner thoughts of others so that you can then be justifiably outraged at them. If you avoid starting fights, you don't have to get your ire up. You can just let things slide. Of course, I don't think you actually are all that interested in civility.
I certianly didn't call you or your family or any particular person stupid. And let me go ahead and head off your obligatory rebuttal: interpreting "consumers aren't savvy" or "people pay too much attention to branding" as an attack on you and your loved ones is not a sensible extrapolation.
As to a product outselling the one I like, I am fairly certain that I have not indicated a preference to date. Rather, what I have indicated is that lack of diversity in the market is not healthy. It's a monopoly of the consumers' making.
Your opinion on what constitutes a better product is dripping with a sense that yours is the one that is right and anyone who doesn't agree is essentially a sheep who doesn't research products before purchase and only listens to others when making buying choices.
OK, you've got it partially right. I didn't say "nobody should buy the iPad" or "everybody should buy this other product". What I said was we should see more diversity, and that branding is overvalued. In my workplace, for instance, I see it all the time. People are appropriating funds to buy iPads. When we sit down and try to inventory what they want to do with it, it's clear that an iPad is not a good fit. But they don't want to hear that we have alternative from Dell or HP that will work just as well. Those other options are instant non-starters.
So, anyway, the part you got right is that there are a lot of uneducated consuemrs out there. That you inferred I have a horse in the race is the part where you went off-message.
And I'll continue to dismiss any argument that makes only broad generalizations about who buys what and why they do it while being willingly ignorant of other factors. Especially when it has the distinct odor of condescension all over it.
Then by your own criteria, you dismiss your own previous assumptions about the reasons for the iPad's success, as they were no less general in nature. I doubt you will, however, as you don't feel your conclusions are anything less than matter-of-fact. That's human nature for you.
As to consumer trends, and their enamorization with brands, I can only reiterate that it is not my conclusion alone, but one drawn by companies who in greater numbers eschew the market I consuem in.
