Why do people love Apple products?

Let me start off by saying that I am a bit of an Android fanboy. So this post will seem a bit biased, but I will try to look at Apple products from another perspective and what it is that attracts people to them.

I am not an Apple hater though, I do believe that they make good, solid consumer products. In the past I have recommended Apple products to people, purely because I understand their needs and/or technical level and I realise that an iPhone would be more useful as well as user friendly to them as opposed to an Android based smartphone.

There are still some instances where I believe Apple to be a fashion accessory rather than a useful technology tool.

When you look at top management at the company I work for, a big percentage of them have gone Apple crazy. Almost all of them own the Apple trifecta: an iPhone, an iPad and a Macbook of some sort, whether it is of the Pro or Air variety.

To start off with, none of these (except maybe the iPhone) are useful business tools in a corporate environment. Most corporates (like the one I work for) are setup as a Windows network, with users being managed on Active Directory, email managed from Microsoft Exchange and documents exchanged in a Microsoft Office format.

While it is true that Apple's software can leverage most of these technologies and utilise them, albeit with a few limitations, they are not being used as Apple products should be used. Why then is it that every Tom, Dick and Harry that's reasonably high up on the corporate ladder not only own these devices but insist on using them on a Windows network as their work or office machines?

Ask any support technician what a pain it is to setup these devices on the network. Believe me, I've been there myself. It doesn't even matter whether your company has an official network policy that dictates what type of device is allowed on the network or not, if the financial director, or the marketing director or anyone with enough corporate clout really wants to use his/her iDevice on the network, you shall make it so.

Then why do they insist on using these devices?

Well, that's kind of where the Apple magic happens. Their devices are easy to use. The interface is intuitive and it looks and acts reasonably the same accross all devices. Their devices play well with each other and iTunes links it all together.

For the average tech-challenged user, this is more than enough.

It's for more tech-savvy people like myself that the iDevices are just too restrictive.

Let me the list the ways in which Apple products frustrate me:

• I need to do everything via iTunes, which is, in my opinion, a very bloated piece of software
• I cannot load my own music or videos, except via iTunes or some other methods
• I cannot write my own programs for an iDevice and it doesn't matter whether I own the device or not.

These are only some of the frustrations that I have with Apple products, but they highlight something very clearly. These frustrations mean nothing to the average user.

And that is why people like Apple products. Apple gives you what you need, or rather, what Apple think you need. For most people, that's enough. For me... it's not.