Not to mention it's the eventual result of a competitive market (Econ 101).
I like how you appended that course number as a sly insult.
In a perfectly competitive market, perhaps. But there are other forces at play. Why does Whole Foods prosper when you can buy food at Wal-Mart? Why do Priuses still sell when they may not be the most cost effective transportation mechanism (after you factor in initial cost)? Why do people still buy Ralph Lauren and Louis Vuitton? Commoditization isn't inevitable in anything other than the theoretical environment you'd find in Econ 101.
Ha ha, excellent stuff. Econ 101 is Econ 101 because it is simplistic. It's like saying "Pi is 22/7. This is high-school mathematics, guys". The whole thing is made simple so you can grasp some concepts. You learn the complexity when you progress through the classes.
Realistically then, saying something is Econ 101 is saying that "looking at this without considering any of the subtleties of the situation, we have the following result".
If you'd taken any econ you'd know that differentiating factors exist which essentially create a 'new' market. Whole Foods doesn't compete in the same market as Wal-Mart. Louis Vuitton doesn't compete with (insert nameless brand... Not sure, my wife likes high-end things).
Anyhow, the comment was meant tongue in cheek anyhow, don't know why you're so upset. Your retort was bad anyway.
There's a very large segment of Apple's customer-base that are in a different market, even if there appear to be competing products. Some developers have no interest in anything other than a MBP. Ditto for a large number of iPhone and iPad users. There will always be those who switch, in the same way that someone may shop at Whole Foods and decide that it's not worth the price.
This is actually pretty consistent with Apple's entire history: they've resisted commoditization, even during times when it really hurt their market share.
I like how you appended that course number as a sly insult.
In a perfectly competitive market, perhaps. But there are other forces at play. Why does Whole Foods prosper when you can buy food at Wal-Mart? Why do Priuses still sell when they may not be the most cost effective transportation mechanism (after you factor in initial cost)? Why do people still buy Ralph Lauren and Louis Vuitton? Commoditization isn't inevitable in anything other than the theoretical environment you'd find in Econ 101.