Monopoly.
Insofar as their specific market is concerned -- selling Apple computers -- they have a monopoly. They control their specific market completely and utterly.
Their market happens to be in competition with Microsoft, but they are essentially different markets that do pretty much the same thing. Both are monopolies...
And I said *vestigial traces* of shame, in that they have the courtesy to at least *pretend* they're not fucking over their customers. Every time Apple releases a new upgrade to OSX it extends a great big digital bird to its entire userbase and laughs, and laughs, and laughs.
Oh, and it gets its user base SO FUCKING EXCITED about its new products that they do everything they can to learn more, and then they SUE THEM FOR IT.
Breathe deep. That's the smell of "we're *entitled* to this adulation so we'll do whatever the hell we want to you, and you'll keep crawling back..."
