Your view of Apple laptops seems to represent only a small segment of the market. While Apple was on the rise, they were still only 3rd behind Dell and HP in market share by 2007 [0] and are roughly 5th over the last few years [1]. They presumably look better on a revenue rather than units basis, but they were never the sort of singular force you described them as. They might have held that position among a certain segment of laptop buyers, but not the general market.
[0] http://www.macworld.com/article/1059616/appleshare.html
[1] https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/apple-2015-notebook-...
Yes, that's correct - which is exactly how we are looking at Tesla.
I have no idea what laptops low end, price constrained buyers bought (and continue to buy).
This is a good analogy to Tesla cars which are also priced out of that category.
I am in the market for a very high end, full sized luxury car and I am troubled that by some measures there is only one supplier of those, currently. This is coming from someone who owned two successive A8s over an 8 year period and has lost all interest in that, and any other market entrant, based on an ICE. My current interest level in new press releases for A8/7/S feels exactly like how I suddenly felt in 2004 or so when news of new laptop models suddenly failed to register even a blip.
If you think a Model S is way better overall than the high-end German fullsize cars, you were never actually in the target population for those cars in the first place. The things e.g. an S-class is renowned for - the attention to detail and quality of the interior, the ride quality, the ridiculous level of soundproofing, the rear legroom, the discrete rumble of the V8 - are on a level far beyond what Tesla delivers. Model S interior quality is on par with a VW Golf. And yes, I've ridden in both.
But of course the Model S has features that appeal very much to the tech crowd, like a big touchscreen and OTA updates and a CEO that can be worshipped.
It sounds a bit like someone who really enjoys off-roading complaining about how crappy the Model X SUV is because of the poor ground clearance and shitty tires.
I think we could be at a point similar to laptop buyers in 2002/2003/2004.
Remember when there were multiple companies making laptops and you would comparison shop and read reviews and look ahead to some new line of Fujitsu vs. Sony vs. Panasonic laptops and maybe visit dynamism.com and see what was being sold in Japan and so on and so forth ?
And then 2-3 years later there was one laptop manufacturer: Apple. Everything else was irrelevant in the face of a solid block of metal with a glass screen that lasts 5-7 years and "just works". When was the last time you spec'd out different laptops - other than perhaps to read with mild interest about some Dell model built for Ubuntu that might possibly be an option but probably isn't.
I have mixed feelings about this ...
On the one hand, Apple laptops really are the best that has ever been and have largely "solved" the category.
On the other hand, without any competition we get strong-armed into certain design decisions that might not work for us ... glossy screens, no more full sized USB ports, maybe headphone jack goes away ...
Electric only drive, skateboard style battery platform (with dramatically lowered center of gravity) and AWD with multiple motors ... I want these innovations. But I would also like some choices in styling and design - especially since I dislike the Tesla interior design so much ...