>The first of these is its locked-in ecosystem, which keeps its users buying Apple.

Personally this is why I wouldn't touch Apple's product with a ten foot pole.

Anyway kudos to them their vision (read Steve's visions) and tenacity have put them at the upper echelon of consumer's tech companies. To make products that are desirable to people is very hard. That's probably why according to the article, the second most important things about Apple:

>Another major factor is its marketing, which has made it the only luxury technology brand.

So basically, It's just mass vendor lock in