I know the tough battle between Apple and Microsoft going on. Even those fake ipods are also trying to sell more Ipods than Apple but what keeps apple alive? I asked this question to a Nicholas Bonsack ,who is just a user who uses apple products and i think he is completely happy with what he got. and i think you shall read his answer.

“Reliability.

It’s not necessarily something that comes to the fore when Apple advertises their products. At least, when they’re not making “house of cards” arguments vis a vie the PC, where anything greater than zero could be seen as impressive if John Hodgman and Justin Long’s characters are to be trusted.

No, it’s the degree to which that reliability goes for. I wrote a post in my blog about how I upgraded a senior citizen’s 1999 low end iMac to run Microsoft Word 2004 and modern day AJAX applications with ease by simply upgrading to OS X 10.4, adding 512 MB of memory and a new 7,200 rpm, 80 GB hard drive. 1999 hardware working well in 2007, imagine that!

It goes further. My sister toasted part of her logic board by spilling coffee on her Macbook. Apple wouldn’t take it in for repair, but the laptop seems to operate decently. The lack of a working CD drive is well compensated by Target Disk Mode. With that feature, I was able to install Leopard on that machine from my Macbook Pro, copy the contents of the puny 60 GB drive in the Macbook to a decent 120 GB external USB drive with Superduper!, (easily!) swap out the old hard drive for a new 120 GB internal drive, then use Superduper! again to copy the contents of the USB drive to the new hard drive. All the while I was able to use the Macbook for browsing the web, checking e-mail, writing documents and all the normal everyday tasks with no major repercussions.

Even my Macbook Pro, the $2,000 Merom model from 2006, runs all of todays high end apps with ease. The price tag for it was quite a bit, I admit, but it has managed to last two years as a capable, high-end laptop, and I’ve only had to get the DVD-RW drive repaired a couple of times. Applecare has served me well, and it makes me extremely confident about the company’s products in the future.

I have to give a little credit to the software as well as the hardware. Leopard has given my MBP a Mac OS X that is not only easier on the eyes, but is noticeably more responsive than Tiger was on the same hardware. I’ve yet to see an upgrade to Windows that can do that.

I’ve had my own bad experiences with Gateway and Dell in the past, both with hardware and software. With Apple, I get hardware that’s built to last and regular upgrades to OS X that keep it going for years to come. Based on what I’ve experienced, I’m fully confident that I can expect an eight year life span from my MBP, just as I saw with that ’99 G3 iMac.”

Thanks Nicholas Bonsack for a lovely answer! You rock!