I repair computers for a living, Cal. Ever inquired about the price of Apple spare parts?
Hint: make certain you are sitting down before you call. Be sure to have plenty of medicinal brandy handy, and if you take blood pressure medication, get someone else to make the call.
Do you know that you can't even change a
battery on some Apple products? They require you to send it in to their service centre to have them fit an overpriced, Apple-branded one. (And don't think that there is any technical or
quality control reason for this, it's pure greed.)
And then there is the cost of software.
Everything is more expensive for Apple. Worst of all, the cost of parts to upgrade (if you can upgrade at all, which you often can't) is truly horrendous.
Add it all up, and the long-term cost of ownership varies between a lot higher and vastly higher. The inflated sticker price in the shop is just the starting point.