I never said anything about China :). I do not believe Apple products were knowingly made with slave labor; Foxcomm is as legitimate as you can get in China and there is just no way to make these parts in the US or anywhere else. Until automation is allowed to replace expensive and entrenched union workers, the US will not be a center for mass-market manufacturing and in any case the Chinese are ahead with automation as well.
Jothar really hit the nail on the head. Steve Jobs produced entertainment – if he did license the operating systems it would be a different story because prices would dip and different manufacturers would issue different feature sets. Apple and Pixar are both technological entertainment.
I was out shopping for a new “communications device” today and I was just shocked by how expensive an iPad is compared to a comparable Acer Android model. (I don’t know the prices in the US – this could be because of the way Apple is distributed in Ukraine.) I’m not ready to buy until at least a month after the yomim toivim end so I did not check carefully but I saw no reason to pay $400 more for the Apple and be locked into their apps.