I Love Apple Products, but...

I love Apple products and I use them seamlessly. I have a laptop and recently got an iphone. I HAVE ARRIVED in the 21st century, or so I am told by Apple's outstanding marketing.
       The other day I watched the frail-looking Steve Jobs temporarily come back from his medical leave to do his thing in introducing the ipad2. If this was a cult it would have been the perfect script. As much as I love Apple products I have growing questions about what its marketing is doing to our culture.
       I know that what I am saying is sacrilege to many faithful Apple users. This is a "cult-like culture" at its finest, as Jim Collins described in his book Built to Last.
       I was struck by a number of things in the Steve Jobs speech:

1. Steve Jobs HAD to do it, even though he is clearly not well physically. In other words, he is not replaceable. That does not bode well for Apple;
2. Much of the talk was about ACQUIRING ... 100 million books downloaded in a year, 100 million iphone users, 200 million Apple accounts with credit card numbers and 1-click purchasing. Now I realize this is just good capitalism, and I guess that is part of my struggle. Is life all about acquiring? He with the most toys wins???
3. Jobs and Apple have been incredibly successful in demonizing the PC world. There are ads, jokes, digs, and flat-out insults toward anything non-Apple. Jobs quoting an Samsung executive about that companies failure in the Tablet market was way smug. Apple has figured out that creating a cult-like culture around their products means you make the competitors look like nerds and idiots;
4. Who are those people who sit in the audience at these Steve Jobs events? Clearly they are the most loyal followers.

These are just a few of my questions and concerns. And these are growing.

I have to go now. I've been typing on my MacBook and my iphone is ringing, and I have to look for my ipod before I go to the office. But I have not bought a iPad.