It’s true that the iPad sold more units than the iPhone in its first weekend. It’s also true that Apple seems to get a stranglehold on any market they stick their nose in. Is this the result of great products or business strategy? No. Rather it is the result of a mindlessly loyal fan base. I’m sure at one point, when they were run out of a basement, Apple actually tried to make good products. But now they release obviously flawed products knowing that it will be bought en masse anyway. These fanatics would probably take a bullet for Steve Jobs and would definitely lose all dignity if they found out he was in the same theatre as them. Why do they have this undying love for a company? It’s simply a matter of good product housing and ostentatious graphics. With a glossy screen, brushed aluminum and a flashy interface that makes absolutely no sense to PC users; Apple aficionados can have a smug attitude about their superior computing experience. The iPad is the worst offender. Besides the obvious fact that it is an overgrown iPhone the iPad has a number of major flaws that cripple it in the tablet market. First of all you cannot open multiple applications at once. On the iPhone this is fine and you usually want to do one thing at a time. But on the iPad, which is meant to be as good as a computer, you cannot for example listen to music while browsing the internet. Also, there is no support for Flash on the iPad. This might not seem like a big deal but the majority of websites use Flash so the iPad actually is not able to correctly view most websites crippling it's internet use. Even with these two major flaws and many others, ridiculous amounts of people went out and bought the iPad, many of whom I assumed also had an iPhone. This proves to me that Apple has created a mindless fan base that is only concerned if the Apple logo is on the back of the shiny aluminum housing not how good the actual product is.