Indeed. The idea that the rest of the consumer electronics industry is incapable of competing on price/performance even at a component level flies in the face of decades of history in the industry.
Apple has a temporary advantage because they have used their cash reserves well and they have designed good products. But only a sycophant or a fool would believe that their advantage would last forever.
Edit: the comparison to the iPhone is apt, as modern phones such as the Galaxy Nexus are every bit as good as the iPhone in many ways and superior in others (more RAM, faster CPU, LTE, NFS, better front-facing camera, etc.)
> more RAM, faster CPU, LTE, NFS, better front-facing camera, etc.
Beyond bragging rights, how much of Apple's market actually cares about this?
At home I run a PC I built myself and have Linux running in various places and even I don't care what CPU/RAM specs my phone has. My decision to buy an iPhone was driven by my existing collection of iOS apps (I used an iPod as a PDA for a few years) and the general reliability of the iOS experience (stuff doesn't stutter, webpages render properly, few/no OS-level crashes, etc). Things like the camera were a definite plus but not deciding factors. The retina display was probably the biggest selling point of a 4/4S over a 3GS actually since it makes the whole iOS experience even more pleasant.
Apple has iTunes which gives it a distinct advantage over competing with hardware manufacturers. Users care about content. Why else would the top three tablets by sales be the iPad, the Fire and the Nook? Android still doesn't have a viable market there and no one has shown that they can step up to the plate with an integrated, viable marketplace. Once that happens then it's a new game. Until then, I don't see anyone unseating Apple. They can sell the things at a loss and still make money via the long tail if they wanted to.
Apple has a temporary advantage because they have used their cash reserves well and they have designed good products. But only a sycophant or a fool would believe that their advantage would last forever.
Edit: the comparison to the iPhone is apt, as modern phones such as the Galaxy Nexus are every bit as good as the iPhone in many ways and superior in others (more RAM, faster CPU, LTE, NFS, better front-facing camera, etc.)