It's one thing to make great technology. It's another thing to market and sell it. Apple can do both. Apple really gets it.  But what is it exactly that they get?  Here it is, they can do 5 things very well:<p><pre><code>    - Hardware
    - Software
    - Human Interface Design
    - Marketing
    - User/Developer Ecosystem
</code></pre>
If they weren't able to do all 5 of these very well, it wouldn't matter how great the devices are. Other companies do the hardware &#38; the software. Some are even pretty good at the marketing. Very few companies do all 5 of these things as well as Apple does and make that a seamless whole.<p>Of these 5, <i>the last two</i> are often the missing secret sauce.  Of these 5, <i>the last one</i> is the most powerful.  They realize this.  Why do you think they do everything that they do with the stores?<p>Open Source shows that you can have nothing but software and ecosystem.