But there are two companies that have been able to charge a premium for decades even when there were lower cost alternatives - Apple and Microsoft.<p>Apple has been selling computers for almost 40 years that cost more than their competitors. The average selling cost of Macs are still much higher than the industry average. The fact that Microsoft can sell any of their products at all when most people could easily use free open source alternatives means that MS must have some type of competitive advantage.<p>For both companies, good enough is not good enough for their customer base. For me personally, the integration of their products is a reason I choose them.