Now, considering that I am the original Apple fan, having used a Mac more or less continuously since 1984 (with some significant work-related gaps that have acquainted me with the Windows platform), you may be inclined to disagree with what I am about to say. Forewarned is forearmed.

The genius of Apple is not software. It is most certainly not hardware. It isn’t even exactly the interplay between the two, though that’s a part of it. The thing that most Apple users love the products for is the fact that it does what it says it will do, easily and with a minimum of fuss, while looking really cool. Apple makes great appliances. I am annoyed that I haven’t gotten a look at new Mac capabilities but I am glad to know that Apple thinks of my iPod, my Mac, and my future iPhone–all of them–as appliances, meant to work properly, rather than as collections of parts and capabilities.

That’s why you should never expect Mr. Jobs to care about a platform–he cares about tasks, about getting things done. Right now, Apple is mainly about: 1) Taking care of your digital media at home, 2) helping you listen/watch your digital media elsewhere 3) communicating over the Internet and cell phones.

Have you noticed that Macs are also more appliance-like than other computers? Look at an iMac: they don’t want you to get into the guts, they don’t want you to change the video card or whatever, all because they want to control the experience. Apple computers have never been about assembling a machine; they’ve been about giving you the machine you should have, according to Apple. It is not a democratic approach, but it’s one that works. The ideal machine according to Steve Jobs is very often the ideal machine according to lots of other people.

That’s why the naysayers were wrong about the iPod when it came out, complaining as they did about its feature set and price, and why they will be proved wrong about the iPhone–the target market is not a group that cares about whether something has EDGE or 3G, or whether 4 or 8 gigs will be enough to hold everything they want–it’s a group that just wants something that works, is easy to use, and looks cool.

If you want something with more memory, that’s cheaper, that runs Linux, that has a keyboard, whatever, that’s fine. You’ll be able to get that. But you’re not the person Jobs and Apple want to attract anyway.