"Hardly a technological breakthrough" - No, it wasn't. But it never was about the hardware.
"they have acted much more like a monopoly" - I keep hearing this and I don't know why. Apple jealously controls Apple products. Absolutely true. However, I believe a monopoly is when a company controls a MARKET. And since Apple controls less than 10% of the computer market, wouldn't a better example be, say, Microsoft, since they control the majority of the OS market? I'm pretty sure they're jealous of their products too, although, that nice, new Windows 7 looks an awful lot like Apple's OSX. Could they have . . . ? naw. No way.
"They also nickel and dime you to death with the need to purchase "apps". - You don't pay for Windows apps? Jeez, Apple's clearly doing it wrong. Usually there's iDVD, iMovie, Safari, Address Book, iPhoto, Garageband, iTunes, Mail, iCal and others ALREADY LOADED on Apple computers, so you meant you have to pay for some of the OTHER apps you wanted, right?
"how many years was it before Apple allowed other firms the ability to sell software applications which ran on the Apple platforms? - Well, actually, they ALWAYS allowed it. But until recently they were such a small market segment that it wasn't worth fooling with for the developers. OTOH, Apple has managed to shoot themselves in the foot in OTHER ways. Like when they licensed other companies to build clones in the 80's.
"Whatever you want to do with a phone or computer seems to cost more - often a LOT more - if you own a Apple." - True enough. Apple doesn't build cheap, piece-of-crap hardware. They cost more. They're not for everybody.
"Of course, for some specialized tasks, Apple computers might have a (software) edge: movie editors and graphic artists, for example, swear by them." - Actually, most commercially available titles stopped being platform specific several years ago.
"For most consumers, buying an Apple computer just doesn't compute." - You could make that argument, but this would ignore the fact that HALF of new Mac buyers are new to the Mac. And then there's those pesky tech pundits writing things like, "In a recent report called “Key Predictions for IT Organizations and Users in 2008 and Beyond,” market research firm Gartner predicted Apple will double its U.S. and Western Europe computer market share."
"If you have a young daughter and purchase them in pink then she will be most impressed!" - They come in pink?