I think Jason is wrong about industrial design being the singular primary differentiator for Apple devices. Sure, Lenovos look like shit next to a MacBook, but

I think Jason is wrong about industrial design being the singular primary differentiator for Apple devices. Sure, Lenovos look like shit next to a MacBook, but people buy Lenovos for entirely different reasons and the rugged design plays in their favor. Other competitors offer laptops with near Apple levels of hardware design — certainly near enough to meet Jason's criteria of "immediately obvious". I think software is the primary differentiator between iPhone and some of the better looking Android devices, between MacBook and some of the better looking PC laptops. Software, and some of the, by Jason's definition, "less obvious" hardware attributes, like screen quality, UI responsiveness, precision, etc. The simpler the hardware gets, the more important and immediate these attributes become. This only plays in Apple's favor, and is in my opinion what has already been so hard for Nokia to deal with; they're a hardware company with poor software chops. Superficial industrial design is easy to emulate or fake, to a certain point. After that, it becomes hard, and not many companies other than Apple have the skills or the patience for it. Look at the tragic excuse for a Windows tablet HP is releasing for another example.