There is one sustainable advantage in consumer sales that Apple has hiding in plain sight - their stores. The whole Apple Store experience is brilliant in term

There is one sustainable advantage in consumer sales that Apple has hiding in plain sight - their stores. The whole Apple Store experience is brilliant in terms of creating a very particular kind of customer experience as well as finding ways to delight customers on a one-on-one basis. From sales to support and training, the Apple Store is not something that is cheap or easy to replicate and the data/feedback Apple can get from their stores in realtime is very valuable if they are willing to do anything with it at all. Even if you discount Apple's Stores as a huge advantage, Apple has one other advantage - it is relentlessly good at just about everything it throws its weight behind. Hardware design, software platforms, software products, software services, marketing, advertising, finance, retail, ecommerce, and supply chain management. It is hard to be better than Apple at any one of those things, let alone being better at most or all of them. Even things that Apple isn't known for, like supply chain management, they are among the best in the world. I believe they turn over their inventory every 5 days with Dell and Samsung at 10 and 21 days each. http://www.cultofmac.com/170827/apple-turns-over-its-entire-inventory-every-5-days/ http://www.cultofmac.com/170827/apple-turns-over-its-entire-... Beating Apple at their own game will probably take the same 10-15 years it took Apple to build up their current processes and infrastructure, assuming Apple stands perfectly still.