I think it boils down to: Apple established a platform and ecosystem for consumers, education, and business. The S100 companies largely sold CP/M boxes for business use. When PC clones turned "business" computers into a commodity, there was still a reason to buy Apples.
Apple commodified fun computing - made it affordable, a bit lateral, a bit serious, but also creative and artistic.
No other computer company tried to own that space. The 8-bit S-100 companies were all serious bizness. Then IBM ate business computing, and it was all over for them.
Atari and Amiga tried to get into that space, and did okay for quite a long time. They died when they couldn't keep up with Apple or PC hardware.
Much later Apple did the same thing again with the iPhone and the iPad. (But not Watch, which is none of the above.)
IMO this is why MS completely failed with Win 8/10. They tried to make an OS that looks like it should be playing in that space, but MS isn't culturally predisposed to being lateral, fun, or artistic.
So instead of a camper van with a rocket engine they made a Jeep and glued Lego all over the windows. (Lego is fun, right?)
This never happened. Even today, where Apple enjoys revenue and popularity, the computers Apple sells still take less than 5% of market share and they are business computers, certainly not considered "fun" ones.
> made it affordable
Until just a few years ago, Apple was -- rightfully -- considered to be selling computers much more expensive than the competition. This image changed a bit these last few years but even today, a Mac Book Pro costs comparatively 30% more than the competition.
Apple was never about being affordable. Ever.
> They died when they couldn't keep up with Apple or PC hardware.
Atari and Amiga died for one reason and one reason alone: Windows.
When they died, Apple was close to being bankrupt as well and it only survived thanks to Bill Gates saving the company by injecting cash in it (mostly forced so it could sustain anti competitivity accusations).
> IMO this is why MS completely failed with Win 8/10.
Uh? Are you talking about Windows 8 and the upcoming Windows 10? Windows 8 was a pretty big success, even though it never got as popular as Windows 7 or XP.
