I'm on the other side of this coin. I didn't think Apple was douchy, I just thought of them as a niche I wasn't in. All my life computers (DOS, Windows) were a little finicky, a bit plasticky, and covered in vents and screws and things. Then I bought the first iPhone, my first Apple product. It just always worked. So I abandoned my awful Toshiba laptop and bought a MacBook (late 2008 aluminum unibody). It was the first computer I actually liked. I started seeing Apple not as a niche and not douchy but as a brand for people willing to pay a bit more for something that was enjoyable to use.

That MacBook was a solid performer for a full six years, and it struggled on for another 18 months before I finally replaced it earlier this year. It still works, but it's slow. I'd been looking at replacement Macs, but the prices just seemed insane. Considering I'd replaced the memory, hard drive and battery, a glued shut, mediocre spec MacBook didn't sit right. So I bought a used mid-2012 MacBook Pro on eBay. These are the last with user replaceable parts. I like it a lot.

I'm still using my iPhone 5. I've been looking at replacements, and I keep hoping Apple will release a phone that makes me feel like those first Apple products did: enjoyable to use. But they aren't. And with prices going up and functionality going down, I think I'll drift myself away from the ecosystem.

My next tech purchase might be a Surface tablet. If I like that, I'll get an Android phone.

I liked Apple circa 2008 a lot. Apple circa 2016 isn't the same company, and brand loyalty is a bad quality for consumers.