Felix Salmon:

The world divides into people who think of Apple as a company, and people who think of Apple as a brand. The former group includes all stock analysts, of course, but it also includes most technology journalists. The latter group is, well, most of the people who buy Apple products.

I think Billy Wilder said it best:

An audience is never wrong. An individual member of it may be an imbecile, but a thousand imbeciles together in the dark – that is critical genius.

Via (Reuters)