What people who don't use Apple products don't get is how Apple pays attention to the little details that make the difference between a product just functioning and a product functioning elegantly. (Miele is another company that does this.)
Take the Airport Express, for instance. I've had mine for nearly three years now and can't imagine being without it. At home I've used it to stream music, extend my wifi network, and to make a usb printer available on the network. And that's all cool. But here's where the detail stuff comes in: Apple lets you store up to 5 configurations, called profiles, in the Airport Express. Each profile allows you to configure the Airport express for the various purposes it can serve. One profile can make it a wireless client to stream music, for instance, but not provide network access, another can make it an access point to connect to a network and distribute IP addresses, another can just make it a bridge to a network, and so on.
Why would I want to change the configuration on any regular basis? Because when I travel, I bring the Airport Express with me and use it to provide wireless access in hotel rooms where only wired internet access is provided. When travelling with just one laptop, it's mostly a convenience factor (though I recently used the Airport Express to get free internet access in a hotel room where free wireless was provided only in the lobby). When travelling with two laptops, it allows both of us to use the internet at the same time while only paying one connection fee. And when travelling with the iPhone, it gives wireless internet access where otherwise I would have only AT&T's EDGE access.
It's the profiles feature of the Airport Express that really makes this all work easily. I've set up several profiles for handling the various situations and just switch between them depending on my requirements of the moment. No hassle, no fuss. I love it.
