Regarding your nice comments, including, “I think you’re seeing a “purpose” that does not really exist in Apple’s corporate policy”:
I actually agree with everything you wrote except for the above, because I am even with you on that. We really are saying the same thing in different ways. (I do not see where you get that I think there is a purpose other than just what you wrote, selling their products, which is easier in high population areas. Sorry if I wrote unclearly.)
And I agree with you, really I was saying it myself, that Apple’s focus on large cities with their stores (etc) it is incidental: Cities are where the money is at! Big cities are also the liberal mothership.
So ... it kind of results in liberals being able to like and use Apple stuff more easily, when proportioned out, than us good guys.
Apple is going to target that big city demographic too. And they are going to look and seem “blue” — maybe bluer than they really are. I know a lot of Apple people who are are anything but liberal. As a corporation when you add it all up they still skew solidly liberal, but they do business pragmatically. It would help their corporate appearance if they had to really address flyover America better. However us hicks are too easily entranced by the big city stuff, so they sell to us enough without any special effort.
I am of course being tongue in check about them avoiding smaller cities because they would have to hire us orthodox Americans. They tend pragmatic. (Plus even here there are far too many liberals.)
I am in one of the two largest cities in Oklahoma ... and BOTH of those cities are “red” ... :-) ... it doesn’t always work out that they’re “blue”
Those two cities are ranked 27th largest and 47th largest cities in the USA. I’ve also lived in the 4th largest, 9th largest and 29th largest cities.
http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/nycdata/world_cities/largest_cities-usa.htm
A Democrat operative once asked Steve Jobs why Apple did not make political donations to Democrats or even to the Democratic National Committee. . . or even "In Kind" donations. Steve Jobs replied "Because around half of Apple's customers are Republicans. I would not want to make half of our customers, of either party, angry with us, so Apple does not get involved." Apple has stuck to that policy over the years and does not make political donations.
Apple's Board of Directors has both Democrats and Republican members. if I had to guess, I would think the Republicans would be solidly Establishment Republicans and not true conservative Republicans. However, some is better than none.
The industry Apple is involved in is skewed solidly liberal. It is hard to find a company that is not. Why? I have no idea. Probably because the people involved in it are relatively young and had their ideas warped by participation in public schooling.
Apple's independent Employees' Political Action Committee, like all labor oriented organizations, makes political donations. Individual Apple employees can make donations on their own. . . however Steve Jobs, in the last 14 years of his life made very few political donations and compared to others of his wealth, the ones he did make were very small.