I don't know who this "The Left" you speak of is, but I don't love Apple. In fact, I think the success of Apple is a testament to how dimwitted Americans are. Shiny packaging and commercials featuring dancing in the subway to indy-rock can take you only so far... Or can they? iFad after iFad after iFad proves successful.
But that's just me.
I fell for it once... bought an iPad... still trying to figure out what to do with it after the Angry Birds glow wore off.
Personally, I just don't get it. You can buy a whole laptop for the same price. Why would anyone opt for a giant iPhone instead?
I mean to each his own and whatnot, but dayum.
But an IPad is not a laptop, nor are any of the other tablets on the market. If you're comparing an Ipad to a laptop you're missing the reason people buy Ipads.
Whatever else they may be, tablets are consumption devices - devices designed almost exclusively to consume electronic content. Information, music, movies, news...They are a simple and convenient method to access and consume such content. They don't revolutionize what a computer, a dvd player, a stereo, an e-reader, a book, or any other media consumption device offers - they revolutionize the ability to access all that content online, anywhere and at any time on a small, lightweight device.
Of course, most people don't want or need that access at the moment. But many people do, and will pay dearly for it. Apple took the tablet from a virtually unknown form to one of the most popular devices sold - and created a market for tablets (all tablets) that didn't previously exist.
That's why people look to Steve Jobs as an innovator. Not because he came up with new ideas per se, but because he made new ideas better and created a market for them. Twenty years ago military and scientific endeavors bled over into the consumer market (the internet, computing, GPS). Companies such as Apple and Microsoft have flipped that on it's head, with consumer products bleeding over into those areas (in some cases obviously, not all).