I don’t think Apple even uses the term “consumer experience” - a quick Google search for it on their site(s) produces no Apple product page or documentation. Apple does care deeply about “user experience” - but that’s a very well understood and meaningful term in the design of computer systems and software.
Regarding the idea that that Apothekar, Dell, the two RIM “co-CEOs”, Steve Ballmer, etc are thinking above all about usability of their products, I will, out of respect for you (not them), refrain from ROFLing. :-)
Seriously though, it seems you are letting the Apple hipster connection cloud your judgement. I don’t think I will ever buy an iPad (last thing I need is one more device to keep in sync) but I can easily imagine the value of it (over a laptop) for my mom. Those sort of users are no longer the fringe - those clueless folks who had to be hand-held on to the device and the Internet for a few minutes to look at pictures of grandchildren. That’s Jobs’s point when he dramatically states that we are in the post-PC world. These are, today, the majority of computer/Internet users.
If Apple were a niche product and priced as a luxury brand your preoccupation with the psychology of their products/users might be appropriate. But these guys have Google funding their entire OS and application toolkit development and yet they cannot sell a product priced lower than the iPad and they cannot attract the majority of the customer base.
—ravi