Apple's big iPad problem: How do you convince owners to upgrade when their old machines work just fine?

And yet somehow there are far, far more Apple customers (including Mac users) than there were when Apple dropped [insert technology]. Only now are Mac sales slowing after a solid decade-plus of growth, mostly achieved by absolutely killing it in the consumer space (as opposed to enterprise).

IMHO the term you were looking for was not “Apple fans” but rather “a large number of consumers.” (Not all of them, of course. That would be silly.)