>> Apple was never niche within the industry, they were the forefront of mainstream.

My Apple days go back to the first era of Steve Jobs. I remember when Macs served mainly DTP (desktop publishing) and Education markets and not much else. Back when people literally said "Macs are toys". I used to get weird "Why?" looks when I told people I used a Mac. I don't think any Mac user from that era would say Apple was "at the forefront of mainstream".