Their products generally are on par with the competitors'. Their success is in their marketing and maintaining brand loyalty.
This quarter it was Cook’s ability to forge some lucrative ties with Chinese phone companies. One wonders how long he can do that ... Beyond a few quarters.
And the Chinese wanted the big screen which Apple gave them this time.
And that is the MANTRA of the people who DO NOT USE the products, whistling past the success of the largest, most successful corporation on the planet. "It's all hype," they cry. "It's just marketing," they whine. "It's brand loyalty," they plead, ignoring that over ONE BILLION iOS devices (as of December 22, 2014) cannot have been sold to the same people merely by "brand loyalty."