I think Apple’s success is mostly attributable to people getting fed up with the modern trend of producing cheap junk that breaks within the first year of use. An engineer I used to work with used to say, “when are people going to finally get tired of buying all this cheap made-in-China junk?”
I have my issues with Apple software and online service quality, but their hardware is top-notch. And yes, I know that the Apple products are made in China, but where it’s made isn’t the point. The point is, the trend over the last 20 years has been to sacrifice quality and long-term reliability for cost. I sometimes see electronics whose reliability could be increased tenfold with a very modest increase in cost.
I think Apple bucks these trends, particularly with their mobile products. What you see is that they are fulfilling pent-up demand from consumers who are hungry for something that isn’t a piece of junk. I hope other companies learn from this.
I’m writing this on an iPhone 4s. Still works as good as the day I bought it about four years ago. I upgraded to IOS 8.3 easily and it works perfectly. Outstanding product HW and SW quality.