7 ms·

(paraphrased) "I know nothing about the subject..." "Not gonna learn about other options..." "Apple doesn't disappoint me..." "I'll buy the overpriced stuff

(paraphrased) "I know nothing about the subject..." "Not gonna learn about other options..." "Apple doesn't disappoint me..." "I'll buy the overpriced stuff because I can afford it..." This Apple-blinkers comment is telling, and refreshingly honest. I'm sure there are other brands with that sort of attachment, but none that exemplify the phenomenon more.

lnenad 6y ago
Tbh it's a valid point. I'm the same for Bosch home appliances, or Miele if I'm going for the long haul. It just works^TM
- Unklejoe 6y ago
  Well, for appliances, those are probably the same brands you'd end up with anyway even after doing research.
  - andy_ppp 6y ago
    Yes, after less than a year my Samsung washing machine is making a horrendous grinding sound when spinning... I regret not getting a Miele that is likely to work better for longer.
    - Unklejoe 6y ago
      Okay, I wanted to say this before but felt it was too off topic: Never, ever, buy any Samsung appliances. I own a few rental properties. The failure rate on any and all Samsung appliances is insane. Their dryers are the worst. The belt tensioner is a plastic pulley with no bearing at all - it just rides on a sleeve. I've had a few of these go. The front loader washers use some sort of zinc mounting place that reacts with the stainless steel drum and causes a failure (usually right after the warranty is up). Just don't do it. With companies like Samsung, quality doesn't necessarily translate across divisions. Their phones may be okay, but those aren't the same people designing the appliances.
      - larrywright 6y ago
        I’ve heard similar stories from other people I know. In fact, I don’t think I’ve heard someone speak positively about them, so when I look for appliances I steer clear of Samsung. I’ve stuck with Whirlpool for the most part and been quite happy. Last year I bought a new house. Any guess what brand of appliances the kitchen came with?
      - davidwparker 6y ago
        Anecdotally, we've had Samsung washer/dryer for 4+ years now with no issues. But we've also had a Samsung double oven that had issues in year one.
      - cameronh90 6y ago
        I hugely regret buying a Samsung TV. I had sworn off Samsung due to bad experiences with their phones and other products, but there were enough positive reviews of the TV that I made an exception. Huge mistake. Terrible software, hardware bugs, issues with motion interpolation (even basic things like 24fps over 30hz judder reduction), audio sync issues with sound bar, etc. I'll get an LG soon.
      - thefourthchime 6y ago
        Since we're totally off topic I'll chime in and say all appliances are garbage now. Fridge, washing machine, drier? All total crap. I suspect it's because they are considered fashion items now, people want to show them off. So they spend all they money on finishes and gizmos and screens. Then spend as little as possible on durability.
    - claydavisss 6y ago
      The grinding sound is the pump trying to evacuate water. Your outbound filter is clogged. Look to the bottom left of the front of the unit, open the little door. Watch some Youtube videos on how to clean it. Agree with others that Samsung appliances aren't great, but if you inherited them like I did, you might as well learn the simple fixes.
      - andy_ppp 6y ago
        Thanks for the tip but I already checked the filter after phoning Samsung. I will check YouTube just in case I’ve not done it correctly though. Personally I think some research suggests it might be the suspension of the drum which should be easy to replace but there is no need for that to ever fail, even after < a year. Sorry for the off topic chat everyone :-/
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
Veen 6y ago
I'm not going to buy these because I'm happy with my WH-1000XM3's, but I understand the point the commenter was making. Most people do not have the time or the inclination to exhaustively survey the market and technology when they want to buy headphones, speakers, laptops, and so on. They use low-effort proxy signals to judge the quality and desirability of products. Brand is a reasonably reliable proxy and most Apple stuff is pretty good. At the very least, its rarely terrible, which you can't say about many other brands. If you know nothing about headphones but want a decent quality pair without looking into it too deeply, these are a rational option.
- stef25 6y ago
  > most Apple stuff is pretty good Their computers and general design is top shelf as far as I'm concerned, but when it comes to audio I'll put my trust in companies who've been in that specific business for decades. Apple Beats for example are a bit of a joke to anyone who knows anything about audio (and I don't mean people who spend $$$ on cables).
  - geden 6y ago
    You’ve forgotten about the Homepod. That sounds pretty amazing for it’s size and price. (I work in the music industry and have an unhealthy interest in monitors / headphones)
  - Spivak 6y ago
    You forgot that Apple owns Bose whose R&D is well-respected albeit a little controversial in the audiophile community. Their focus in the last decade was getting high-quality sound with middling commodity hardware and good software. Given that it's not surprising they're a good match for Apple. Edit: Looked it up and apparently Apple's buyout was an April Fools joke some years ago. I've definitely talked about it on HN before and I'm surprised nobody's corrected me until now.
    - IndrekR 6y ago
      > You forgot that Apple owns Bose Majority owner of Bose Corporation is MIT, yes, that MIT: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bose_Corporation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bose_Corporation
kube-system 6y ago
If time equals money, then a reliable track record also has monetary value, at least to the people who are not hobbyists.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
fatbird 6y ago
What you're calling "attachment", others would call "trust". Like the sibling comment, my wife and I got a Bosch dishwasher when we needed one because we didn't want to spend a couple days becoming dishwasher experts to save a couple hundred dollars and obtain some criterial best that we wouldn't even appreciate in practice. We went on the consensus around the brand and the experience of people we know who got one. I'm not sure why Apple receives this kind of contempt for having built a brand people trust for valid reasons (i.e., "I've had a consistently good experience trusting this brand"), going by the comment that's gotten so many bothered here.
- Terrario 6y ago
  > I'm not sure why Apple receives this kind of contempt Because to many, Apple is not a trusted brand. I got generic Bluetooth headphones off Amazon that were much better than the airpods for a 1/3rd of the price. Beats are a status commodity with a terrible sound profile and overpriced (hence status). I have little faith that these new cans are gonna be worth the pricetag.
- 14 6y ago
  convert that price to Canadian dollars and you are over $700. What the F are you paying for? To me there is paying for a quality brand and just throwing your money away. I sometimes buy a nice pair of Nike shoes. They cost me 150$ vs 35$ for a cheap pair. But the difference in weight, feel under your foot, the quality of rubber all makes for a better shoe that you feel the difference. The AirPods is not one of those situations however that warrant this price and I think that is where the contempt comes from. Not that people should really care since we can buy many brands at a lower cost with same quality. But people like to hate on things that cost a lot of money I believe it is just human natural. I see it a lot on Facebook marketplace when someone posts something priced high several people will come on and make fun of the post and laugh at it. They never wanted to buy what was in the add to begin with but bother to take the time to complain about it. I am really sure there is some sort of human psychological drive happening in these cases. We just love to hate on expensive things.
fennecfoxen 6y ago
You are looking at a phenomenon that economics would describe as the Cost of Search. It is a situation in which a market inefficiency exists because searching for a product is difficult, or involves research and/or background knowledge. Part of the value of the Apple brand is that people will pay some fraction of that cost to avoid that search while also being sure that their product actually works.
Tycho 6y ago
When you aren't price sensitive, you apply that sort of thinking to most things, if it's a one-off purchase. I do at least. I recently bought a car. I spent about a year deliberating over it, picking the right market segment, picking the right model, picking the right financing option. Last week I bought a microwave. I just walked into the store, looked at what they had on the shelf, and picked a Panasonic one that was around the right size I was looking for. I didn't even look at the features, I just looked at 'Panasonic.'
- Firerouge 6y ago
  > I didn't even look at the features, I just looked at 'Panasonic.' I suspect Panasonic hasn't added any new features to their microwaves in the last decade anyways
Lio 6y ago
The original point of product branding was to allow people to use it to purchase pre-packaged food from a source that they could trust. The commenter is simply saying that they can afford the price and that they trust Apple's brand not to disappoint them based on previous experience. That seems fair enough to me. Personally, I wouldn't buy these because I don't like the styling. I'm also moving towards products made by OEMs rather than outsourced manufacturing as I'm not too price sensitive. i.e. I'm not in the target market segment. If I could get over all that I'm sure these would be good enough.
honkdaddy 6y ago
Truly though, has there been another company which has produced such consistently high-quality consumer products over a 30+ year timeframe? I think there's a very real to be made for Apple zealotry; there really isn't another company like them.
- bun_at_work 6y ago
  It's true for the most part. They really do produce good quality products. The markup reflects the branding, true, but that's OK if the products are good. I wish Apple had a competitor in the US. Google competes with software and phones, but is losing the phone battle hard. Microsoft puts out an operating system that is too busy making sure legacy software from 1995 still runs. All (most) of the hardware "competitors" run Windows and can't compete on the performance side. We need a company that produces their own hardware and operating system that competes with Apple, I think.
  - fsflover 6y ago
    Not the scale of Apple, but: https://puri.sm/products https://puri.sm/products
    - zepto 6y ago
      That’s not a competitor. Here is a review: https://thatgeoguy.ca/blog/2020/12/06/Librem-5-Evergreen-vs-Pinephone/ https://thatgeoguy.ca/blog/2020/12/06/Librem-5-Evergreen-vs-... TLDR: If you want to join a community of people who are interested in working on a competitor, buy one of these, or a pinephone. I strongly encourage people to buy these and contribute, but don’t expect them to work as a daily driver.
- cestith 6y ago
  My Betamax VCR, my NES & SNES, my Realistic pocket radio, my microcassette recorder, my Matsushita 2X CD-ROM drives, my Tandy Color Computer 3, my DECMate III, my IBM PC 5150, my Toshiba Libretto, my Sony CD boombox, my ATI Mach-8 & Mach-32 video cards, my multiple XT & AT keyboards, and my A/V receiver with the built-in 8-track recorder would suggest maybe other companies are capable of it, yes.
bdcravens 6y ago
My take on that comment: "I don't have the expertise to separate one pair of high end headphones from another. My experience with Apple products tells me Apple consistently puts out products that meet or exceed my expectations, so by buying the Apple version of product_x, I feel it's a safe bet."
EdwardCoffin 6y ago
(interpreted) "I know nothing of OP's set of priorities..." "Not going to enquire after them, just make blind judgements of them compared to mine..." "I'll take OP's probably hyperbolic label of overpriced at face value, and criticize them for making a purchase they project to cost them only an extra $3.33/month ..." This elitist take is telling, though not really refreshing. I'm sure there are mindsets other than that of anti-Apple zealots, but none that exemplify the phenomenon more.
- dimator 6y ago
  I thought GP's summary was pretty accurate. I think yours is grasping to make GP sound elitist.
imtringued 6y ago
Razor is basically doing the same thing. People love sticking to brands.
JohnBooty 6y ago
I'm sure there are other brands with that sort of attachment, but none that exemplify the phenomenon more. Get off that high horse and take a really honest look at your own life, and you'll probably find dozens of examples. Do you research evvvvvvvvvvvvvverything you buy? Toothpaste? Underwear? Toothpicks? Ever order from Amazon even though something costs slightly more because you're not sure if the other retailer is trustworthy and you don't feel like spending an hour figuring out if Bob's Wholesale Toothpick Emporium is a site you can trust? I don't know about you, but my life is a combination of things I have obsessively researched and stuff where I just sort of relied on the brand name. When I need a pair of pants I usually just buy Levis or something because they'll be fine. I've only got so many hours in my life and I don't really feel like becoming a... pants expert.
- diffeomorphism 6y ago
  The point is that these are not even close to "costs slightly more". Getting "name brand" whatever is perfectly normal. Getting Ferrari scissors for four times a reasonable price because, hey you know Ferrari from <not at all scissors>, is not.
  - zepto 6y ago
    I presume you are making this statement with no firsthand experience of the product to base it on.
    - diffeomorphism 6y ago
      I presume you know that the Ferrari scissors are incredibly impressive and unlike any scissors before? What are you basing that claim on?
      - zepto 6y ago
        Do you have first hand experience of AirPods Max? Also, Ferrari don’t make scissors. To presume I have knowledge of something that doesn’t exist, is confabulation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confabulation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confabulation
unethical_ban 6y ago
"What is Brand recognition?" Apple doesn't shit on their own brand for a quick dollar. The HN reader might argue nuance, but their consumer base is the proof. There is nothing wrong with people having a bit of brand loyalty. It's one of a thousand shortcuts our brains take a day in making decisions.
zepto 6y ago
That “phenomenon” as you call it, is otherwise known as a satisfied customer. Nobody has time to exhaustively research every product they buy, and most people don’t have the inclination. Therefore when they find a company that meets their needs reliably, they tend to keep buying from them unless there is a problem. This is a normal feature of business. Every business tries to satisfy their customers in this way. If there is something special about Apple, it is that they have a lot of satisfied customers.

lnenad 6y ago

Tbh it's a valid point. I'm the same for Bosch home appliances, or Miele if I'm going for the long haul. It just works^TM

Unklejoe 6y ago
Well, for appliances, those are probably the same brands you'd end up with anyway even after doing research.
- andy_ppp 6y ago
  Yes, after less than a year my Samsung washing machine is making a horrendous grinding sound when spinning... I regret not getting a Miele that is likely to work better for longer.
  - Unklejoe 6y ago
    Okay, I wanted to say this before but felt it was too off topic: Never, ever, buy any Samsung appliances. I own a few rental properties. The failure rate on any and all Samsung appliances is insane. Their dryers are the worst. The belt tensioner is a plastic pulley with no bearing at all - it just rides on a sleeve. I've had a few of these go. The front loader washers use some sort of zinc mounting place that reacts with the stainless steel drum and causes a failure (usually right after the warranty is up). Just don't do it. With companies like Samsung, quality doesn't necessarily translate across divisions. Their phones may be okay, but those aren't the same people designing the appliances.
    - larrywright 6y ago
      I’ve heard similar stories from other people I know. In fact, I don’t think I’ve heard someone speak positively about them, so when I look for appliances I steer clear of Samsung. I’ve stuck with Whirlpool for the most part and been quite happy. Last year I bought a new house. Any guess what brand of appliances the kitchen came with?
    - davidwparker 6y ago
      Anecdotally, we've had Samsung washer/dryer for 4+ years now with no issues. But we've also had a Samsung double oven that had issues in year one.
    - cameronh90 6y ago
      I hugely regret buying a Samsung TV. I had sworn off Samsung due to bad experiences with their phones and other products, but there were enough positive reviews of the TV that I made an exception. Huge mistake. Terrible software, hardware bugs, issues with motion interpolation (even basic things like 24fps over 30hz judder reduction), audio sync issues with sound bar, etc. I'll get an LG soon.
    - thefourthchime 6y ago
      Since we're totally off topic I'll chime in and say all appliances are garbage now. Fridge, washing machine, drier? All total crap. I suspect it's because they are considered fashion items now, people want to show them off. So they spend all they money on finishes and gizmos and screens. Then spend as little as possible on durability.
  - claydavisss 6y ago
    The grinding sound is the pump trying to evacuate water. Your outbound filter is clogged. Look to the bottom left of the front of the unit, open the little door. Watch some Youtube videos on how to clean it. Agree with others that Samsung appliances aren't great, but if you inherited them like I did, you might as well learn the simple fixes.
    - andy_ppp 6y ago
      Thanks for the tip but I already checked the filter after phoning Samsung. I will check YouTube just in case I’ve not done it correctly though. Personally I think some research suggests it might be the suspension of the drum which should be easy to replace but there is no need for that to ever fail, even after < a year. Sorry for the off topic chat everyone :-/

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

Veen 6y ago

I'm not going to buy these because I'm happy with my WH-1000XM3's, but I understand the point the commenter was making. Most people do not have the time or the inclination to exhaustively survey the market and technology when they want to buy headphones, speakers, laptops, and so on. They use low-effort proxy signals to judge the quality and desirability of products. Brand is a reasonably reliable proxy and most Apple stuff is pretty good. At the very least, its rarely terrible, which you can't say about many other brands. If you know nothing about headphones but want a decent quality pair without looking into it too deeply, these are a rational option.

stef25 6y ago
> most Apple stuff is pretty good Their computers and general design is top shelf as far as I'm concerned, but when it comes to audio I'll put my trust in companies who've been in that specific business for decades. Apple Beats for example are a bit of a joke to anyone who knows anything about audio (and I don't mean people who spend $$$ on cables).
- geden 6y ago
  You’ve forgotten about the Homepod. That sounds pretty amazing for it’s size and price. (I work in the music industry and have an unhealthy interest in monitors / headphones)
- Spivak 6y ago
  You forgot that Apple owns Bose whose R&D is well-respected albeit a little controversial in the audiophile community. Their focus in the last decade was getting high-quality sound with middling commodity hardware and good software. Given that it's not surprising they're a good match for Apple. Edit: Looked it up and apparently Apple's buyout was an April Fools joke some years ago. I've definitely talked about it on HN before and I'm surprised nobody's corrected me until now.
  - IndrekR 6y ago
    > You forgot that Apple owns Bose Majority owner of Bose Corporation is MIT, yes, that MIT: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bose_Corporation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bose_Corporation

kube-system 6y ago

If time equals money, then a reliable track record also has monetary value, at least to the people who are not hobbyists.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

fatbird 6y ago

What you're calling "attachment", others would call "trust". Like the sibling comment, my wife and I got a Bosch dishwasher when we needed one because we didn't want to spend a couple days becoming dishwasher experts to save a couple hundred dollars and obtain some criterial best that we wouldn't even appreciate in practice. We went on the consensus around the brand and the experience of people we know who got one. I'm not sure why Apple receives this kind of contempt for having built a brand people trust for valid reasons (i.e., "I've had a consistently good experience trusting this brand"), going by the comment that's gotten so many bothered here.

Terrario 6y ago
> I'm not sure why Apple receives this kind of contempt Because to many, Apple is not a trusted brand. I got generic Bluetooth headphones off Amazon that were much better than the airpods for a 1/3rd of the price. Beats are a status commodity with a terrible sound profile and overpriced (hence status). I have little faith that these new cans are gonna be worth the pricetag.
14 6y ago
convert that price to Canadian dollars and you are over $700. What the F are you paying for? To me there is paying for a quality brand and just throwing your money away. I sometimes buy a nice pair of Nike shoes. They cost me 150$ vs 35$ for a cheap pair. But the difference in weight, feel under your foot, the quality of rubber all makes for a better shoe that you feel the difference. The AirPods is not one of those situations however that warrant this price and I think that is where the contempt comes from. Not that people should really care since we can buy many brands at a lower cost with same quality. But people like to hate on things that cost a lot of money I believe it is just human natural. I see it a lot on Facebook marketplace when someone posts something priced high several people will come on and make fun of the post and laugh at it. They never wanted to buy what was in the add to begin with but bother to take the time to complain about it. I am really sure there is some sort of human psychological drive happening in these cases. We just love to hate on expensive things.

fennecfoxen 6y ago

You are looking at a phenomenon that economics would describe as the Cost of Search. It is a situation in which a market inefficiency exists because searching for a product is difficult, or involves research and/or background knowledge. Part of the value of the Apple brand is that people will pay some fraction of that cost to avoid that search while also being sure that their product actually works.

Tycho 6y ago

When you aren't price sensitive, you apply that sort of thinking to most things, if it's a one-off purchase. I do at least. I recently bought a car. I spent about a year deliberating over it, picking the right market segment, picking the right model, picking the right financing option. Last week I bought a microwave. I just walked into the store, looked at what they had on the shelf, and picked a Panasonic one that was around the right size I was looking for. I didn't even look at the features, I just looked at 'Panasonic.'

Firerouge 6y ago
> I didn't even look at the features, I just looked at 'Panasonic.' I suspect Panasonic hasn't added any new features to their microwaves in the last decade anyways

Lio 6y ago

The original point of product branding was to allow people to use it to purchase pre-packaged food from a source that they could trust. The commenter is simply saying that they can afford the price and that they trust Apple's brand not to disappoint them based on previous experience. That seems fair enough to me. Personally, I wouldn't buy these because I don't like the styling. I'm also moving towards products made by OEMs rather than outsourced manufacturing as I'm not too price sensitive. i.e. I'm not in the target market segment. If I could get over all that I'm sure these would be good enough.

honkdaddy 6y ago

Truly though, has there been another company which has produced such consistently high-quality consumer products over a 30+ year timeframe? I think there's a very real to be made for Apple zealotry; there really isn't another company like them.

bun_at_work 6y ago
It's true for the most part. They really do produce good quality products. The markup reflects the branding, true, but that's OK if the products are good. I wish Apple had a competitor in the US. Google competes with software and phones, but is losing the phone battle hard. Microsoft puts out an operating system that is too busy making sure legacy software from 1995 still runs. All (most) of the hardware "competitors" run Windows and can't compete on the performance side. We need a company that produces their own hardware and operating system that competes with Apple, I think.
- fsflover 6y ago
  Not the scale of Apple, but: https://puri.sm/products https://puri.sm/products
  - zepto 6y ago
    That’s not a competitor. Here is a review: https://thatgeoguy.ca/blog/2020/12/06/Librem-5-Evergreen-vs-Pinephone/ https://thatgeoguy.ca/blog/2020/12/06/Librem-5-Evergreen-vs-... TLDR: If you want to join a community of people who are interested in working on a competitor, buy one of these, or a pinephone. I strongly encourage people to buy these and contribute, but don’t expect them to work as a daily driver.
cestith 6y ago
My Betamax VCR, my NES & SNES, my Realistic pocket radio, my microcassette recorder, my Matsushita 2X CD-ROM drives, my Tandy Color Computer 3, my DECMate III, my IBM PC 5150, my Toshiba Libretto, my Sony CD boombox, my ATI Mach-8 & Mach-32 video cards, my multiple XT & AT keyboards, and my A/V receiver with the built-in 8-track recorder would suggest maybe other companies are capable of it, yes.

bdcravens 6y ago

My take on that comment: "I don't have the expertise to separate one pair of high end headphones from another. My experience with Apple products tells me Apple consistently puts out products that meet or exceed my expectations, so by buying the Apple version of product_x, I feel it's a safe bet."

EdwardCoffin 6y ago

(interpreted) "I know nothing of OP's set of priorities..." "Not going to enquire after them, just make blind judgements of them compared to mine..." "I'll take OP's probably hyperbolic label of overpriced at face value, and criticize them for making a purchase they project to cost them only an extra $3.33/month ..." This elitist take is telling, though not really refreshing. I'm sure there are mindsets other than that of anti-Apple zealots, but none that exemplify the phenomenon more.

dimator 6y ago
I thought GP's summary was pretty accurate. I think yours is grasping to make GP sound elitist.

imtringued 6y ago

Razor is basically doing the same thing. People love sticking to brands.

JohnBooty 6y ago

I'm sure there are other brands with that sort of attachment, but none that exemplify the phenomenon more. Get off that high horse and take a really honest look at your own life, and you'll probably find dozens of examples. Do you research evvvvvvvvvvvvvverything you buy? Toothpaste? Underwear? Toothpicks? Ever order from Amazon even though something costs slightly more because you're not sure if the other retailer is trustworthy and you don't feel like spending an hour figuring out if Bob's Wholesale Toothpick Emporium is a site you can trust? I don't know about you, but my life is a combination of things I have obsessively researched and stuff where I just sort of relied on the brand name. When I need a pair of pants I usually just buy Levis or something because they'll be fine. I've only got so many hours in my life and I don't really feel like becoming a... pants expert.

diffeomorphism 6y ago
The point is that these are not even close to "costs slightly more". Getting "name brand" whatever is perfectly normal. Getting Ferrari scissors for four times a reasonable price because, hey you know Ferrari from <not at all scissors>, is not.
- zepto 6y ago
  I presume you are making this statement with no firsthand experience of the product to base it on.
  - diffeomorphism 6y ago
    I presume you know that the Ferrari scissors are incredibly impressive and unlike any scissors before? What are you basing that claim on?
    - zepto 6y ago
      Do you have first hand experience of AirPods Max? Also, Ferrari don’t make scissors. To presume I have knowledge of something that doesn’t exist, is confabulation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confabulation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confabulation

unethical_ban 6y ago

"What is Brand recognition?" Apple doesn't shit on their own brand for a quick dollar. The HN reader might argue nuance, but their consumer base is the proof. There is nothing wrong with people having a bit of brand loyalty. It's one of a thousand shortcuts our brains take a day in making decisions.

zepto 6y ago

That “phenomenon” as you call it, is otherwise known as a satisfied customer. Nobody has time to exhaustively research every product they buy, and most people don’t have the inclination. Therefore when they find a company that meets their needs reliably, they tend to keep buying from them unless there is a problem. This is a normal feature of business. Every business tries to satisfy their customers in this way. If there is something special about Apple, it is that they have a lot of satisfied customers.