all i can go off of is my own experience. i can’t think of any other consumer electronics that have just outright failed like my apple products have. it is significant. and no one else is claiming those other products are built better than everything else, which is part of my point. apple markets and hypes themselves like no other company, and people just end up repeating what apple says, where apple gives no data to back up their claims. they just state it as fact, and yet, in many people’s experience, apple products fail just as if not more often than other brands.

and you are missing the point as well that many of these issues on the apple products are long standing issues across multiple iterations of them. just search bluetooth audio not working on macbook pro’s (iPads and iPhones have been fine in my experience). it is specific to them. and again, i have never had a single issue with other bluetooth devices and audio. (there’s an interesting issue too with bluetooth headphones. for certain bluetooth headphones, mac os x will automatically open itunes upon connect, and there’s nothing you can do other than having to go through a convoluted process to basically rename itunes so that it doesn’t get launched. this isn’t “just works”. and again, pointing other issues with other brands is irrelevant because it is apple that is being claimed as robust and always working.)

and the branding thing is still not addressed. my lg v35 is every bit as good as my girlfriend’s and brother’s iPhone xs max and even has major features the iPhone doesn’t have, and yet, it was almost half the price. you can’t explain that any other way than people pay apple for the brand.

Apple themselves doesn't really compare themselves to PC manufacturers any longer, so that's probably by journalists being edgy as always.

My experience with PC:s and Bluetooth has been very different from yours. One time I even remember buying a Bluetooth dongle even though the motherboard had it built in, just to make it connect. But to be honest it more than a decade ago.

I'm actually in process of upgrading from iPhone SE to LG V30 or Xiaomi Mi, though I really don't like switching from Apples ecosystem especially now when they are getting even more privacy-focused. I can understand why the iPhone XR and the likes are so expensive from the spec-sheet, but I really don't need those specs (especially if you factor in non-linearity of pricing, so a 10% "better" camera might mean a 40% more expensive camera chip). LG V30 has a lot of cool features so it's still a massive upgrade for me. End-to-end screen, good battery life and wireless charging.

>The only ones that have data points on this I assume are insurance companies.

So much this, not saying Apple's product are perfect ( Far from it ), they are just comparatively ( Not selectively comparing, but over all ) better. And yes I think by Numbers BMW might even be less reliable than the Toyota, but people still buy BMW, for quality that is hard to quantify in numbers.

It is one reason I really wish SurfaceBook and Chrome Book could do better. Apple need some competition to keep them sane.

BMW consistintly ranks at the bottom of reliability raitings, and toyota at the top. Its hard to compre the difference in construction. BMW has more luxury feel, but the fit and finish, and general construction are not on par with their japneese rivals.