[Tekhne]

This article follows a line of reasoning about quality which seems to lead to the conclusion, in part, that Apple makes superior products. My question is "compared to what?"

The conclusion is drawn based on the fallacious view that the properties optimized by Apple are universally important. Britney Spears may be hot and rich, but I wouldn't consider her a quality mate. She doesn't meet the minimum set of criteria I'm looking for. In the same vein, not all of Apple's products optimize on properties I care about (e.g. open source, full control of configuration, etc.). Lots of other people probably disagree on both counts, and that's okay.

The point is that while I agree quality is important, it's just as important to know what properties of a thing you're judging or optimizing, and why. This is especially true since the resources for producing anything are finite.

[llimllib]

Seems to me that the only conclusion he comes to is that Apple makes quality products. Where does he imply that they're superior?

[elblanco]

But he doesn't even come to that conclusion in a logical way.