Inside Apple's perfectionism machine

A bit of a fluff piece, as these articles tend to be, but still a fun and great read."No. 1, the importance and value of great hardware has not diminished in any way," he said. "Across the board, our goal is to make the best in the categories we choose to compete in. It's what we're doing and it's reflected in customers choosing our products over anyone else's. So I do think people are showing with their choice that they do value quality and beauty of the hardware and that is not diminishing.""I have never heard anyone say, 'Because I like to keep my stuff in the cloud, I will take a cheap piece of hardware and I want it to be ugly.' All things being equal, of course, nobody wants that," Schiller said.While I personally believe Apple's software leaves a lot to be desired, and even though Apple sometimes makes absolutely ridiculous hardware choices (5400RPM? Seriously?), there's no denying that when it comes to the sheer feel of Apple's hardware - such as my iPhone 6S, or retina MacBook Pro - they really are in a league of their own. They say the latest Galaxy phones and the new Nexus 6P come close, but I haven't used them yet.In any event, especially compared to other PC OEMs, Apple is so far ahead it's not even a contest anymore, really. Let's hope Microsoft's hardware efforts finally - finally - lights a few fires.