I could arguably be called a fanboy so I shall avoid commenting on apple's products here, however HP was mentioned and I've had nothing but pain with their laptops.
First was a tx1 which basically overheated itself and caused the graphics chip to desolder itself from the board (a common problem with HP's of the time)
Thankfully with an extended warranty, it was replaced, this time for a dv3. Conveniently just after a year, the battery goes. Won't charge up and a pretty expensive for a new one.
Bottom line, I think people are happy to pay the apple premium to deal with their after sales care which on the whole seems to be painless.