I'm equally impressed by the Apple adapter. They make expensive stuff, but they legitimately don't cut corners. It's nice to see there's still one consumer electronics company that still does that.
It bugs me that Apple customers seem to get ripped off by their brand for simple things & then they thank them for it. I'm glad a 3rd party market for Apple stuff finally emerged. I remember the dark ages when you couldn't even tell your friend "check ebay I'm sure theres one of those..."
Part of the reason I am still in the PC world vs Mac (I build my own powerhouse desktops for research data-mining & gaming, buy cheap laptops for practical use) is that the multitude of companies making parts means they find the proper price/quality balance much more often.
I'm glad this author gives credit to the off-brand. I'm very impressed with the quality of cheap Chinese electronics, and if it breaks you have 8 or so more tries to get it right before you reach the same amount spent. & plus, let's face it the main problem with this stuff is that you lose it, not that it breaks so I have a tendency to sway way toward the cheaper end with non-essential cabling & components for that reason.
Inside my research PCs is a different story... no expense spared on CPU/GPU/drives/mobo/etc. :D
And an Apple adapter: http://www.righto.com/2012/05/apple-iphone-charger-teardown-...
The Apple device is UL listed, so they can't cut the same corners the Chinese manufacturer can. The same is true of any UL listed USB power adapter.