Apple: solid product portfolio, not a lot of thinking and deciding needs to be done when you go to them, since almost everything is preset for you. Their design, hardware, software, and integrity is a nice balance, not too much, not that little. Pricing of their devices is also done so that it's not too expensive but not that cheap. In short, I think they are a very balanced company, and their products are very balanced in quality, design, and pricing. Perhaps that's why many like them.
Samsung: striving to be the giant of Korean pride, these guys are all about looks and physical... the hardware thing. It doesn't take another second for me to nominate their devices for a fashion show. Their current product portfolio is impressive, and so are their designs. These guys are all about looks and exotic hardwares inside, and lately, for "certain reasons" (that I would not like to discuss), they have been churning out hardwares so powerful that they floor the competition even before they are benchmarked. If there is any metric for hardware and build quality, these guys should be on it, if they aren't already the de facto. Sadly, their software side isn't as impressive, but if looks matter more, look no further.
HTC: these guys understand business the best. Their devices focus especially on solid construction, stable operation, and professional presentation. They won't win any fashion show or award, but their phones can help sell mountains and islands. However, they dug their own graves. Since their devices were so good, none of them broke down and gave users any reason to upgrade to their newer phones. Thus they haven't sold as much as they used to, but hey, they supplied the business world with phones that work well over a decade and outdid themselves. If that's not respectable, I don't know what is.
RIM: this here is the only company back in the days who dared to invade HTC's market, and they did it with style, and some strong backup. While others focus on looks and stability, these guys focused on the one thing that mattered most: usability. Their phones were useful, plain and simple. But they rested on their laurels, and before they could realize it, what worked in 2000 wouldn't still work in 2010. They are scrambling (in anguish, if I may add) to catch up. How that is going to play out, well, we'll see, but they did catch up and gave HTC a run for their money back 10 years ago.
Motorola/Nokia: if you ask me, these guys are like the elders of the industry. They walk slowly and seemingly painful, but with grace. They talk slowly and gently, but clear and precise. They give off that war veteran kind of feeling, and so do their phones. Their devices look like they can quite literally go to war for you, with camouflaged clothings, backpack, guns, knives, and everything, and after the war, they'll come back telling you they want to fight another war. These are very well-trained soldiers, and they will go through hell and back with or without you. Motorola is joining the new war alone while Nokia is recruiting Microsoft's help. Whether you like it or not, these guys have been through wars like these before, and regardless of whether they won or not, they survived. That's short of "watch out for them old men, they got guns!"
Acer/LG/Sony/Dell/HP/etc: These guys are like civil inventors. They sometimes come out with something cool, and everyone flocks to them, then it turns out they can't keep up with their promises, and everyone leaves them until the next time they invent something else. That's just the gist of it. In the case of HP, it's kind of a mixed bag because they acquired Palm, and Palm alone is/was a considerable force in the mobile game. It's like knowing the guy at the end of your street turned out to have some incredible savings in his bank account, so he went out to buy that giant mobile company, and now you're waiting to see how his money will help the mobile giant introduce something new. One thing is for sure though, no matter how much I dislike racist or disrespectful remarks,
accent is just bad for a sneak peek, and I sincerely hope the final product won't have any kind of "accent".