It's not unique to Apple. Nike, Porsche, Mercedes, BMW, Yankees, and many others do the same thing. It's known as cult branding. There's a good book on it called" The Power of Cult Branding" by Mathew Ragas.
Many companies try it, but very very few succeed. Nike, MB, BMW and the Yankees don't count IMO. Apple, Porsche and Harley Davidson do, and I can't think of any other examples.
I'm going to have to disagree with you when you say "the Yankees don't count". Sport teams (at least in the USA) elicit a huge religion-esque response. I don't watch sports because it seems, to me, that most of the fans at games are caught in fanatical religious worship of their chosen team. It's depressing to see all their passion directed at something non-contributive like sports.
I can see why you might say Yankees don't count, but I think sports teams do count as brands.
There are others--Leica cameras, Rolex, Starbucks, Linux, Vans, Star Trek/Wars.
I don't think it's something you set out to attain, look at the airline Song for an example of how this backfires. I think being a cult brand is a status you attain after reaping several generations of loyal customers.
The first other one that actually came to my mind was Microsoft. I can't count the number of zealots I encountered that bowed before Microsoft software überness, regardless of how far you stick their nose through glaring deficiencies, refusing to even begin to consider any alternative, whatever the context.
The study itself does not surprise me the least. It's no wonder we describe such close-minded people zealots and fanatics, both terms having a religious history.
