Searching for comparable quality ear-buds

I was never much into music, but since getting my first iPod I've grown to love music and I listen to it whenever I am able to. After about a year of listening to music on the Pod I upgraded from the original box ones (which actually had plastic peeling off it on some parts at this point) to Apple's in-ear headphones with the remote-mic control-capsule (pictured bellow). This is probably the best ear-phone I personally have ever tried.



This was the first time I tried (and felt) real sound-isolation in action, and it was like night-and-day compared to the old plain ones that came in the box. I find these provide (well provided, more on that later) even more direct and clear music than my big clunky Shures do. I can get the same full feeling from other earphones, but I feel like I have to crank the volume up to an uncomfortable level. I don't know what it is about those buds, it probably has to do with the in-ear thing. I am able to get super full sound from them without having my ear-drum feel like it's being beaten on like a drum.

The warranty covered these ear-phones for a full year, in that time I broke these things 3 times. Apple's customer care was pretty much flawless. Each time they just had to confirm something was wrong, look at my receipt, and hand me a new pair. Only one time the problem was this really annoying static I kept hearing in one of the speakers, and the clerk told me he didn't notice anything, I had to insist a bit but in the end he replaced them. So now the year is up and I broke them once more (sat on them while they were in a back pocket like an idiot), and I need a replacement. I'm tempted to go back and get another pair, it feels like it was a worthwhile investment. But a lot of my friends "the kind who call me an Apple Fanboi" often tell me that I'm an idiot for paying 100$ (89$ on the price tag, comes to about 103 dollars with taxes) for earbuds like these. They tell me that I can get better earphones for the same price, or equally good ones for less. But every time I ask for examples they pull extremes. 150$ ones that will obviously be higher quality but that are far beyond my price range, or 50$ ones that don't look as comfortable or that aren't in-ear/sound-isolation. What I would simply like is a small list of suggestions for ear-bud alternatives to these Apple ones I love, similar in-ear ones that won't go over the 100$ price tag, and yet offer equal (or ideally superior) sound quality.

I know audio equipment is a HUGELY relative field with a very wide range of preferences, but I'd just like some suggestions for now. I was hoping to wait a bit longer to save up some money, tough it out with my current cheap ones. But these old Sonys (with the regular hard plastic ear-piece) are actually hurting my ears when I wear them too long. It's not the sound that hurts, it's the lack of that subtle tiny silicon tip that the Apple's had, and that I'd grown so accustomed to. Oh, and sorry for the wall-o-text, I just want to be thorough in my inquiry.