What is the attraction of iPhones ??

px_eliezer_

In the news are speculations that iPhones could end up costing $3,500 or whatever.

But even without that, they are already far more expensive than many very good mid-range Androids, and somewhat more expensive than flagship Androids.

So I ask—please educate me—what it is about the iPhone that makes it worth so much extra money, or camping out in the street for the latest model?

What’s it about—sound quality, camera, processing speed and gaming, tradition, ignorance, inertia, snobbery, updates, something else ???

Has to be SOMETHING that makes it worth such a super-inflated price.

I’ve not used iPhones much, but my wife has, and she likes Androids much better, much more intuitive she says.

urbanriot

This is a topic that’s as fraught with emotion as discussing politics as people can be extremely emotional on the topic for no understandable reason.

First off, we all have to acknowledge there’s cult-like support for Apple products. I know people who will spend more than they can afford on Apple products and accessories and regularly complain about issues they’re having because Apple wasn’t really the right product for them. This certainly isn’t all the users but there are plenty of these people who will buy Apple and be inefficient using Apple but it’s Apple so… yea.

But then there are also other valid reasons:

Homogeneity - every Apple phone is part of the Apple ecosystem with the same operating system, with no modifications. Whereas one manufacturer’s Android phone is entirely different from another person’s Android phone.
The interface for those who like it - personally I don’t agree with the point that it’s ‘better’ or ‘easier to use’ than Android because some flavours of Android are more intuitive in my opinion, but that’s really the point - the interface is better for some people than Android, just as Android is more intuitive for other people.
Expected level of quality - They’re not the most reliable phones on the market but they’re also not the worst, you know when you buy an Apple product it’s going to be somewhere between 65 - 75% more reliable than others but certainly not the most reliable product that’s out there. There’s a comfort in knowing your device is ‘decent’.
Amazing support - There is no other phone manufacturer I’m aware of who has the same quality of support that Apple has. I’ve called Apple support and actually spoke with someone in my own city.
Familiarity - iOS hasn’t fundamentally changed in 15 years. When I go and get my iPad 2, it’s extremely similar to my 9th generation iPad Air or whatever it’s called. At the same time, if I grab my Lenovo Android Tab or my Samsung Android tablet, they’re remarkably different beasts.

I’m sure there are other reasons that people can provide.

I might be a bit of an anomaly because I use both Apple iOS and Android products, I have a Samsung S25 Ultra phone but my preferred tablet is my 9th gen iPad Air for most tasks, except watching media in which case I prefer my 10.1″ Lenovo Android Tab (something or other) which has amazing sound and of course a large screen.

Why do I prefer my Android phone over Apple?

multitasking apps, like I can stream a football game on DirecTV on a designated area of my screen like 75% while I type an email on the remaining screen
multi-level clipboard functionality, like if I copy, and then copy something else, and copy something else, I can paste selectively within the history of clipboards
awesome native picture to text recognition
the ability to configure my AI to take a voice note, transcribe it to text, and send it both as text and audio to the recipient, something I do all the time after I’ve visited some work sites
lower cost peripherals
at around 11pm my phone is configured to turn off bluetooth, quiet texts, quiet ringtone, quiet notifications, etc., then at 7 AM it sets ringtone normal, turns on bluetooth, turns on the radio (for morning news), turns on the light in winter, then at 8am sets notifications to normal audio. I mean I can literally set my phone with the native operating system to turn on the lights during winter with very little effort.
less bugs and glitches, Apple has a notorious track record for fixing issues reported in their update feedback forums (6 - 8 months on serious issues)

You can probably do some or all of those things on an Apple phone but most of the Apple people I talk to have said ‘no’ to a few of the things I’ve asked them.

HELLFIRE

px_eliezer_ what it is about the iPhone that makes it worth so much extra money

Three Words : The Apple Ecosystem.

px_eliezer_ I’ve not used iPhones much

Feel free to give Apple a try, but quite frankly, you hit the nail on the head : why would one pay that much for a phone for no specific reason?

Full Disclosure :

I’ve tried friends’ iPhones before but never got into the Apple Ecosystem
I’ve only used Android (non-Google),but I was a late bloomer
I’ve never used RIM Blackberry or Windows Phone.
I look at it much like a computer / laptop / tablet. A. what’s your day-to-day use for it, B. find something YOU are comfortable with and learn it well.

My John Lawton 00000010bits

Regards

telcodad

My first cellphone was a Nokia 5160. I then went though a number of Nokia phones and then a number of LG models.

At one point, I moved to an LG model that used the Android OS. After LG stopped making cell phones, I then moved to Samsung models.

Other family members eventually moved to Apple iPhones, however. 🙁

HooRU

Apple phones have high quality hardware.

They have a highly controlled ecosystem

The have a fenced courtyard of apps

Some apps are only available with Apple or only first available on Apple

It’s a status symbol, like Nikes and Coach

JanJ

My wife had an Apple phone and upgraded, so I got her old phone. Took a while to understand how things get done in Apple. I was thinking windows so I kept hitting roadblocks in OS on how to do things.
Eventually I caught on, learning to do what I wanted to do by choosing the correct Apps to accomplish what i want to do, not OS.
In other words, work arounds. Some Apple operations still confuse me to this day, others are completely logical. I’m adapting pretty good.
There have been upgrade bugs, but fixes too.
The apps let me do what I wanted to do, and the phone works. Went from used 6, to SE2020, now 15. Battery, or the lack of: has been deciding factor on when to upgrade - battery dies, and updates stop: it’s time. As I’m a creature of habit, or in this case, creature of knowing what work arounds can be used to get where I want to go…..
I didn’t consider an android at any upgrade, as I knew what apps did what, and didn’t want any further learning curves

px_eliezer_

urbanriot

Many thanks for your extended analysis.

Thanks to everyone else as well.

dave

I’m an iPhone user; mrs. (acting) dave was an Android user, but has since switched to iPhone. I find the iPhone to have a better UI, it feels more responsive, etc. Mostly I have no reason to change.

The price so far is not a determiner for me - not because I can afford to throw money away, but because I don’t need the latest shiny. I used an iPhone 8S for maybe 7 years; I had to replace it because the USB charging connector failed, and getting it fixed exceeded the phone’s worth. The replacement was the iPhone SE, which is basically the 8S with an updated CPU – very far from being ‘top of the line’. I think it was maybe $500 with some pitiful trade-in rebate for the dead phone. In any case, I expect to amortize the price over 5 years at least (likely lack of software support will be what kills it).

I should maybe add that I use the phone as a communication device (voice, text message, whatsapp just for family) and satnav system, and as a convenient camera. And lately as a parking-lot payment device. If I need a computer, I already have those. (And none of them are Apple devices - go figure).,

What will probably turn me off the iPhone eventually is the move to ever-larger devices (I chose the SE because it was the smallest phone they sold) and the deteriorating UI (the SE still has a real home button).

real_aurgathor

px_eliezer_ In the news are speculations that iPhones could end up costing $3,500 or whatever.

Apple has chartered cargo flights for a strategic airlift of 660 (!!) tonnes of iPhones, so a price increase is most certainly not imminent.

telcodad

real_aurgathor Apple has chartered cargo flights for a strategic airlift of 660 (!!) tonnes of iPhones, so a price increase is most certainly not imminent.

I wonder when Apple started measuring iPhones by the Kg? 🙂

Let’s see, a “tonne” is 1000 Kg, and the newer iPhones are around 170 to 199 (for a plus) grams, so 660 million /180 is 3,666,667 iPhones - Wow! Is that right? Maybe “660 tonnes” is the “gross” weight and not “net?”

Donoreo

Worldwide, it is a 70% - 30% ish split - for Android. It is ONLY North America that Apple has a 60% - 40% ish

Someone mentioned the Apple ecosystem, except that the vast majority of people with iPhones, do not have Mac computers since in the US MacOS is only about 17% ish of the market.

I use a Mac, but I use a Google Pixel phone. I switched from iPhone after the 4S because Android phones at the time had better features for a lower price.

broknsymetry

Placing this here because of its relevance to the topic…

Smartphones and computers are now exempt from Trump’s latest tariffs

telcodad

broknsymetry Smartphones and computers are now exempt from Trump’s latest tariffs

OK, so when does Apple start their special spring clearance sale on 660 tonnes of iPhones? 😉

px_eliezer_

broknsymetry Placing this here because of its relevance to the topic…

Smartphones and computers are now exempt from Trump’s latest tariffs

I don’t get it, what’s the point of the tariffs with that sort of exemption ??

px_eliezer_

real_aurgathor Apple has chartered cargo flights for a strategic airlift of 660 (!!) tonnes of iPhones, so a price increase is most certainly not imminent.

Maybe they did that, maybe not…?

The report is in a lot of foreign media even from Uzbekistan.

Reuters ran the story too, but they say it’s from “sources” and I’ll agree with some of our friends here that a story based on just “sources” should be viewed with some skepticism… 😃

Snopes is skeptical of the story.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/examining-claim-apple-flew-5-013000041.html

real_aurgathor

telcodad OK, so when does Apple start their special spring clearance sale on 660 tonnes of iPhones?

Not sure, but I wouldn’t wait on it.

According to the news, that 660 tonnes were about 1.5 million iPhones.

broknsymetry Smartphones and computers are now exempt from Trump’s latest tariffs

I wonder if that also means exception from the 10% baseline tariff, or just the above 10% tariffs.

Rich221976

px_eliezer_

I switch from Android to Apple before I started to own other Apple Products. I switched over to Apple when the iPhone 5c came out. I been with Apple ever since.

The main issues I had back then were that the Android systems would just keep crashing. This is the original software, not rooted. Then in order to update the phones to the latest software I would have to root them most of the time, since the software updates weren’t always given out.

That would be the main reasons for me to switch to Apple iPhones. It’s the fact that I will receive the latest updated. (At least for about 7 years). I can install the next iOS that comes out very easily. They have been stable. They don’t crash very often.

I made the official switch after this Android phone was broken. I ended up going through three different replacement ones and they all failed. So at that point was the breaking point and I got my first iPhone.

Now that I also use other Apple Products, and use the integrated features I could never go back to using Android.

Right now I am using my Mac Studio. I am using the iPhone Mirroring program to use my phone on my computer. I can access my Home Screen and use the phone there as if I am using the device right in my hand.

I can make and receive phone calls on my Mac Studio as if I had the phone in my hand. That comes in handy incase I leave the phone in the bedroom. I can answer calls and put them on speaker in the office and just use the computer to talk to anyone.

With the text-message forwarding feature on the device, I can send and receive all text messages on my Mac.

I never was an Apple fan in the beginning. I always hated them and did’t care for the software. However, after a few laptop that died on me and getting my first Mac book pro that I was able to run both Mac and Windows on it, changed the way I felt about Apple.

I slowly ended up cutting down the use on Microsoft Windows and started to use the Mac os software more.

I have a windows computer here, that the only thing it is used for is the Forscan for checking the Engine codes to my ford vehicle.

dave

px_eliezer_ I don’t get it, what’s the point of the tariffs with that sort of exemption ??

Flattery will probably get you a long way.

telcodad

px_eliezer_ Snopes is skeptical of the story.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/examining-claim-apple-flew-5-013000041.html

There is this comment to that article:

They’ll avoid tariffs, but will still raise prices on them now.

I have to agree, companies will start using “the tariffs” as an excuse now to raise prices, even with stuff already in their U.S. warehouses or store backrooms.

Already I’ve been hearing about “tariff surcharges” being added to bills now,

It’s like when crude oil prices suddenly jump up due to some crisis, and the price at the gas stations goes up 10 cents a gallon the next day - no way did any of that crude get refined into gasoline overnight!

Donoreo

Rich221976 The main issues I had back then were that the Android systems would just keep crashing. This is the original software, not rooted. Then in order to update the phones to the latest software I would have to root them most of the time, since the software updates weren’t always given out.

Odd, I have never had this problem. I have used Sony, Samsung and Google. Never experienced any of that.