I can only speak for myself and my kids. I have an iPhone because my work gave me one for free. They only support iPhone for security reasons. Keeping Android devices up to date across a large fleet is challenging leaving security gaps. For my kids they wanted my old iPhones because it’s what all their friends have.

Honestly, if you can tolerate the Apple ecosystem it works really well, with adequate privacy. My wife and my mother both use them and I recommend it for anyone who isn't a privacy nerd.

If the user isn't willing to jump through hoops to lock shit down, Apple offers a better suite across platforms for privacy and security.

I like the user experience. I like the quality of the third party apps available. I like Apple's stated commitment to privacy. I don't trust Google.

I’ve used an IPhone since 4s. I have a 13 Plus Max. However. I used to have android devices. I always enjoy the UI/UX on the iPhone over the Android os. Even after working for the Android team. I still preferred iOS. I know I’m missing out to some awesome android features. But I can always jailbreak and add those features like I have on my iPad mini cellular. Which worked with Google Fi somehow. After jailbreaking. And my iPhone 6.

Because they are easily gullible.

You have to connect it to a server to even use it

That's also true of the versions of Android that 99.99% of people use

cannot have any third-party apps without an online account.

Most people don't care. They'll use the suggested app store and have an account already.

Right or not, it is what it is.

Not an iphone user, but am intrigued by all the ads the apple people say are on androids. Literally have never seen one, and I've had adjusted androids since the og htcs.

Because my belief in political freedom has nothing to do with my phone choice and it would be odd to conflate the two.

When I had an android I had to spend a lot more time making sure apps would work with my phone and that my phone would be "secure" whereas I have less concerns of that with apple.

Simply put with apple I dont have to do as much work to make sure things work.

The average American is a fucking idiot and half of them are dumber than that

Because an iPhone isn’t “that” expensive when you buy it on a plan. I mean it’s only $38 CAD for the new iPhone 6e on a Contract. That’s with my paycheque to paycheque budget. /s

Though honestly that’s the mind set of these users. Sure they are literally paying $100+ CAD more than MSRP. But to them since it includes the data it’s a good deal.

Now bellow is my view as a guy who manages and orgs fleet of Samsung phone, developed apps for both Android and iOS, and is the defacto IT guy for my family.

I think the lean towards iPhones comes from budget Android being crap, and peer pressure from those around them. Get a cheap A series Samsung or a Budget Acer and you are just asking for a slow and buggy experience where the mic will just stop working after 2 years. Or it’s running Android One.

Even an older iPhone like the 6s is still supported by many apps. Plus since it once had flagship specs. The soc has more power and runs better than anything new from Android. It’s the same logic that if you get an older iPad for the same price as a new Fire Tablet the iPad will be better than a fire tablet.

The solution is to get a more expensive Android. But once you get to the price point of a Samsung S series, you might as well get an iPhone. The price is comparable, and you don’t loose out on features like the App Store (google play is a steaming pile in comparison). Plus iMessage and FaceTime is seamless and Airdrop “just works”.

My relative had Android for years and struggled to use them. I finally convinced one of them to use an iPhone XR by the time the 14 was coming out, and now my Nan is texting and doing FaceTime. They could’ve done this before with the budget Android their carrier gave them. But the work Apple did to make it feel intuitive is brilliant. In fact because of the confidence boost from the iPhone, she’s even gotten herself an iPad to do her crossword puzzles.

On top of that, unlike Apple. There is no guarantee that if you pay more for you Android that I’ll keep getting support. Most phones struggle to offer more than 2 years. And with the fiasco around the Pixel 4 battery, it’s hard to believe the biggest players “promises”. Compare that to Apple and while the promise 7 years, realistically it can be 10 years.

For me the reason I swapped over was the Play Store being hot garbage. And the disgusting amount of uninstallable bloat on it. I tried for years to install custom ROMs and midrange Chinese phones to get around it. While it works, I grew tired of the work required just to keep my phone up to date. And the loss of built in features since I was going u official. Like the loss of 2/3 cameras in the app (trying to find a cracked gcamera which enables both is a chore), and contactless pay (evolution x worked sometime, and locked me out other time).

Don’t get me wrong iOS isn’t better than Android. I miss my headphone jack, FDroid, side loading my own apps, the ease of adding custom ringtones, and custom launcher. Oh and being able to use 3rd party web browsers that aren’t skins of Safari (WebKit). But when updates come through I’m not concerned. My contactless pay works. Ad blocking is possible and I can’t complain about the cameras.

Why do most [insert country here] people use [insert brand from their country here]???

The binary choice is the freedom. As many people in this thread have discussed, it’s not a real choice, but it’s simple enough that most people will put on blinders and accept the available options.

I use iPhone. It sucks but network effect from people in my circle brought me here

android user now but basically... it might be that most of us Americans try to take the path of least resistance or whatever doesn't give us headaches. I mean like, almost everything we do (except taxes) are pretty simplified. And even for taxes, we can LITERALLY pay for services to simplify or do it for us ( like wtf, this is kinda stupid). Apple does a good job of making it an easy experience.

1. easy to use - like an automatic car vs manual car.

2. popular apps just work - I don't think its a problem now but I remember when some social media apps were just broken on android vs iphone.

3. a lot of the software looks pretty clean and fancy. Gives it a polished experience.

4. HARD TO LEAVE - Apple products work better with other apple products. Once you leave, you basically lose out on all the purchases you've made over the years.

5. Apple store support - life saver for most people

6. Security updates more consistent.

Hell, trying to adjust from typing with iphone keyboard to android keyboard took longer than expected.

Also our government issues out iphones for fed employees.

Honestly, at this point, the only reason to go with either ecosystem is that Android, for now, allows you to escape Google, to some degree depending on how much work you're willing to put in. IOS/apple doesn't allow that

But, Google is trying hard to get to the same place.

But, ignoring that, apple got there first. That's what it amounts to. The first real smart phone was by Apple, and that gave them a leg up