Very simple. Apple teaches its customers how to use a computer. And Apple fans want to know what the next thing is because they trust the judgement of the company above their own judgement. Apple is the only company that can say “well we aren’t doing this because we think the way we’ve been doing it is better” and people will give them the benefit of the doubt. Touchscreen desktops is a great example. That would never fly with Android. It can fly with Windows but that is a different conversation because people pay thousands of dollars to get certified in Windows and they owe their entire IT career to Microsoft. So you’ll always get apologists there but it is understandable. Samsung understood this psychology early on and emulated what Apple did down to the detail and that is why that company has a loyal following as well. Some of their success is because they copied Apple’s look and feel for the iPhone but a lot of it is because they created entire ecosystems around their phone and provided their phones with overpowered hardware that could handle those ecosystems well, unlike other Android manufacturers throwing underpowered hardware against the wall leaving customers to struggle as soon as they were able to upgrade their OS or installed a bunch of apps. Never the case with Samsung’s flagship phones. Their budgets phones is a different conversation.

I’m not saying that there aren’t power users or seasoned users when it comes to Apple devices. But I am saying, that the way the devices are designed, and the cult of Apple, which is something the company built with users going back to their earliest experiences with Apple computers in elementary school, is all about learning. But in my opinion it is not about thinking outside of the box.

For your specific case scenario with whatever Apple is suggesting that people can do with their iPhone, the iPhone is probably the best tool for the job and the easiest to get into. Take something like screen mirroring, which can be done so many different ways on Android. With Apple you just use Air Drop and an Apple TV to do what you need to do and forget about the rest. On Android you can use Miracast, or you can use a Chromecast, or mirror onto a PC in a web browser or mirror onto a tablet or even another phone if you want to. Android also has the idiosyncrasy of ‘I have a Samsung TV so I’ll get a Samsung phone to mirror to my Samsung TV” or a LG phone to a LG TV, etc.

None of that confusion with Apple. Just use Air Drop, make your life easier.

And Apple has done that with so many different things. Where Android users are using Wi-Fi Direct, or Bluetooth, among other things, to communicate directly between phones Apple has their supported method that most users are going to use. When was the last time you saw an iPhone user with just some regular pair of Bluetooth headphones, now that Apple has their own in ear buds? Android; you don’t know what peripherals someone is going to use with what phone.

Android is a lot like PC. People get whatever works, whatever is cheap, or whatever they can afford, and there isn’t a lot of loyalty, except maybe among Samsung and LG users. A few people are still into Motorola and of course you have Google Pixel fans out there but that is about it. You don’t have to purchase the entire companies ecosystem.

Then there are things that Apple is trying to push that people just don’t pick up on. Like Apple was seriously trying to push augmented reality, with the iPhone X, and nobody listened. Also makes you wonder, for the 64 bit processing they have in the phones do customers really appreciate or understand what they’re really getting themselves into. In a good way. Like the old iPhone SE is still more powerful than a lot of larger Android phones on the budget market. But I would never pick one up because it doesn’t work for the way I want to use a phone, but I can see where someone else would.

The iPhone is wonderful for being reliable on the most basic things, but then if you want to download a bunch of apps, or just get deeper into what Apple has to offer, it is more than enough to keep the average person occupied. It has always had one of the more powerful image processing capabilities of any smartphone, even going back to the iPhone 4. The audio is always loud and robust; nice equalization and never muffled or anything. Always a good experience in that way. But aside from that I prefer Android’s glide keyboards, and launchers, and how every OEM has a totally different look and feel. iPhone feels a lot like Facebook to me; very standardized, everyone gets the same look and feel. The way in which people use their own phone is the only real differentiation.