[oblio]

It's not about features or performance for most of the population, who are light users. Most users of anything are not power users and modern smartphones are good enough for casual usage, since 2016 or so. Even mid range Android phones.

In the US iPhones are entrenched because of network effects (iMessage or whatever it's called) plus the Apple ecosystem. In the rest of the world where this is less the case, iPhones are a status symbol. Not even expensive Android phones have the halo iPhones have, especially in poorer countries.

Yes, people will enjoy the extra performance or extended software support, but that's not why they will buy them. I doubt 99% of regular users even know about those aspects.