I was a Windows and Linux user for nearly two decades before really giving Mac an shot, and still engage regularly with both. My first smartphones were Android. I’ve done tons of development work on both the iOS and Android platforms, and been exposed to a mountain of devices from both.
As far as I’m concerned nobody’s even trying to compete with Apple. There are other personal computing products but none of them address the same market as Apple at all. The tiny set of possible competitors for their space all seem to have decided not to even try.
[edit] and, to be clear, I’d very much prefer that they had competition in their segment. Even if I stuck with them, it’d at least put competitive pressure on them to improve and/or cut prices.
That's a weird look. What is that market segment nobody is even trying to compete in?
Integrated ecosystem is something a number of players have tried and failed at, as they simply don't have the resources to build it up and sustain it until they are competitive.
Apple has started small too: tiny little iPods with iTunes + digital content sales really put them back on the map, before they scored a hit with iPhone which was an iPod touch with a modem. They have been riding the iPhone wave since, gobbling up money with iPhone and iPad manufacture and app sales, which allowed them to expand to SoC production for laptops too, which is what got them back on the PC (as in "personal computer") map too.
You also missed that Macs were becoming pretty popular before iPhones existed. There were multiple reasons for this but the timeline is nowhere near as simple as you portrayed it.
They were becoming more popular when they switched to Intel CPUs (was it a year before iPhone: 2006?) and with original Air, but really, this was only felt in the US. With M1 they really went ballistic globally.
But sure, it is a simplistic look: for the purposes of the commentary here, I did not want to pretend this is the full analysis, even if I could do one (and I probably couldn't).
I wasn't that impressed with Android long ago, but decided to give it another look last year when I helped a family member buy a top of the line phone.
Android is still not comparable.
Of course, it all depends on what the end user is looking for, but at least for overall quality of Apple phones is higher both in hardware and software.
As far as I’m concerned nobody’s even trying to compete with Apple. There are other personal computing products but none of them address the same market as Apple at all. The tiny set of possible competitors for their space all seem to have decided not to even try.
[edit] and, to be clear, I’d very much prefer that they had competition in their segment. Even if I stuck with them, it’d at least put competitive pressure on them to improve and/or cut prices.