- Privacy. Apple didn't built their business on milking people's data unlike google and so many others.
- Security. Among many other factors the walled garden does provide a higher degree of security compared to Android.
- Performance. Not only iPhones completely destroy Android in terms of performance and optimisation but the fact they are so performant make them great long term purchases. Still rocking my iPhone X from 5 years ago and it's still buttery smooth.
Kids aren't stupid, they want something that works and is as fast as they are.
Privacy: Android lets you install apps without telling anyone. iOS requires you to tell Apple. God forbid you want to use an app you build yourself because then you also have to give Apple your banking details. Android lets you get your location from the GPS sensor without telling anyone. If you want to get your location at all on iOS, you must also send your location to Apple. Android lets you use fully offline maps and have that handle map links. All map links on iOS must be opened by Apple Maps, telling Apple what you're looking at. I could go on and on.
Security: Android updates the browser and other system apps without rebooting the phone. iOS requires a reboot, meaning updates are batched before delivery and then applied more slowly. Android app stores have superior security, with F-Droid having reproducible builds and the Play Store running apps in VMs to do dynamic analysis. The App Store had to rely on external researchers to find Xcodeghost apps to take down, not even having basic static analysis do it themselves. The exploit market has responded by pricing iOS vulnerabilities lower than Android vulnerabilities. Despite what Apple tells you, the walled garden is for Apple's profits, not your security.
Performance: Despite Apple's hardware lead, the software is so unoptimized that it's not unusual to see iPhones lose to Android devices in app opening speed tests. A few years ago, iPhones were so slow that they would lose to previous generation budget phones on those tests.
Is this still true? :(
Depends on the specific perspective.
I think the effort that has gone into securing Linux globally has and will continue to yield better results than Apple can achieve on their own with an opaque stack. Exploit prices also seem to correlate to some extent.
But I also do think it's better in terms of average end-user.
It’s actually even better than that. The iPhone 5s is still receiving security updates (albeit to iOS 12) 9 years later.
It's true that overtime iOS has become way more bloated, but they have released major updates which actually sped up older devices because they were focused on bug fixes and improvements, rather than something that's flashy and looks good in a commercial.
Is it a useful tactic to sell more phones? Absolutely. It also means that iOS completely destroys Android's statistics on % of users who run the latest version of their OS.
- long term support - can expect a new device to get 5-6 years of Apple Updates
- AppleCare
- better build quality than cheap android devices
- Reasonable expectation that required software will support it
- Not having to listen to a teen complain about what their friends have that they don't
- Finally, Updates, APPLE SUPPORTED UPDATES! - I'm really salty that my android phones had to be rooted and have another OS installed just to get basic security updates after 12-18 months.