> Forgot to say, that by comparison, Android/Windows/whatever smartphones are relatively unknown.

Huh? Android has nearly twice the market share of iOS: https://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share...

> iPhones are still seen as another class above by many, if not most, people.

This is severely anecdotal. But here's an anecdote from me to balance things out: where I come (and indeed within the industry I work in) most people look down on iPhones because they see them as uninteresting toy devices or devices for old people. Nobody I know would be 'impressed' by an iPhone. Something like a OnePlus One, Xiaomi Mi5 or even a Blackberry Z30 would have a lot more cool/novelty factor.

iPhones got boring a long time ago. Much like the rest of Apple, it pains me to say.