I certainly don't care about being seen with a cool phone, but for somebody like me who doesn't want Google tracking my every move, I don't see any alternative to iPhones. So yes, they can charge whatever they want and I don't have a choice.
If only their laptops were this high quality.
The new Air may be enough for me to upgrade (mostly for the Retina Display), but that's mostly because I can rather than because I need to.
Both first-party location/data tracking by Google, and underhanded tracking by third-party apps on Android are pervasive, and more difficult to keep tabs on / opt out of.
Of course, the main people tracking your every move with any phone are the phone company, anyone the phone company is selling or providing your data to, and anyone operating a device which can trick your cell modem into connecting to it (“stingrays”).
On an Android phone, you can set an offline maps app as the default. On iOS, every map link will open in Apple Maps, sending data to Apple in the process. On an Android phone, you can set Signal as your default messaging app. On iOS, any time you click an SMS link, it will open in iMessage, which tells Apple the number you want to SMS and check if that user uses iMessage.
Really, anything Apple has said about privacy has been pure marketing for the easily duped.