My iPhone 7 is a tool. It does its job, I don't feel any need to hack it, mod it or change it or upgrade every year. I text people, call people, take pics, browse the web, install other apps for things like ordering food, maybe play a game, etc.

In my opinion, most features that have come out in recent years for smart phones don't really matter to users. They are marketing checklists.

My 4 year old Apple phone continues to work great, while every Android phone I've used would get progressively slower and less capable with each Android update.

Also there was a plethora of Android features to support local advertising that I considered very invasive of my privacy. One example was an ad campaign for a children's clothing store called "Charming Charlie" which would pop up on my phone whenever I walked past their store at the mall regardless of whether Bluetooth and Wifi were on or off.

Finally, I can actually talk to a live human when I'm having problems with my Apple phone.

Apple's obsession over small details and creating a delightful UX.

> Androids have more desirable features

That's subjective. Many people prefer iPhones. They may find the features of iPhone more desirable or some other aspect about it like the Apple ecosystem.

Different people value different things. What's desirable is not the same for everyone. Also, never underestimate the magnitude of inertia. There's a point many of us reach where we're more interested in your tools being consistent and predictable, rather than bleeding edge. We dread OS updates rather than look forward to them, because it means we'll need to allocate brain cycles to something that's changed and that's just not that important. We'd rather be allocating those brain cycles to a project that we consider interesting and maybe even important, rather than adding fancy stuff to our phone's home screen layout.

My iPhone is almost 4 years old. It is still very fast (never had to reset it) and still gets updates.

What's not to like?

My last Android (Nexus 5) stopped receiving updates just 2 years after I bought it, because of some ridiculous graphics driver bs.

They last longer physically. Apple supports them with updates and security fixes for absurd lengths of time (like 5 years or something). So if you take care of your phone it's better for the environment.

This is anecdotal of course. But I was an Android user since the first Galaxy S until the Galaxy S7 (with Nexus and some others in between). I don’t know if this is still the case but every single time I had one of the big updates my phone just started getting slower and slower, most of my phones got a crack in the screen, battery started draining really quickly. I couldn’t spend more than 1.5 years with the same phone without wanting a new one really bad.

Then I got my first iPhone almost three years ago, and I still have the same phone and I don’t feel a need to get a new one. After several major updates my phone still works perfectly (even better I would say). Battery is in 85% and still lasts a whole day. Do I miss some features? of course, but the same would be true if I switched to Android, I would miss Shortcuts, Airdrop and other small features, plus at present time I can’t think of a big feature I’m missing from Android.

There are very few things in my life where I’ve purchased the highest-features version. I have a regular Medeco lock on my house instead of a Smart Lock. I didn’t give my TV internet access so it acts as a “dumb TV.” I own two kitchen knives instead of a set with a knife for every single scenario. Instead of the fancy closet organizers I have a regular bar and a set of shelves. Phones are no different — I rarely prefer the one with the most “stuff,” I like the thing that has the best execution on the stuff it has.