So if you strip away the artificially gate-kept services like iMessage, why should anyone who isn't tied in the Apple ecosystem spend a lot more on an iPhone?
No one in Europe cares about iMessage: that's a US-only issue (and Canada). People outside North America don't use SMS texting with their friends and family like Americans do.
> so if we want a guarantee that someone sees a message on time, SMS instead of Whatapps/Viber/.... is preferable.
Do you understand what this works only with 2G, 3G networks? A proper 4G is data-only one, so the SMS there are emulated over a data link.
I think your qualification of Apple-ecosystem-services is a big part.
There are stories of statistics that say more people switch from Android to iPhone than vice-versa[1] and the big reasons I see are ecosystem related:
+ Apple Facetime calls. If some family & friends are using Facetime, it has a gravitational pull to get you to buy an iOS device so you're not missing out on the conversations
+ Apple "Find My" to keep track of family members. When this feature first came out, the Android ecosystem didn't have an equivalent without downloading an extra app.
+ Apple Watch integration. The Android watches from Garmin/Samsung/Fitbit are not as seamlessly integrated as Apple.
The areas where iPhone is worse than Android such as voice assistants Apple Siri vs Google Assistant, or cloud photos A.I. tools, or no sideloading vs sideloading, etc -- are not deal-breakers for most mainstream Apple consumers.
[1] https://www.google.com/search?q=more+people+switch+from+andr...
So ignoring the US situation of iPhones, in the rest of the world, iPhones are purely reputation based thing ("oh you can afford an iPhone" / "it looks good with my <add your brand> handbag") and a simplicity to use situation (enforced UX etc). In the past the camera was a key differentiator.
And Apple (incl. some Android competition) will have a very hard time with inflation battled countries to maintain a high-cost strategy with a population who cannot afford it anymore.
And for that purpose, expensive iPhones and cheap Androids are relatively interchangeable commodity items since they all can run the same apps. Yes, iPhones will have less spy/bloatware, take better pictures, run apps a bit smoother and faster, but not 2-4 times better, and most people won't care or notice unless they compare and review both side by side which almost nobody does, most just impulse buy based on sales price, marketing, brand/platform familiarity or simply just on network effects (if my family or friends have iPhone I'll also get an iPhone).
Apple's biggest cash-cow is the network effect and lock-in of their well oiled ecosystem, but if the EU will force them to open it up to competitors, then their charade could fall apart, hence why they'll fight the EU as long as possible to maintain it.
If you can't afford a BMW, a Focus will stil get you from A to B just as fast considering legal speed limits, so then the BMW is no longer a necessity for those who need a car but more of a "want".
And their behavior and situation is very similar to Apple:
- You have in many places reputation based lock-in into high-price products - You have a competition which for a lower price offers a same functionality, reasonable quality product. - There are unreasonable argumentation on why to stay on the high-reputation product. - You have a vendor who uses every possible trick to keep competition away from their markets - They have post covid, post inflation no longer customers who can afford their products - ...