Why Do People Still Worship Apple Devices In 2022?

Why Do People Still Worship Apple Devices In 2022?

It’s already 2022, a decade and a half after the first iPhone reinvented phone technology and swept the market. We still remember feeling amazed using a capacitive touch screen, a far cry from the resistive stylus-necessitating options we had back then. It was genuinely magic. Move forward to present day and hundreds of smartphones now compete in a very crowded market – yet Apple still has a devout following, arguably the largest in the world. The question remains: why do people still worship Apple devices in 2022?

Consistent, Integrated Ecosystem

A multitude of faithful from the Apple Worship Community have this saying: Apple doesn’t just sell products, they sell experiences. What you’re buying with an Apple product isn’t just a phone, just a watch, a tablet, or whatever device it is. You’re buying into the lifestyle of owning an Apple device.

On-the-go individuals need streamlined applications, which is why the fact that the brand’s devices mesh perfectly with each other makes it ideal.

Need to share a full-res photo with a group of people really quickly? AirDrop it to us, please!

Let’s not forget all the iOS and Mac applications that start with “i.” That more or less covers all of them.

Reliability and Simplified Use

Apple devices have people that worship them because they somehow just work. Since there are not a lot of mobile devices on iOS, it’s quite easy to troubleshoot each and every one should something go wrong. They don’t need to develop software for dozens of devices. Many have said that the main difference between Android and iOS is that with the former, you’re getting customization and freedom. With the latter, you’re considerably more restricted. These statements are undeniably factual.

However, you’ll need to be considerably more responsible with an Android device. Freedom means a ton of options and access to advanced features that could make or break your experience. Users who accidentally fiddle with too many settings can end up bricking their phone, or find themselves lost in menus that require YouTube tutorials or some forum dumpster diving to escape out of.

Meanwhile, Apple’s safeguards assure users they can only access what is beneficial to them, and the company has locked features that don’t necessarily improve the overall experience behind closed doors. As such, despite the limitations, the fit and finish of WHAT you can access in iOS is superb.

Perceived Camera Quality

There are a LOT of Android devices, but newer iPhone models can more or less be counted on the hand. As these smartphones tend to be in the upper echelon of the price range, their camera performance is consistently, at the very least, upper mid-range to flagship Android levels.

We’ve experienced this countless times at family events: “Let’s take a picture!” pulls out flagship Android device “Ah no, let’s use the iPhone instead!” This is a subconscious form of Apple worship.

The fact remains that people see photos taken from sub-PHP 10K Android devices on Facebook or Instagram posts and assume that’s the best Android can do. It makes sense though since you can only live a moment once; why risk taking it with a phone you’re not familiar with when you can capture a guaranteed social media-worthy snapshot on an iPhone?

Another issue: when you’re scrolling along on Instagram, if the Story is clear, people will remark it’s an iPhone. If it’s potato-quality, then the main comment will be “which Android is this?” But that’s for the next point.

App, Hardware Optimization

We’ve said this over and over again, but one of the root causes for all these problems is the fact that there are thousands of Android devices with equally as many configurations. Due to this reality, developers struggle to optimize their applications’ functions for each and every one, leading to glitches and bugs appearing everywhere. Niche devices get ignored as their markets aren’t big enough to demand attention.

A one-size-fits-all approach can work due to its cost-effectiveness, but it comes at the expense of certain features and capabilities. The very inclusive mindset Android has with “an application working on all devices, for all people” bites them back here. With the exception being popular mobile game titles, that’s what happens when you set the same limitations for a budget phone and a flagship.

On the other hand, since iOS is shared across multiple devices and generations, it’s profitable to develop for. As long as the software supports it, devs will go out of their way to ensure that their applications work optimally on each device. It greatly helps that there are only a few iPhone models with relatively higher average processing power  – making optimization far simpler than in the other camp.

That’s why you’re better off taking photos and videos with your phone’s camera app on Android than within the Instagram app.

Another observation we may as well cement in fact is this: Apple takes a long while before it integrates a new feature on its devices. Sometimes this may be months, sometimes years – and this often becomes the butt of jokes when they finally do announce the feature. We can infer that the reasoning is this: the brand is more than willing to take criticism for launching a feature late than release a half-baked innovation into the market. This is true, especially for advancements that require momentous R&D but are still experimental in nature; usability and practicality-wise. They’d rather wait and see what the other companies do and how the market responds, than come up with their own innovative version of said invention.

They don’t have many other devices to take the financial fall if the flaw isn’t fixable via software.

Software Update Longevity and Resale Value

Samsung has committed to leading the charge in extending software life for Android devices by upping their game. This is likely to justify the exorbitant pricing of smartphones nowadays, compared to years ago before the iPhone X broke the $1000 USD barrier. Many have taken notice though that Apple devices tend to have more software support, with updates coming to devices several years after release.

As an example, we’ll take iOS 15 which came out last year. The oldest supported device for the software update was the iPhone 6S family, released in September 2015. That’s a whopping commitment to keep a 7-year-old phone up to date. It was only dropped recently with iOS 16.

But why can’t other manufacturers do this? We’ll probably sound like a broken record by now, but having more devices to support incurs additional costs. With companies like Samsung releasing a barrage of devices every year, it would be extremely impractical to update a 7-year-old phone to the latest version of Android.

Some time after a device loses software support, it can no longer download new apps or use them. It then becomes nothing but a paperweight that can turn on and do basic tasks, but not something you’d want to depend on for your everyday needs. As a result, Apple devices depreciate less due to a combination of longer effective lifespan and brand perception.

Check your presale markets and you’ll quickly discover that Android and Apple flagships sold in the same year maintain significantly different percentages of their original MSRP. This also holds true within the Android space, with more reputable brands maintaining value for longer. Even at premium prices, these secondhand models will still be picked up for outrageous prices by those conducting their Apple worship.

Clout

We’ll end the article with this undeniable truth that everyone seems to avoid when analyzing why people still worship Apple. We started this piece by mentioning that Apple sells an identity and a lifestyle. Fitting in with the cool kids on the block comes at a price, and that isn’t cheap at all. Pay to play!

Apple devices are sold at varying price points but even their base model items are considerably pricier than other brands. These often sacrifice a bit of what makes the top-of-the-line models so special but still have that character. Even if they don’t, Apple’s marketing strategies are so out-of-this-world that consumers are roped into buying the most basic of items for exponentially higher prices. Take a look at this Apple Polishing Cloth seemingly worth PHP 1,290 or this monitor stand priced at PHP 57,990.

In a way, having an Apple product or multiple of them is a status symbol that declares to the world that you’ve made it. The question is, have you?

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Latest News

Latest Reviews

Best Phones in the Philippines

Best Guides

Recent Posts