Apple does one thing better than any other company: the basics. And this is why they continue to be the market leaders for so many customers.

Do thery make foldables? No. Do iPhones have the best cameras? The biggest batteries? The best AI? No on all accounts. Are they pushing the industry forwards in any meaningful way? Not really.

But for many people it doesn't matter. They want a device that does what they want, when they want 99% of the time.

Android for all its strengths is a world of compromise.

Google Photos is great but you can't sync it back to your laptop in case you get locked out. I guarantee a Pixel phone will at some point have a battery drain OS update they won't fix for ages.

The Ultra Samsung still has that small amount of shutter lag making it useless for taking pictures of your kids. The NFC payments fail 1 in every 10 times you attempt it. They still push their own unwanted apps and lack deep Google integration as a result. These are just my experiences. Maybe I shouldn't be demanding perfection but I want it.

These are all niggles, small issues that in isolation don't mean much. But the iPhone works 100% of the time with payments. All your iCloud data is on a PC or Mac. The average customer wants a camera that takes instant images, doesn't drop calls and can IM their friends. It doesn't need the best hardware; it just has to work.