Everyone has a choice, loyalty is important
I understand loyalty, however sometimes loyalty prevents objectivity. In the case of this article and the many comments I've read I'm seeing a lot of loyalty but not a lot of objectivity.
Everyone can choose their next phone from their preferred provider, iPhones cost about $200 with a new service agreement, new release Android phones also cost about $200 with a new contract. So why are people choosing to to purchase Android's at a pace of 3 to 1?
Features and a wide variety of handsets not offered by iPhones or with inferior performance on iPhones. Voice command accuracy and simplicity, 4G eighteen months ahead of the iPhone, navigation that works and keeps you from getting lost, integration with Microsoft software applications (used by about 90% of all businesses), simple expandability of RAM, replaceable batteries, and the list goes on.
I miss a few things with my android device, no iTunes, the sense that I'm a superior consumer, hmmm, and what else? Oh feeling like I'm wiser than the rest. No wait, I've owned Macs and PCs, there is no difference, they all work well, last a long time, I just have to make everything work with the rest of the world when I use my Mac, oh and pay an arm and a leg extra to get a lit Apple image on the lid. I do feel like I'm the smarter consumer.
The reason Apple is so successful is it has created perhaps the most brand loyal consumers in history, so loyal, they will defend Apple and demean it's competitors any chance they get. They will even ignore superior products!
I suspect by now you've stopped reading but if you haven't I'll address the advertising funded Google strategy. It is transparent to the user, no more ads are showing up on my phone than on your iPhone. The internet and most sites rely on advertising and they do not care if you are accessing the site from an iPhone or an Android or a Windows phone.
Finally copying / stealing, are these devices that similar? Did, Chrysler copy Henry Ford's invention, who gave Henry the idea of a motor driven carriage, some things are destined to be very similar, with similar features. Each manufacturer tries to "out innovate" the other, and as such they act a little like Sir Isaac Newton when he said, "If I have seen further than other men, it's because I stood on the shoulders of giants." Innovation is a continuous stream. Has Apple stolen, yes, as have almost every innovation driven companies, some of what they all do is a composite of the past and their vision of the future.
I have been extremely pleased with my Motorola Droid X and now my Samsung Galaxy S3, I think they both had innovations which put them ahead of the current model of the iPhone when I bought them, they also contained many of conceptual building blocks which created the iPhone, some of which were Apple generated and others from the rest of the market.