Me too - this is what I've referred to in
https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/18946428/ , asking "GeneralChang" to explain me why all competitors have 2+GB of RAM in their devices. (My answer was, of course, Apple's greed, particularly WRT the large-battery iPads, where one can't even state there would be any significant battery life hit by including 2GB of RAM.)
Exactly. This is why I've continuously been pointing out that I'm comparing iOS to Windows Phone (most notably, the 2GB Nokia 1020) and not Android WRT battery usage.
Nevertheless, while iOS is indeed very well optimized (along with WP, naturally; and as opposed to Android), there are some sore points. For example, UWebView's (and, consequently, Safari's) huuuuuge memory usage. While 7.1 has indeed been brought us some improvements, Web pages still take up far too much memory under iOS.
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Well, tell the same to the owners of these iPhone 3GS'es (all shots, except for the bottom-most, are made by me):
https://www.flickr.com/photos/33448355@N07/sets/72157633931601917/
(notice the "nicely" swollen, 2.5-year-old batteries - legendary Apple "quality"...)
And tell the same to people whose iPhone 5's battery died on them after half(!) a year, necessitating a full device exchange. Yes, the latter did happen to me too, as has been well-documented in the JB section (where I'm present as a well-known dev) by me - and in some other threads by other MR forum members.