1. This is true, they are certainly within the leaders in build quality.
2. Quite obviously not, since nearly 40% of the chart is made up of iPhone 5's, which is a year old, and more than the 4S.
3. *Yawns
Keep in mind that I'm mostly playing Devil's Advocate here. I personally own a 5s and I love this phone.
That being said, when the 5 came out last year, I wasn't very impressed with it as a flagship iPhone model. Maybe it was just because I was stuck on contract and was being sour grapes about a phone I couldn't own without paying full price for it. Plus, I was on the "WHY ISN'T THE SCREEN WIDER???" bandwagon back in the day.
Either way, I was in the apparent minority because the 5 did really well. So well, in fact, that now that the -s model is out, there's a lot of people now saying "Nah, the 5 is good enough."
I think the Touch ID might be a culprit in this. Touch ID is hardly a "new toy," it's just a very useful feature that, as Ive put it, disappears when we don't need it. Great for practical use, but harder to advertise, I think. The 4S's defining feature was Siri. In spite of being in beta for as long as she was, Siri was the new toy iPhone users looked forward to using. I won't speak for the 3GS as the smartphone industry was a little different back then, and Apple still had the "Wow, is that an iPhone??!?!?" advantage.
But the 5s? Sure, the processor is nice, but we've gotten spoiled overall by processing power. Nowadays, if we get a new smartphone, it's a given that the CPU should be better. Being 64-bit is a nice accomplishment, but the average smartphone user probably doesn't know what that means (And if their spokesperson is any indication, neither does Qualcomm. AYOOOOOO!!!!) The new dual LED flash is also awesome, but it's very situational.
I imagine there are many of these users who look at the 5s and all they see is:
- Touch ID, a feature which does nothing for the user if nobody else tries to use their phone.
- Dual LED flash, a feature which does nothing for the user if they aren't taking photos at night.
- It comes in gold.
Again, I love the 5s and I'm sure most of us on here understand the benefits of all of its enhancements. The issue here is the 5s is a phone that doesn't market itself as a "Must Have." The 5C did a better job with that, strangely.