conclusion: you'd buy the modest car even though you could buy the 1000hp one cheaper? Anyways, i think its a quite silly argument, even by the threat starter, that if you could buy a better phone for less money, why dont do it. the main point is, that both OS' have different user groups. so simple.
I myself own an iPod touch 2g and jailbroke it after a time, as i just hated not being able to customize the device the way i wanted. Of course, with the all-new (ok, not really anymore) iOS4 you are now even (!) able to choose wallpapers! But the iOS will never have the possibilities you have with Android in ways of customisation. That what counts for me, and i do not want the company to force me to use their UI. I want full control of my device, so i buy Android next. If i didnt care of that and just want a working phone, I would buy apple so simple.
You just cannot compare the devices as they have different user groups! (i can't say it often enough, as i cannot stand all this "comparing Android and iphone" all the time...)
You're saying just because the specs in the Samsung are higher, it's a better phone. Specs do NOT determine experience/if a phone is "better". It's software/hardware integration, and overall usability. You could have the most powerful phone in the world, but without good software to take FULL advantage of it, what's the point?
If the modest car cost me $20,000 and the street racer cost me $200, I would still buy the modest car. Do you have any idea what it's like to maintain a race car or how unreliable they are for daily use? When you're dealing with that much power, especially depending on the car, reliability decreases. Not to mention just the basic maintenance tasks that need to be done frequently.
The same goes for computers and hacking/customizing. The further you mod your phone/computer (car), the further you stray from stock, the more variables are introduced to your phone/computer (car) and the likelihood of problems developing dramatically increases. If I hack OS X to bits and customize it all to hell, change every graphic and image in the GUI, odds are when the next system update rolls around, I'm going to have a hell of a big job and/or mess on my hands.
Quick question, how old are you? I realize this is slightly creepy, but it's also relevant.
When I was in my younger days, I'd mod my tech all to bits. Custom this, custom firmware that, jailbreak this, blah blah blah. Now that I'm older, I just haven't got the time or energy to be playing around "maintaining" every electronic device I own because I want a custom icon theme or some garbage. After a long days work, the last thing I want to do is come home to a mess of a computer because I thought it'd be cool to mod it somehow.
Same goes for the car, again. Sure, I could probably mod the hell out of the modest car and get it to be just as fast as the 1000HP car if I wanted, but then I can kiss reliability goodbye. Why have a daily driver you can't drive daily?
Not to say I don't still modify my things, my iPhone is jailbroken, and I do still mod my PC's/Macs a little bit, but the amount of modification I do is minimal compared to what it used to be. If you are young (and I apologize if you're not), I imagine you'll find the same thing. As you'll get older, reliability will become more important to you, a desire for customization will stick around, but in the end, it's all about finding that good balance between modding and keeping it stock. This also applies to Android. I'm sure the more crap you put on there (themes, effects, whatever), the more piled up your phone is going to get, and reliability decreases. These devices are tools, I'd like to spend less time cleaning my tools and more time using them to get the current job done so I can do something else.
I'm not knocking you or your choices, so don't take any of the above as insults or anything, just stating facts/opinions. As I've said before, I like Android as much as the next guy, but the less time I spend working on it, the more time I can spend doing things in life that actually matter.
Less is more. I stand by that. So does Apple. I wish more people could see that.
