I don't understand half the stuff you're talking about and I don't have my iPhone because of a cult status, I have it because it works. It does what I want it to do , and its easy to figure things out. It wasn't that expensive because it isn't the latest model, it's an iPhone 5c and was about £330. Well ok that is expensive, it was an Xmas present, but those android ones can be more.
Well the specs and abilities of the latest iPhone in can be bought in an Android £200 easily, the higher end Android phones have even more of the specification front.
Wait, let me get this straight... You guys actually buy phones? 
I but my phones, it works out cheaper than contracts for me the amount of texts/calls and data I use. It also means my phone doesn't have a bunch of carrier apps pre-installed or locked to a specific carrier.
I'm with Three (3) and my tarrif is stupidly cheap comparing it to other providers.
Data costs 1p per megabyte and every time you update you get 150mb that has thirty days to be used.
Texts costs 2p
Calls costs 3p a minute
If you do the maths for light users that's relatively cheap and also over a year because I'm not forced to use it up in 30 days I can comfortably choose as I wish for example some months I might not use my phone much at all, some months I might use it more...
For the majority of phone users this would work out cheaper, the next cheapest route is EE's monthly packs which are the cheapest... after that the next best for contracts I think is still just about Three however for families who contact each other a lot they should probably use giffgaff as they offer some great family deals.
