For a lot of people. My mother is a happy OSX and iPhone user and I would not think of putting a Windows or Linux OS in front of her. Lots of people want Apple's certainty and level of customer service at Apple stores.

The price difference to have these benefits is a few hundred dollars. Easily worth it to Apple's customers who dread spending hours on a problem with no Genius Bar to fall back on.

Android scored spectactular wins with OEMs and carriers, and someone ought to put a statue of Andy Rubin on horseback on the Google campus. But, much of Android's rapid growth can be accounted for with products and markets where Apple has not gone and in many cases does not want to go. Conversely the winning strategies highlighted in the article will take many years to mature.

I could make a case that Google has bungled Android tablet marketing, and should be much farther along in having an enterprise strategy based on tablets.

None of this spells doom for iPhone.

I don't understand what these claims are supposed to show. My dad is a happy Ubuntu and Android user and I wouldn't put OS X and an iPhone in front of him. So what?

Journalists have long had a special affinity for Apple. During the 90s, journalism was one of the last bastions of Mac usage. This fervor translated into iPhone fanboyism.

Fanboyism? Oh please. How old are you? Paraonid jerk.

Even Timothy Cook cringes at the idea of using Apple Maps; and overall the design of iOS 7 is also counter intuitive and far from being a seamless experience, especially for new users.

You are techie. But I think its fair to say for a non-techie that perception (true or not) is there.