Did the same thing.. long time Blackberry user.. got caught up in the marketing and switched to an Andriod (don't remember which one). I quickly got tired of the lock ups and lack of decent apps. Couple of years ago picked up an iPad for work stuff (tons of tech manuals, apps and spreadsheet stuff). After using it for a year or so when it came time to replace the frustrating Driod phone I switched to the iPhone. Mind you I use my phone and iPad for 95% business and wanted the rock solid stability. I've passed the age of wanting to tinker and tweak my phone. I want one that does what I need, easy to use and doesn't lock up on me. iPhone is it. I've found that the iOS system is easy to use. Not sure why some would say it's dumb downed, seems to me it's just the opposite, it's very well engineered and thought out so that user doesn't need to worry about doing a 1000 tweaks to get it to run right.
The Apple "eco system" has some drawbacks (cost being the main one) but for us, having two daughters, we've been buying music through iTunes for years and have started buying movies through it also. Also, when one person downloads an app it can show up on everyone's phone or iPads. One purchase and it's on 5 different devices. Can't beat that. We use one main Apple ID for the music, movies and apps. We each also have a separate ID for email, messaging, cloud backups and whatnot. When we added in AppleTvs it made the sharing thing that much easier. She has a Apple TV at her house at school, we have one at the main TV down stairs. Her and her roomates are always watching something on the Apple Tv.
My other kid decided she wanted a S4 since her boyfriend has one. She sold her iPhone to pay for the S4. 2 weeks later she told me it was a mistake and was going to switch back when she saved up the money for a new iPhone. Her reason was it's such a pain to find the correct version of whatever app she wants. She said she sometimes downloads 3 or 4 version of an app before she finds one that doesn't have some sort of security warning about installing it. Her words not mine. The boyfriend plans on doing the same.
Sister called me asking what I liked about the iphone.. I gave a few reasons, stable, easy to use and always works. She went to her Verizon store.. talked to them and came out with the new S4. A couple of weeks later she was over for dinner, we got to talking about the phones. We messed around with each others phones. I liked a few things about the S4 but would not want to switch. She on the other hand is now waiting until January when her husbands contract is up.. she's going to give him the S4 and pick up a iPhone 5s. He doesn't mind since he just uses his phone as a phone. His words "he don't internet".
