Many Apple fans still seem to think that this company is a part of the "counter culture" (that legendary superbowl commercial in 1984 !), and IBM/ MIcrosoft are "the establishment". So, yes, it seems to have something of a cult.

@Thibaud70 that Apple died with Jobs in 2011. Under his bean counting supply side manager successor it is purely profit driven and largely out of tech ideas, now bringing out more expensive versions of the same old i- products, and not well made either.

I agree about stupid and vain, and I add that they want to impress their friends with the latest overpriced, not well made Apple product, all made in China. I just looked up Blackview. New to me. I'll check them out. I'm looking at Ali Express.

@David1955 I'm pissed off about Ali getting the best deals. I wonder if they actually own blackview now. I wanted to buy the newest 102Mb camera phone when it first came out but it was only available through Ali. Though I must say that Ali delivery here to Aust is pretty good.
My first Blackview was one of the big tank proof military grade casing jobs in the 9000+ range. I bought it because it has a built in CB Radio. Others I have have infra red cameras or lowlight night vision cameras. Most are octa core machines & have reasonsble ram & ROM storage frequently with SD card card add on capability needed by me for the number of photos that I take on the phone to send to animal owners so that they know that their beloved are being well cared for & enjoying their holidays not just stuck pining in a kennel. Let me know if you want to try a blackview out I need to shed some. They also now have a couple of miniature computers.
I've only ever had to send one of about 7 bought back because it wasn't working properly on our Telstra. Its replacement, this phone that I'm on has now given good service for about 8 months on Boost now Aldi.

@FrayedBear interesting. I plan to hang on to my Samsung phone until it dies but in the meantime I'll keep an eye on cheaper alternatives. I wish there were better Linux phone choices, so I could leave Android. I'm open source on everything else now.

Neither was I.

Exactly.

I don't..

I have never purchased an Apple product. And I doubt I ever will.

I was an Apple guy from 1985 to 2018. I bought an expensive imac with a rotten graphics card and since it couldn't get fixed their advice was buy a new one. Not a single thing will I buy from them, having joined Linux, open source and alike. A bad news day at Apple is a better news day for me.

As do I.