Its not just marketing - Apple is the Blizzard of phones.

All gamers know that Blizzard is not very innovative - what they EXCEL at is taking existing concepts and polishing it to perfection and now they are one of the best game companies.

Apple does the same thing - when you get a Apple product its very refined, they have targets and they hit them WELL. Both hardware AND software for a complete PAIN FREE experience.

Contrast this with Nokia - release the hardware then dont do **** with software or support. Once they have the money screw it lets move to the next model - from their POV they make money churning hardware. They release gazillion models because they need to move hardware to make $$$.

Brain dead Apple consumers ? Of course there are - but I bet you its more about BUSY consumers who do not want to WASTE their already precious spare time dealing with technical issues.

Who the HELL wants to spend time uninstall all their widgets after upgrading to PR1.2 and reinstalling them to find which one drains their battery ?

Who the HELL wants to spend time getting emulators to run so they can play some games for the 5 minutes they are at a bus stop ?

etc etc

Apple's cult status is deserved because they provide a complete, simple and elegant experience. Their customers are HAPPY - they spend their time using their phones, not tinkering with it to get the phone to work.

Thats why they are a CULT. Apple has not disappointed most yet and thats why customers will blindly buy what they sell - because they know they will be looked after well regardless.

Nokia ? hah. They cant even get their own store up and running.