iPhone user here, but probably not the normal demographics: I use very few apps, for example.
I tried Android a few times (I even tried jolla) and always come back to the iPhone for privacy. It is simply the only platform which allows me to sync and backup my data locally. I don’t use iCloud, I just sync with my computer.
I want to keep my calendar and contacts private. Actually, because I have work contacts in my phone, I am legally required to keep those private (or to ask each user whether they agree or not). I know nobody respects that, but I do. That also means I cannot use services wilke whatsapp, for example, as the first thing it does is send all your contacts to their servers.
I know people who work in marketing and big data. Contacts are the single most precious information they are looking for. Not only they are used for viral marketing (whatsapp, facebook and linkedin were notorious for spamming all your contacts in your name) and are an indication of your social level and likely spending and interests, but they are also used as a stable identifier.
Stable identifiers are the holy grail of targeted marketing. People change id all the time: they change their mail, their address, their phone number, their credit card, their name (e.g. marriage or divorce), etc… all the time. For marketers, re-authentification is a very valuable service to link that one customer with a new phone and new credit card to all his or her history for past years.
Humans keep their collection of friends, acquaintances and family pretty stable and there is zero chance that someone else also keeps the number of your mother, brother, boss and that friendly neighbour who waters your plants when you are off. That make contacts the perfect way to identify you.
So: yes, this is why I have an iPhone. The first thing android does is to send all that info to google. The only other option is to use android without google services (e.g. by installing lineage os without google libraries) and I know some people who do just that.
