Yes, I have proof.No, its not some weird statistics from some "major" research firm and no, I am not an Apple fan-boy.I heard it straight from the horse's mouth, the only one that matters "The Customer". Let me show you.
Yes it is supposed to be funny (and it actually is), but to the marketer's eye this is sheer brand magic. Just imagine the kind of faith people have on Apple, that they choose to ignore their own senses. One of them even had the exact same phone in their hands, but chose to ignore their sensory perception. Why? Because it is Apple. It has to be better, faster, lighter, slimmer, high quality, unbreakable etc. And these are ordinary folks not rabid fanboys. To have that kind of a mind share inside people's head, that if its a new iProduct, it will "always" be better than the last one or the competition for that matter is unprecedented.
Before apple came along ordinary folks were washed away by the technical specs and feel overwhelmed. But that is the magic of Apple, they realized that the common folk don't care if the phone has 1 GB RAM or 2 GB RAM, they just want a phone that works. And the iPhone definitely works more than fine. 5 million iPhones sold in the first weekend is a testament to the faith that customers have on Apple. Every time a new iPhone is announced, people put off their phone buying decisions to wait for the new iPhone. This phenomenon is so widespread that Apple acknowledges it as a reason for a significantly dipping demand for the current model in its earnings call. And every time the new iPhone launches, it smashes its "own" sales records to smithereens. At this juncture only Apple can compete with Apple.
Analysts predicted that the post-Jobs era of Apple would not be the same and the aura of invincibility will slowly diminish. But Apple has not become "The most valuable company in the world" playing by the analysts whims. They have accomplished this by earning their customers trust by delivering on their brand promise every time.
As long as Apple can deliver on that promise, they have nothing to be afraid of.