On the contrary, the BBC has a major right-wing bias and regularly downplays - and even often outright chooses to not report - pieces that reflect poorly on the UK Government (which becomes striking when you read some European or American dailies that report much more freely on such stories).
The iPhone / 3G / 3GS / 4 were so far ahead of what any of their competitors were doing that it can be difficult to conceptualise it in hindsight.
HTC, Sony, Moto, RIM - there's a reason these companies barely exist in the same form anymore. Samsung were the first to consistently catch-up to Apple - largely because they're official strategy at that point was 'copy Apple'
The fact that there's an actual genocide taking place in the country is all we need to know - all the other so-called "assumptions" pale in comparison to that reality
This is ridiculous and hyperbolic on a few points, namely that Chrome's position is way worse than Microsoft's. Even if we ignore the fact that Chromium is open-source, that Chrome is heavily extensible, that Google has demonstrably shown commitment to developing the web in an open manner (eg WebRTC) - ignoring these and other facts, when Microsoft was 'in charge' of the Web (via IE's power) they locked IE down, killed their competition, and literally single-handedly stalled the progress of the Web.
The fact that you say IE at it's peak was worse than Chrome shows incredible ignorance on the matter.
Your anecdote about your friends reminds me of this odd joke from school
There's a senior citizen driving on the highway. His wife calls him on his cell phone and in a worried voice says, Herman, be careful! I just heard on the radio that there is a madman driving the wrong way on Route 280! Herman says, I know, but there isn't just one, there are hundreds!
Maybe their quality of life is increased by not having to spend part of their life (and possibly money - I can't think of a free Gmail alternative that's not as bad as Gmail's practices) searching for services that are at least as good as what they currently use?
On the basis of your logic that's a consequence of the lack of union and organised labour