Myself and a core group of my buddies are all "gadget guys". We all are the demographic that apple used to covet. 18-40 year old guys who are creative types with enough disposable income to have the hottest new thing. Sometime around the 4s apple list the race to be the most cutting edge phone. Android is leaps and bounds better for guys like us. It just does more. Anytime I get bored I can find a cool little feature to enable on my phone, and it really has become nearly as capable as my macbook air.
Apple is no longer designing phones for us. They are making phones for everyone. A few years ago paying $30 per month for data on your phone was a crazy concept reserved only for the affluent.
The only problem is that gadget guys are the tastemakers of the world. Our ambivalence to iOS will eventually catch up with them.
It is hard to feel excited about that new Iphone when the dorky guy in the office is playing games on his 5.7 inch phone with a ps3 controller. Then plugging it into his Sony car stereo with full mirroring, all the while torrenting the last season of game of thrones.
So IMO the 5s is enough to move some units, but apple has lost the gadget guys who brought them envouge in the first place, and that is a big issue since all my iphone wielding friends get green with envy when they see the crazy stuff I'm doing with my note 2.
I am in the exact same boat. 36 here and I majored in IT. I am a gadget nut and to be honest Apple has really let me down in terms of their ability to compete and innovate. It's clear other companies are giving consumers what they want, Apple needs to do the same instead. Both my wife and I want larger screens now, but we'll wait for the iPhone 6.
To the OP: I know exactly how you feel. These days I cannot tell someone outright that the iPhone is the best smartphone out there. It's simply not depending on the user's needs.