Why do iphone users still see their phones as a status symbol
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How does that telling happen, actually?
Simulated intellect. The same way that big, fake boobs sell products to a particular demographic, so do fake, big brains appeal to another.
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Marketing.
Go back to the Apple/PC ads in the 90's,where the Apple guy was hip, and the PC guy was an old fuddy-duddy in a brown suit.
Apple has always traded on the slickness of their products. They often claim to be the "first" at something, when they really just developed the first seriously marketable version.
iPhone wasn't the first smartphone by years. Just the first one that was slick enough for consumers to bite on, when a year before it was geeky to have such a device.
Their entire premise is "Are you too stupid to work a computer? Now you can do computer things without being a nerd!"
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Kids are like that. Most adults don’t care.
Bullshit. Adults absolutely care. It's human nature to try to project your status in the social hierarchy. That takes different forms and may instead be projecting status with a Stanley flask or Canada Goose jacket, or whatever.
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I think originally because they used to be only for AT&T customers and were the most expensive, then android started flooding the market with cheap shitty phones.
This is the real reason. The iphone was the original tablet-like smart phone and it was marketed as a premium offering and as a result has always enjoyed that status.
Android was second to market and a competitor to the iphone. Because every manufacturer wanted to make a tablet-like phone, they copied the iphone's style and made hundreds of shitty knockoffs over the years that effectively bolstered the iphone's premium status. Yes there are flagship android phones made by Samsung and LG that cost more than the most expensive iphone - but they are loaded with bloatware and bootlocked so you dont get updates and is held back by garbage so it works like shit in only a few years. So even the premium options are shit. The google pixels are good hardware but they're made by a company that makes every one of their trillions of pennies by spying on you.
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Especially teens and college students
Source: i'm a college student
My daughter wanted an iPhone when she was in high school because her friends played the arcade games together on it. That was the only reason she wanted it.
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Bullshit. Adults absolutely care. It's human nature to try to project your status in the social hierarchy. That takes different forms and may instead be projecting status with a Stanley flask or Canada Goose jacket, or whatever.
Most adults don’t use their iphones as status symbols. Look at 10 random adults iphones and over 9 of them will be damaged.
I’ve managed iphones for hundreds of people and only encountered a few that care at all.
BlackBerry holdovers would be a different discussion though.
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Marketing.
Duh.
But what does that marketing include?
This 39-year-old north-European doesn't seem to get reached by Apple's marketing at all.
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I see mine for what it is. A phone. And a serious threat to my privacy. (I'm well into my 50s, if this matters)
If you're looking for privacy, I highly recommend (weirdly enough) a Google Pixel. With GrapheneOS it's way more secure and private than basically anything else on the market.
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Wait people really give a shit? Never seen or heard about that
Source: I’m also a college student
It used to be much worse. I remember being excluded from group chats in high school because of the color of the chat bubble for android was different or some shit lol
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Especially teens and college students
Source: i'm a college student
That’s why I make sure mine is old and cracked, dented, and scuffed to shit to make sure no one makes that mistake.
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I second this. Been using a Pixel with GOS for 3 years now.
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Especially teens and college students
Source: i'm a college student
I see my deGoogled Android device as a higher status symbol than any overpriced stock Apple device.
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It used to be much worse. I remember being excluded from group chats in high school because of the color of the chat bubble for android was different or some shit lol
Some people really got to get a personality outside of the shit they own
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Bullshit. Adults absolutely care. It's human nature to try to project your status in the social hierarchy. That takes different forms and may instead be projecting status with a Stanley flask or Canada Goose jacket, or whatever.
"Adults".
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Kids are like that. Most adults don’t care.
I disagree, kids are taught by adults, so whatever they are learning its from their teachers and families. In my experience I have seen more adults give a status symbols to Apple products than children.
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Especially teens and college students
Source: i'm a college student
Because they paid a lot of money for them and they need to convince themselves that it was worth the cost.
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This is the real reason. The iphone was the original tablet-like smart phone and it was marketed as a premium offering and as a result has always enjoyed that status.
Android was second to market and a competitor to the iphone. Because every manufacturer wanted to make a tablet-like phone, they copied the iphone's style and made hundreds of shitty knockoffs over the years that effectively bolstered the iphone's premium status. Yes there are flagship android phones made by Samsung and LG that cost more than the most expensive iphone - but they are loaded with bloatware and bootlocked so you dont get updates and is held back by garbage so it works like shit in only a few years. So even the premium options are shit. The google pixels are good hardware but they're made by a company that makes every one of their trillions of pennies by spying on you.
android phones made by Samsung and LG
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Especially teens and college students
Source: i'm a college student
they haven't outgrown being incredibly stupid and some never will.
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Especially teens and college students
Source: i'm a college student
Cheapest iPhone is $600, cheapest android phone can go as low as $20 (like those walmart prepaid phones locked to a carrier).
When the average person think of android, instead of thinking about a flagship samsung phone, they think of the lowest budget phone.
So in their mind, if you have android, you're automatically categorized as "poor"/"cheap", regardless how much it actually costs.
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.. is there ever any logic to what people think are status symbols?
cost is an easy reason/ barrier. but there's others like membership and other exclusivity options being offered out there.
