The aspirational iPhone

Apple had made the iPhone 'the one'...

Quick story which I still can't quite work out. Six students living in a shared house and five of them own iPhones. The sixth owns an Android phone, a fairly new one, and the other five put money in to help him buy an iPhone.

I asked a few questions of the person relaying this story, you can probably guess who it is, and he said it had nothing to do with green and blue bubbles or any notion of the iPhone being the phone to have. The Android owner wanted an iPhone and they wanted him to have one as well, with no actual reason coming forth as to exactly why this was the case.

He said that the iPhone is, to him, the only phone he could and would use, and that it is seen as the phone everyone uses and should use. It is hard to explain, but desirability was not mentioned and neither was ease of use or smoothness. It would appear that the iPhone has become elevated to be 'the' phone to own for those who like technology, for those who have no technological leanings and for those young and old.

The old bit is backed up by me once again working in a team where everyone bar one uses an iPhone. Ages range between 40 and 50, and the iPhone completely dominates their mobile usage. I asked the Android user why they used it and they told me that they are getting an iPhone later this year.

It may be a UK thing, but for whatever reason the iPhone has become 'the' phone even when the buyer does not quite no why. That is a hell of a position for Apple to be in.