Especially teens and college students
Source: i’m a college student
Some people need to justify their choice to overspend on something…
The only reason I have an iPhone is because our car only has Apple CarPlay installed (or whatever it’s called). I can never go back to mounting my phone on the dash and using the tiny phone screen for maps and music.
Hey internet brother. Don’t get locked in like that. There are USB devices that turns your car display into a full blown Android that is extremely customizable.
Not a youngster, but I would say because it’s a simple choice. Don’t have to think which brand sporting Android is better and definitely don’t have to worry about what custom ROM to install. Troubleshooting between different models can be a pain. People just want something that works out of the box without having to be an expert.
1 choice (mainly) vs (too) many choices.
I used Android since they first came out and not once did I ever needed to worry about a custom ROM.
Let’s be real and just say that Apple is doing anticompetitive things and not getting in trouble in the US yet.
I can’t think of a single mainstream android phone manufactuer that requires any expertise setting up their phone out of the box (for doing anything an iPhone can do).
You then have the option to install 3rd party software or a custom ROM but that is not required, just a bonus that isn’t available to Apple users.
I mean, don’t you just log into an account these days and it’s all there?
Certainly no more complicated than setting up an iPhone.
Nobody will actually mind if you brag about how you bought a new phone. Also if you are not a rich person you having an expensive phone means you did something smart to “cheat the system.”
As an example I had an old coworker when I used to work at a warehouse and he would combo things like service provider sales to buy an iphone.
He did sound smart when explaining the roundabout way he got the phone despite making same money as us. And I don’t mind what other people chose to spend money on.
What I do mind is college students thinking macbooks are some “programmers’ laptops.”
I had to constantly hand-hold group members that think they can get away with not learning how to code and using AI for all the homeworks because they bought a mac and that makes them a good programmer anyway.
“But I thought the program should automatically wait for the threads on this line since it’s POSIX.”
Yes I love troubleshooting professor’s makefile for an OS I don’t have because you never learned your own laptop has a symlink from gcc to clang.
If there was another decent mobile phone, the same size as the SE, I would seriously consider it.
ASUS Zenfone 10
Because they’re teens
It’s expensive
Only poor people think a phone is a sign of wealth
As a person with a nice income, an iPhone is a device that‘ll get security updates for 5-6 years. Meaning that I can just put away 30 bucks a month and get the replacement immediately. On Android I had to get a new one every 2-3 years to get consistent security updates. I switched to an iPhone X when it came out, now I have a 14 Pro and don’t to plan to get a new one anytime soon.
Samsung gives 7 years. Google gives 7 years as well. Your information is outdated.
It certainly is. The fold 2 released in late 2020 and that was when I stopped caring about tech and more about people not fucking up ther phone by sheer dumbness.
I think this comment highlights just why people still think iPhones are a status symbol. They don’t know any better or even anything of the market but they are sure confident about it.
IPhone will get 5-6 years of updates, but Android phones from Google, Samsung, and some others will get 7 6 years. Somehow that means the iPhone is better?
What next, they will claim that iPhone is private and Apple doesn’t spy on everything they do to sell them ads? Something that if they read Apple’s privacy policy quickly would find out is also wrong. Or then claim it is somehow more private that Android which can actually block most of the adware spying with apps like DuckDuckGo which are officially on the Play Store?
The user had outdated information regarding the security updates. That was true around 2015, but in 2025 its not the case anymore, they just never got updated on the new info because they already jumped ship to Apple.
Wont mean the phone will make it tell then with the original battery :(
I recently got a Pixel 9, really hoping it will last the full 7 years
What? Samsung guarantees 7 years of security updates for most phones. Google does the same.
Since when do they do this? I switched in 2017 and back then 3 years was a luxury.
That’s relatively new, they probably haven’t looked in a while.
Kids are like that. Most adults don’t care.
It is still cliqueish even if they don’t do it intentionally when you have things like they assume you have apple things like the iPhone charger( deprecated now) or airdrop.
I may consider “many adults”… I still get grief about it from older adults (I’m talking people in their 40’s and older). Though either of us could be correct.
These are people who can’t be bothered with how things work, but… are amazing at what they do. So it’s an interesting circumstance to observe, and I haven’t come to any strong conclusions.
Those adults might still be children.
Ah, no true
scottsmanadult, then.
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.
… is there ever any logic to what people think are status symbols?
My labubu bandolier says there is.
labubu
What the hell is that? Are beanie babies popular again?
They’re like cutesyfied Monchichi
Pretty much, yeah.
cost is an easy reason/ barrier. but there’s others like membership and other exclusivity options being offered out there.
I remember a friend of mine whining about how my text bubble was a different color and it “made it weird” to text because of that.
By then I was already super over the whole tribalistic iphone/android bs from people I know when it wasn’t being meme’d on, so I just told her “you can either get over it, or we can stop talking and being friends”
Wouldn’t you know it, the color of a text bubble isn’t enough to end a friendship over.
That is how they market their products.
And those demographics are very susceptible to marketing and peer pressure. The chat bubble colors are designed to make you think of alternative phone users as outcasts. Used to be the same with photos and videos in MMS.
By your late 20s most people don’t give a shit about being labeled outcast, but by then you’re locked into their ecosystem.
I see my deGoogled Android device as a higher status symbol than any overpriced stock Apple device.
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.
I‘m the tech guy most people ask for help. If they want a new phone, my first question is for how long it should last and what their price range is - then I mostly suggest an iPhone. You get 5-6 years of support for $600, while Android you need to pay that every 1-2 years.
I‘m the tech guy most people ask for help. If they want a new phone, my first question is for how long it should last and what their price range is - then I mostly suggest an iPhone. You get 5-6 years of support for $600, while Android you need to pay that every 1-2 years.
Incorrect. A Samsung Galaxy A16 (USD $200) has 6 years of security updates.
Since when does Samsung do that? I switched back in 2017 and haven’t been interested in the mobile phone market since the Galaxy fold 2
The Galaxy A12 was released in 2020, it had 4 years of updates, Galaxy A15 released in 2023, had 5 years of updates, Galaxy A16 released in late 2024 (for the US, it was early 2025), now has 6 years of updates. S-Series phones (most of those cost $550 and above) have 7 years of updates)
It’s just security updates tho, new features are not guaranteed for budget phones (like no “AI” features for A-series phones, but then again, its just more marketing gimmics anyways, who really uses those?), but its secure enough for banking.
The people who come to me only care about their pictures. It is I who has to make sure that those who click on every link they receive and open everything attached are unable to fuck something up.
They don’t. You do.
explain how the people who always have the newest iPhone and show it off to all their friends DONT think it’s a status symbol
better yet explain how, I, the person with a several year old android phone who HATES apple considers an iphone more important than they do
It’s just a phone? I’d have an android or fairphone if my job didn’t have apple devices and apps I use all the time. Just makes sense to not need two sets of a lot of things.
