iPhone 4 Sales Show Buyers Driven By Desire, Not Need: ANALYST

AllThingsD:

Here's an interesting bit of survey data from Oppenheimer analyst Yair Reiner who found, like Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster, a significant portion iPhone 4 sales Thursday to be upgrade purchases by existing iPhone owners (76 percent versus Munster's 77 percent).

Read the whole story: AllThingsD

Comments

[SanityForOnce]

02:52 PM on 06/27/2010

One of the dumbest headlines ever...... consumer products are bought out of a desire, not a need? This is news indeed. ;-)

Are you telling me I didn't need to buy that 50" plasma HDTV?....... I'm shocked, simply shocked!

[kinogod]

11:10 AM on 06/27/2010

If like most people w an iPhone, you find yourself taking photos and using the amazing photo apps to enhance them, the 4 upgrade is worth the price for the camera and HD video alone. Face time seems like a gimmick unless you're working as a sex phone worker (hey cam-girlz, upgrade!). The new software works great on my 3GS. As far as feel in the hand, I'm less convinced by the feel of the 4 vs the 3GS. In the end it's the faster speed and cameras.

[Alien Nation]

08:59 AM on 06/28/2010

Cellphones take horrible photos. HD or not they aren't even remotely a substitute for a real camera.

Just saying anyone buying a cellphone as a camera is pretty LOL.

[Khodges2]

02:13 AM on 06/27/2010

Is this article serious... Of course they desire the iPhone! Do you see the lines... Not like they are giving away food because of a shortage.

[RGKahn]

11:37 PM on 06/26/2010

"iPhone 4 Sales Show Buyers Driven By Desire, Not Need: ANALYST". And your point? I don't have any numbers to back me up on this, but probably half the purchases made are because of desire and not need. We could buy a auto the cost twelve thousand dollars to fill a need for affordable transportation. Many buy or lease a car that goes for multiples of that amount because of their desire to more than just affordable transportation. There are many desires. Desire to show off or show up your friends, neighbors and/or enemies.

[DMSmith]

03:42 PM on 06/26/2010

Why is it wrong to buy something simply because you want it?
This whole argument is far more stupid than you think buying an iPhone is.

[Alien Nation]

09:01 AM on 06/28/2010

It shows the reality of how Americans think. Most of our life revolves around desire and the want to obtain material goods that really hold no value and add nothing to our lives.

Once you eliminate the desire for material things you can be set free from the vicious circle that is consumerism.

[Build or Destroy]

01:30 PM on 06/26/2010

File that under: "Duh."

No one in the world really needs an iphone. People need that about as much as they need a plasma tv.

[Gudrun]

09:03 PM on 06/28/2010

I've rarely had a big need for a cell phone, but I do enjoy using all the other features that come with the iPhone.

[Tarich]

11:06 AM on 06/26/2010

iPhone 4 buyers are driven by iDiocy, not iNtelligence.

Who wants a phone that doesn't work as a phone. 600,000 morons and counting.

http://geekcomforts.com/2010/06/iphone-4ever/

[DMSmith]

03:40 PM on 06/26/2010

I don't. And I have an iPhone. It works wonderfully. I have no problems making or keeping calls.
Get a life. Trust me, I'm not a moron, but you sure sound like one.

[Alien Nation]

09:03 AM on 06/28/2010

Yeh I've never met a person that's had a problem with iPhone reception.

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2008/08/apple-hit-with-class-action-lawsuit-over-3g-iphone-flakiness.ars

Not like Apple's been hit with class action lawsuits because of the crappy performance of the actual phone feature.

[runtwelds]

09:42 AM on 06/28/2010

did you not get one? were you turned away at the line? mine is awesome, you should totally get over yourself and get one.

[lockDown]

09:13 PM on 06/25/2010

No one NEEDS an app phone. It's a luxury item. People who only NEED a phone buy a simple $50 or free phone.

I buy every iPhone. If I were poor, I would try to get a free phone with a cheap plan. Once upon a time, I thought $20/mo. was too much. Those were the daaaays.

[artist-53]

08:35 PM on 06/25/2010

Hey HP, I notice that you seem to have taken my iPad contest entry ,that was on this site, and sort of used it.

IWant1

Actually, my "a" in want was the apple logo.

Coincidence?

OK I'll make a deal. Stop tossing some of my posts out into the Ethernet and I won't call my lawyer.:-) I'M joking about the lawyer. But hey, give me some credit folks.

[DRaymond]

08:15 PM on 06/25/2010

Actually the more significant numbers are buried deeper in the article. Thei first is that the average iPhone replacement period is 14.7 months rather than 21 months as is typical for other smartphone purchases. Considering that mose cell-phone pruchases require a minimum 24 month service contract there are quite a number of people who are essentially still paying off the first.

But more interesting was the 13 percent of purchasers who said they allways bought the latest iPhone. They don't even make a pretense of needing or wanting the features. They just buy whatever Steve Jobs tells them to. They are the iDrones, and to have 13 percent of purchasers be essentially automatons of your marketing department is pretty impressive, and more than a little disturbing.

[Cheesedog]

11:56 PM on 06/25/2010

There's no such thing as an iDrone, someone who will "buy whatever Steve Jobs tells them to".
Lots of people upgrade their phone whenever a better one is available. Some people get a new car every year, even though the old one would work fine for 20 years.
Apple has produced many failed products over the years that these same "iDrones" didn't purchase.

Now they've come up with a product that even some hardcore anti-Mac Windows users will buy, and they are hardly "iDrones."

You don't want one? Fine. That doesn't mean that the people who do are somehow hypnotized, or that you are somehow more clever than they are. Most probably don't drop that kinda coin lightly.

Maybe it's just a good product.

Hasn't that ever occurred to you, man? Sir?

[DRaymond]

01:21 PM on 06/26/2010

Did you read the article and check out the source study? The marketing survey asked those upgrading their iPhone why they were doing it. Some said they needed a new phone, some said they wanted the new features and 13 percent said "I always buy the latest iPhone". In other words this 13 percent frankly admitted that they did not need a new phone and had no particular desire for the features of the new phone. They bought it simply because Apple was selling a new model. I did not invent the existence of these iDrones. They themselves admitted it.

[Angelus2007]

01:12 PM on 06/26/2010

Actually, at&t allows you to upgrade every 12 months if you are in good standing and have a bill over $100, which mine is since it is a family plan, the second line on the acct gets an upgade ever 18 months. I waited 18 months to upgrade since I bout my phone in Dec. 2008, was eligible in Dec 2009 and knew a new phone would be out in 6-7 months.

[DRaymond]

01:24 PM on 06/26/2010

Thanks for the correction. Still, 14.7 months average replacement means that quite a few people are dumping their phones either right at the 12 month point or earlier. That's a lot of planned obsolescence (and resource waste).

[djluc]

04:25 PM on 06/25/2010

Isn't this true about most tech gadgets? Why is this even news?

[lockDown]

09:34 PM on 06/25/2010

@djluc - Agreed. It's HP's SEO attempt by using iPhone 4 as a search term.

I worked at a company that encouraged us to use Paris Hilton's name in our writings just because her name generated a lot of web hits at the time. I suspect the same here.

[GoDogGo]

03:51 PM on 06/25/2010

This is precisely why I think people who say "it'll be 'outdated' in six months" have such incredibly twisted values. If it still works, it's not outdated...

Buy what suits your needs today and use it as long as you can. I still use the original 2007 2G iPhone and it's still fantastic (mostly BECAUSE it's lasted so well). If you look at tech like fashion, you're just making waste.

[piper1233]

04:16 PM on 06/25/2010

Did you NEED the 2007 2G when you bought it? Lets try to get a grip on reality, there are very few things that we acquire in life that is truely needed. We acquire new items for a variety of reasons. Most of them are based around an emotional need; not a need for the acquisition.

[GoDogGo]

05:23 PM on 06/25/2010

Yes I did need it, and I was happy to pay $400. I run my entire business from a smart phone, using voice, web, email and social networking.

But that said, yes, most things we all buy and the choice of which brand to select are emotionally based. That's the foundation of consumer behavior.

[MCJanes]

03:21 PM on 06/25/2010

And in other breaking research done by the same group, breathing has proven to be driven by need, not desire.

Both discoveries will be published in next month's issue of the scientific journal "Duh".

[MrVee]

02:09 PM on 06/25/2010

Of course they are driven by desire. The iphone is the beanie baby of 1993. Study just released said 77 percent of iphone 4 buyers ALREADY own an iphone.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/zd/20100625/tc_zd/252224

[DRaymond]

08:22 PM on 06/25/2010

But more than that was the study that asked why they were upgrading and while most mentioned needing a new phone or wanting the features an amazing 13 percent simply said that they allways buy the latest iPhone. And I would venture that a great many of the people who talked about features or need were just buying the latest for the sake of the latest. But to have 13 percent frankly admit to being automatons is amazing. I can't think of any other consumer product, or even any other phone line, where 13 percent of the buyers not only buy automatically every new model, but readily admit to it.

[Cheesedog]

01:36 AM on 06/26/2010

And the fact that people upgrade their phones is a surprise somehow?

[DRaymond]

01:26 PM on 06/26/2010

True, what is unique about the iPhone is that the replacement cycle is much faster (an average of just 14.7 months) and apparently driven by a substantial number (13%) who simply allways buy the latest iPhone no matter what.

[MrVee]

03:44 PM on 06/27/2010

Too much ice in your koolaide cheesedog. Again you missed the point entirely. Your response makes about as much sense as using software to correct hardware design flaw ala iphone 4. Who would have thought blocking a cell phones primary receptor, the antenna signal with your hand was a smart move for a cell phone?

There needs to be a full recall on the iphone 4. That or face a class action lawsuit.

[Cheesedog]

01:56 PM on 06/25/2010

People don't need televisions, Doritos, lawn jockeys or pinball machines either. So what?