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Comment by Workaccount2 | Hacker News Reader

iPhone status symbol without having to haul around a huge bulky phone.

Most users probably use/need 10% of what a max pro iPhone offers, but they want 100% of the max pro status.

Now they can keep the status without needing to carry a chonker.

The idea of an iPhone still as a status symbol in 2025 seems strange to me. I understood it in 2008. They are so commonplace and also not really that expensive where it is a financial flex like some watch that cost 10k+ or something.

“Sixty-three percent of adults said they would cover a hypothetical $400 emergency expense exclusively using cash or its equivalent, unchanged from 2022 and 2023 but down from a high of 68 percent in 2021.”

https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/2025-economic-we...

$999 is a lot of money.

Hardly anyone in the US pays full price for the iPhone up front. They either use 0% carrier financing - usually with offsetting credits - or through Apple.

I don’t understand what that survey question is supposed to be indicating. I have lots of disposable income, and by default I spend using a credit card.

US net worth at the 25th percentile is >$20k, it’s not the case that 32% of people literally don’t have the wealth to afford a $400 expense.

net worth isn't cash flow. the point of that question is that many Americans actually can't just pay off an unexpected $400 charge.

Do you have the question wording? I suspect it’s not measuring what this discussion assumes.

From https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/files/2024-suppl... :

  Suppose that you have an emergency expense that costs $400. Based on your current financial situation, how would you pay for this expense?
  If you would use more than one method to cover this expense, please select all that apply.
  a. Put it on my credit card and pay it off in full at the next statement
  b. Put it on my credit card and pay it off over time
  c. With the money currently in my checking/savings account or with cash
  d. Using money from a bank loan or line of credit
  e. By borrowing from a friend or family member
  f. Using a payday loan, deposit advance, or overdraft
  g. By selling something
  h. I wouldn’t be able to pay for the expense right now

A and c count as "cash or cash equivalents".

Median American has $8k in a checking acct.

Median American household not person, but yes.

Net worth is a bad comparison. It’s easy for people to have $20k in assets but very little cash on hand.

> $999 is a lot of money.

Which almost no one pays up front or at all in the US with the carrier deals and trade ins.

There sure are a lot of comments in this thread pulling out all sorts of random and arbitrary statistics that have no connection with what is actually being discussed here. I’m finding that very strange, frankly.

You must be new here.

Standard HN bikeshedding.

Installments?

Not when you will buy the phone on credit which many people interpret as getting it for free.

Or those god-forsaken monthly payment plans that exclusively exist to get people who don't know how to budget racking up more debt

0% financing on Apple card, 3-8% annual inflation the last 4 years, you'd be dumb not to take it

The people monthly payment plans target are not able to afford the thing because they bought 30 other things on monthly payment plans in the past year and can't keep track of all the monthly payments they're owing until it's too late. That's the intent and why they're so popular now. It's why DoorDash is getting in on the action, so people will buy a Taco Bell delivery with a tempting price tag of only $4 at the time of purchase, multiple times a week for months until you owe hundreds of dollars.

Regardless of who they target, I'm taking free financing any day of the week. It's like credit cards which I've received huge value from, and I've never carried a balance in over 30 years of use.

They are offering 0% when treasuries are yielding 4%, of course I’m going to take it.

Like many other things, these services work well _if you already have the money and don’t actually need it_

A payment plan for a phone makes perfect sense if the phone is capital equipment that makes you money.

You can explain it to them and they don't care. I happen to know more than a few.

> They are so commonplace and also not really that expensive where it is a financial flex like some watch that cost 10k+ or something.

I definitely agree about them being just about the most banal stupid toy you could spend the money on, but it's still a lot of money to a lot of people despite the cost of basic necessities making it not the huge amount that it used to be. I cringe at paying over $450, considering that every new model of phone since like 2015 hasn't really done anything worth significantly more money.

It's just a proxy for people to complain about the price. People will complain about a few hundred dollars in a phone price differences, even though it will be the one product they use more than anything else they own. And then not blink spending a couple extra grand on some car features/performance they use rarely or spend a thousand dollars a year on lattes.

I smile every time I get to drive my car. Hate the phone every other time I pick it up.

I used to find driving quite pleasant, except when everyone else was doing it.

I like my car and my phone. I guess I am particular about what I buy, and I don't buy what I don't need or wont like.

I think it's -mostly- an age thing, and you simply matured out of it. For the most part.

I say that because I feel similarly, but my out of college coworkers rib me for not having an iPhone. One even commented he'd probably never text me in real life, to which I of course replied that I'd never want him to text me in real life.

Further, in the US, non-iPhone have terrible resale value, so the monthly cost of iPhone can be cheaper

Part of the resale value is the better long-term support Apple provides.

They are between 1000 to 1500 USD over here in EU. Pretty much only very well off people are buying current gen iPhones. Many people have older models. We also don't have any Apple lock-in culture, so there is much less incentive to go out of your way to get iPhone specifically.

You're in the US.

Is iPhone still viewed as a status symbol?

Genuine question - maybe I'm too in my own bubble but it seems like iPhone just completely dominates the market and is viewed as the "default" phone, which to me implies status quo, not luxury.

> maybe I'm too in my own bubble

Is it a green bubble or a blue bubble? :)

The Pro is still seen by some as a "flex" by some, visibly having all three lenses. The Air is likely just a more visible flex, thus it will probably sell well.

I'm an Australian in my 40's almost everyone in my immediate circle (family, friends, work-peers) has an Android, at least in my world iPhone is a minority.

I grew up with Nokia phones all I want out of my phone is something cheap and rugged with a decent battery life.

> I'm an Australian in my 40's almost everyone in my immediate circle (family, friends, work-peers) has an Android, at least in my world iPhone is a minority.

It's very particular to your group I think as I am in the same country, similar age, and yet it's the complete opposite for me.

But none of us care because it's not the US and nobody is using some phone exclusive messaging service enough to care about what phone anyone else is using.

You are in a bubble: the anglosphere. In most of the world, the iPhone does not dominate the market.

Japan, Taiwan and the Nordic countries have higher iPhone market share than the Anglosphere IIRC.

Yeah but not because people can't afford it.

Uh? I live in a first world country (Spain) and the minimum wage is lower than the base iPhone Air price.

Of course a lot of people can not afford it.

There are many things that are expensive that are nevertheless not particularly seen as “status symbols”, in the sense of commonly used to publicly display one’s status/wealth/whatever.

Well, I can tell you that in my country, a significant portion of the population sees it as a status symbol.

I replaced my old iPhone XR with a brand new 16 this year, not because anything was wrong with it (even the battery was OK), but I wanted to see what the changes brought.

I was quite surprised that other than the much better battery, USB-C, and much better camera, and sometimes faster speed, the old one was holding up quite well.

You can get an old iPhone XR for 100 EURish, in decent condition. I really have no idea what model year iPhone's others have.

USA minimum wage isn't much higher than iPhone Air price.

$7.25/hour = $1,160/month for 8 hours of daily work, monday to friday.

iPhone Air costs $1000 according to https://www.apple.com/iphone/compare

Americans don't earn the minimum wage. You're talking about less than 1/2 of 1% of the working population. It's a nearly worthless metric (other than as a political reference to how long it has been since the minimum wage has been increased and how far behind the median it is).

it’s just another of the many many comments in this thread where people throw out statistics to make a point, but those statistics are typically detached from reality or not even focused on the main topic of the conversation.

That's precisely why people need a phone focused on design and engineering to stand out.

> Is iPhone still viewed as a status symbol?

In wealthy circles, no. Anywhere else, yes, it’s a thousand-dollar device.

I mean literally half the people I know under the age of 25 have iPhones in my country. How can it be a status symbol when it’s the default phone for most people?

In the end it's the same thing, but in many countries where iPhones are popular, it's more of the "anti status symbol" effect happening. An iPhone is not a status symbol anymore per se, however NOT having one is the thing that gives you a "lower" status.

There’s status in not being one of the android paupers.

Yes, only by people who own an iPhone. It's a special kind of bubble.

I bought a new iPhone 13 for $200 a few months ago and I love it. It does everything I need by far. Newer iPhones take better pictures, yes, but the 13 is still no slouch in that regard.

I have my iPhone 13 Pro Max for 4 years now and the only problem I really have is storage and the battery.

I'm debating if I just replace the battery and let this run another year... since the iPhone X I haven't seen any major upgrades still that feel like they'll matter in my day-to-day life.

A flip would be different...

I'm still rocking a four year-old Note 20 Ultra. I bought it new the week after they announced the Note 21 Ultra when it was clear they were dropping expandable storage. So it's five year-old tech and I can't see any compelling reason to upgrade. It still looks practically new despite never using a case and dropping it dozens of times. It runs all the apps I use quite fast and there's nothing slow about it.

I keep looking at new flagship launches and I keep not seeing any new capability, feature or performance that would make a noticeable difference to me. I replaced the battery myself last year and generally keep the OS clean, not letting app cruft accrue. I'm not a luddite nor am I price sensitive. I remain ready and willing to buy a high-end flagship phone the moment it does anything new I actually care about. It still gets regular security updates even though a couple years ago Samsung stopped updating it to their latest customized version of Android. And despite looking, I still haven't seen any new Android OS or Samsung One UI feature that would matter to me. Bottom line: I don't think it's you or me, I think it's that phones are mature tech and unless you have a specific use case or it breaks, there's just not much reason to upgrade.

I haven't felt compelled to give up my S23 Ultra. The 10X lens is just too useful, and I enjoy the way they did the S-Pen. My previous S21 Ultra is still in use and still going strong.

Definitely replace the battery, it will make a huge difference in your everyday use.

can't you get 1tb?

where from ?

Walmart on Straight Talk. $45/mo for unlimited data and 10gb hotspot usage.

I don't know if it's one of those things where you get "unlimited" data but you get X amount of data until they throttle it. I'm usually near trusted wi-fi and I've never run into it.

> haul around a huge bulky phone

> chonker

Can't see the specs for the iPhone Air but it looks much larger than my SE 2022. I wish they would bring that form factor back. Obviously not as powerful as bigger iPhones so not useful for posing purposes.

I think you're making up a non existent issue.

On the other hand, the cameras on plateaus are real issues because they don't lay normally and the cameras are very easy to scratch.

So I don't get this. Yes, my N=1 experience, but: I don't put my phone in a case, and only use a screen protector. I have a Pixel 8 (arguably one of the more notoriously ridiculous camera bumps), but have of course had other phones with camera bumps before this. I am generally careful with my phone, but of course I've dropped it, knocked it off a table onto the floor, etc. But I've never ever scratched the camera. Have I just been lucky, or are they harder to scratch than one would expect?

Is there, in your experience, a group of people that consider a phone a substantial status symbol?

(Edit: Should have refreshed I see. Feel free to ignore.)

It doesn’t always have to be status. Apple is very good at withholding features from low end models to ensure everyone has that one thing they want that makes them go for the pro variant.

No one could tell the difference between the Max Pro and the cheaper Plus model in the previous years or even the SE.

The reason for the Max Pro is the larger screen and better battery life

Since when are iPhones status symbols?

Even the very poor all seem to have new-ish iPhones.

Also not sure what you're on about with "huge bulky phone".

Is it a status symbol when more than half of the people in all the cities around you in your country have an iPhone?

iPhone hasnt been a status symbol in many years. Its as mainstream as a Toyota Corolla.

Umm most people buy them for the hardware. On paper my 16e sounds really good but is crap compared to the 17 pros cameras plus photonic engine. Apple gimps software in non pros. I don't take alot of pics so I don't really care for the pro. Id rather get an old DSLR.

If you just want a camera get a mirrorless. They're smaller than DSLRs and easier to adapt lenses to. If you don't care about lenses Fujifilm cameras are probably the most fun to use.

(But if you use it rarely it's better to just rent one, and then you can get a really nice one.)

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