1. once you climb the economic ladder and ar college educated and in a professonal job, the love for iphone seems about the same across racial divides
2. starting in the late 90s, we know that middling income blacks often invested in fully featured phones and, later, smart phones because they don't buy computers, preferring to invest in the phone instead of both. This was a huge market for a client for whom I did work back in 2006, and is currently a big target market for my current employer for just this reason. That is why you see the stat in the PEW study, that 44% of blacks have phones compared to whites.
3. related to 2 is that certain phone companies (e.g., ntelos) and other lower cost providers do explicitly market downscale and were the go to joint of choice for middling blacks adopting expensive feature phones way back when. similarly, the monthly phone plans didn't initially carry iphones either. These places, which target the downmarket, are very common in, well, downmarket locations and very rarely in upmarket locations. \
in turn, those downscale providers didn't historicallycarry iphone, but they did carry android, so it became a matter of provider loyalty. people switch, but they aren't going to switch easily when the downscale provider (e.g., ntelos) is cheaper than AT&T, Verizon, and the like.
Finally, the cost of switching to iphone is also a barrier if you've already adopted Android.
Niggle: you compare the $400 iphone to things that cost < $100. The iphone then used (still does?) requires more in a monthly payment, so why make the switch even if now the costs seem the same?
At 04:07 PM 9/21/2012, Wojtek S wrote:
>Not necessarily. Or at least it is not just about price as Blacks do
>not mind spending considerable amounts on expensive fashion items such
>as car detailing ("car pride"), sneakers or hairdo. It is just that
>the I-product craze did not seem to catch with this demographic group.
>
>My suspicion is that Apple marketing strategy (and Apple is 75%
>marketing and 25% actual product) targets mainly whites while ignoring
>other demographic groups.
>
>
>--
>Wojtek
>
>"An anarchist is a neoliberal without money."
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