90 per cent of iPhone buyers rejected a bargain, instead seduced by the iPhone 4S -- despite the fact it's so similar to the previous model. Which leads us to ask: are we blindly addicted to the latest, shiniest thing even when it's not the sensible option?
A new study by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners breaks down iPhone sales, and reveals that an overwhelming majority of people buying an Apple phone plumped for the 4S. If these figures are accurate, it reveals iPhone buyers value newness over bargainicity.
On the one hand, this seems obvious: people always want the latest thing. Retailers certainly want to sell you the latest thing, in order to maximise the money they're removng from your pockets. So all shops will try and push the 4S, and some might not even offer the older models. On the other hand, it's surprising that so few people bagged themselves a bargain by buying an older phone.
What's interesting is this shows the power of the new. Most tech is essentially the same as previous versions, just a bit better. Gadgets that are totally unique and innovative are relatively rare, and even those that are totally new quickly become the first in a line of slightly adjusted versions.
The first iPhone was one such disruptive product, but every iPhone that's followed has basically been the same, just a bit better. And that's never been truer than the iPhone 4S. The camera and processor are slightly better than the iPhone 4, but they're physically identical and barely differ on features. If you ignore Siri you'd be hard-pressed to tell the two apart.
Which means the arrival of the iPhone 4S was an opportunity for savvy shoppers to save money by buying a slightly older model -- and no-one would be any the wiser. For the first time, you could buy an older, cheaper iPhone, and still appear to be rocking the latest model.
Yet only 7 per cent of those sampled opted to do so, and only 4 per cent netted even bigger savings by purchasing an iPhone 3GS.
Opting for an iPhone 4 instead of a 4S in the UK saves you £70. Opting for a 3GS saves you a massive £180.
20 per cent of iPhone buyers even went so far as upgrading to a 4S when they already owned an iPhone 4. Think about that: those people laid out upwards of £500 to get a phone practically identical to the phone they paid £500 barely a year before.
It's that kind of devotion to the new that saw Apple make a gobsmacking $13bn profit in the last three months alone.
It seems the lure of the new is just too hard to resist. Or maybe it's Siri that's convincing punters to lay down the extra readies instead of seeking out a bargain. But we doubt it.
Have you considered an older phone to save money, or is the magpie instinct always too powerful? Is the iPhone 4S worth the extra money over an older model, or have nine out of 10 buyers proved themselves to be mugs? Tell us in the comments or on our always bargainous Facebook page.
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Comments 14
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anonymous 26 January, 2012 17:33
You've rather destroyed your own argument here. Some people _assumed_ that iPhone buyers bought the newest model because they wanted to be seen with the latest thing. The success of the iPhone 4S proves that this was not the case — as you point out, they could have stuck with the iPhone 4. Therefore, there are clearly other factors. Some people will have been waiting for the new model to come out rather than buying the old one. We've all experienced buyers remorse at getting the latest thing, only for a newer, better, cheaper model to come out the next month. Tech savvy buyers know that the best time to buy tech is when it's brand new, or when it's been steeply discounted. But there are plenty of people who have looked at the specs and compared them. Twice the speed of processing, 8 MP camera, full HD video, double download speed. If you're using an application like Filemaker Go which is slow on an iPhone 4, then the 4S is a winner. And, finally, there's Siri. Until you start relying on it, its usefulness is not clear. Once you do start to use it every day, it become indispensable. The overwhelming success of the iPhone 4S demonstrates that, whatever else iPhone buyers are looking for, the thrill of being able to show off the latest gadget is not a key purchasing decision.
dvdthirsty 26 January, 2012 18:17
I had an Iphone 3GS back in 2009 on a 2 year contract and waited until it expired in November, which was the perfect time to upgrade to the 4S. Admittedly, i was looking forward to a new and improved iteration but i did not see the point in going for the Iphone 4 in the middle of my contract, even though it had a different design and better spec than the 3GS. I just didn't think it was worth it.
I suspect i will feel the same about the Iphone 5 (or whatever it will be called) when it comes out unless it is significantly better. As for Siri, i hardly use it, force of habit, i suppose, by doing things manually - that's not to say it isn't good.
Now that i'm using the 4S it is much better than the 3GS in every way and so it should be. However, as for wanting the latest gadget, that may be the case for some but not for me. Case in point, with all the rave about the Ipad and its been out a couple of years now (which is old in tech years) i still haven't bought one yet, go figure!
iam a wp7 26 January, 2012 18:28
Worries me so many people buy the iPhone. There are many phones cheaper and arguably better. More and more people are buying and iPhone because its an iPhone and they think its the best phone ever. Got to love Apples marketing.
anonymous 26 January, 2012 18:53
I love my iPhone 4s and totally don't understand why people are so against it. It's a damn good phone. iCloud is great and I love being able to sync it wirelessly. I know you can do all the same with android in a clunky way if ur willing to fiddle around for about a year but I don't care. I used to have a htc legend and it was a good phone too. Android still feels like a beta to me.
phd8569 26 January, 2012 18:53
In my experience the vast majority of people who buy the iPhone 4S over discounted older versions, over even the higher spec Android phones, are people who care less about the upgraded features and more about the fact that's its 'the newest iPhone'. Apple's marketing genius has used that 'he has one so I want one too' mentally that humans have to it's advantage better than anyone else history. This is why they can and will continue to get away with having such a narrow product range yet increase profits by such vast levels. Would these results be replicated with Android phones? I doubt it. Not untill they sort the marketing out.
Alimus 26 January, 2012 21:25
To be honest I think the reason is because there hasn't been a massive discount, £70 off works out as a 14% discount, hardly staggering. If I was buying an iPhone I'd get the 4S too.
Even the 3GS is only 36% off, this is a phone which was out at the same time as the HTC Hero, Motorola Droid and the original Samsung Galaxy. It's over 2 years old, in smartphone years that's about 90, yet they still want to charge you £320 for one.
If getting a bargain means getting an item at a price less than it should be worth then neither of these offers counts as one, and would explain why 'bargain hunters' have left them well alone.
iam a wp7 26 January, 2012 21:45
The 8gb iPhone 3g is still £180 on Amazon. What a joke.
anonymous 27 January, 2012 09:40
A slightly miss leading article really i think. The reason the 4S gets slated a lot of the time is because it looks the same as the 4 and people assume its basically the same thing and therefore not a worthy upgrade. However it actually does improve things but a lot.
Before I make these points I upgraded from a 3g so it was a massive upgrade for me.
Also I know there are apple nuts out there who will upgraded the to latest just because its the newest thing but its unfair to paint everyone with that brush.
You say in this article that the cpu is only a small upgrade when in fact its twice as fast as its dual core. OK maybe just under as it was capped slightly but its significantly faster. Add to this the WAY more powerful GPU (7x faster what ever that really means but its still a DAMN sight faster).
Top this off if the mirroring capability that you get if you have an apple TV box, the 2 arial's for faster 3G, a camera that is actually a fair bit better and is capable of HD video with image stabilization and you start to have a fairly significant upgrade without even mentioning SIRI.
I don't use SIRI but many of those reasons are why I went for a 4S rather than a 4 anyway.
And people who go on about people just wanting iPhones because of apple marketing again are talking unfairly about everyone. Im far far far from an apple fanboy. There PC's are frankly stupidly over prices and restrictive and have been against them for years (and im a designer). I much prefer my PC's. However where apples walled garden does work well is in these kind of devices that are for the most part, media consumption. The OS allows you to get stuff done fairly hastle free and the APP store is a lot better than anything the other companies are offering.
I was actually considering getting a SG2 instead but when I looked into it, it was the apple app store than convinced me to go iphone again.
That all said I know there are apple fans out there who will buy anything they release but there are plenty of people out there who actually look at all there options first and still chose the 4s over other phones (including previous iPhones) for a sensible reason.
Rich Trenholm 27 January, 2012 09:49
Interesting points. To be clear, we're not slating the iPhone 4S - it is indeed a damn good phone - but so is the iPhone 4. Personally I wouldn't pay the extra just for Siri and a faster processor - and I certainly wouldn't fork out again if I already forked out for a 4 barely a year ago.
tbag 27 January, 2012 14:01
For all of the people i know that have upgraded from a 4 to a 4S the majority of them have never been able to give me a reasonable answer as to why they upgraded. Occasionally they will admit they expected more but upgraded without real review of the new product as they just assumed it would be marvellous in comparison to the old. Others even go as far as admitting they upgraded so that they had the latest ‘product’ that could be shown off to all around them, embarrassingly they also admit that they now realise there is no real way of distinguishing new from old without specifically showing someone. Not all iPhone owners are hypnotised by the forbidden fruit but embarrassingly a lot seem to be, I guess the 50 billion dollar question is why? If I knew I would be a very rich man!
anonymous 27 January, 2012 14:08
its probably the 4th best phone on the market , in 2 months it will be about the 7th best , my god I bet that hurts the fan boys out there. But I,m sure they are blind to these facts
anonymous 27 January, 2012 15:58
I think the biggest draw is the iPhone 4 is now only 8GB for £430, entry level iPhone 4S is £500. So as well as all the other benefits (faster processor, better camera, siri), you can double the storage for only £70.
The price difference between the 16GB and 32GB iPhone 4S is more than that! When you're already shelling out in excess of £400, that extra £70 buys you so much, I can't understand why anyone would buy the iPhone 4.
anonymous 28 January, 2012 01:27
As a previous Android owner, I bought my iPhone 4S because it was the best upgrade deal for me from my network and it was cheaper than the latest Android device!
billfred 29 January, 2012 11:45
"anonymous 28 January, 2012 01:27
As a previous Android owner, I bought my iPhone 4S because it was the best upgrade deal for me from my network and it was cheaper than the latest Android device!"
What network are you on?! They seem stupid enough that I could convince them to just give me money.