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Businesses Iphone The Almighty Buck

Owning an iPhone is the Number-One Way To Guess if You're Rich or Not, Research Finds (businessinsider.com) 497

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
An anonymous reader shares a report: In the United States, if you have an Apple iPhone or iPad, it's a strong sign that you make a lot of money. That's one of the takeaways from a new National Bureau of Economic Research working paper from University of Chicago economists Marianne Bertrand and Emir Kamenica. "Across all years in our data, no individual brand is as predictive of being high-income as owning an Apple iPhone in 2016," the researchers wrote. There are details and caveats to the research, but the economists found that owning an iPhone gave them a 69% chance to correctly infer that the owner was "high-income," which they defined as being in the top quartile of income for households of that type -- like single adult or couple with dependents, for example.
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Owning an iPhone is the Number-One Way To Guess if You're Rich or Not, Research Finds More

Owning an iPhone is the Number-One Way To Guess if You're Rich or Not, Research Finds

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  • Owning a luxury car (or jet/yatch) is even better (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Juju ( 1688 ) on Monday July 09, 2018 @08:35AM (#56915652)

    I know a better way: owning a Ferrari is definitely even more precise! I am pretty sure the correlation for Ferrari -> rich is close to 100%.
    And on my one person sample (me), it's 100% more accurate since I don't own an iPhone (yuck!) but do have a Ferrari (albeit an old one.)

  • no individual brand is as predictive... yeah (Score:5, Insightful)

    by gyepi ( 891047 ) on Monday July 09, 2018 @08:37AM (#56915660)
    "no individual brand is as predictive of being high-income as owning an Apple iPhone in 2016,"

    Seriously? Owning a Bentley is a worse predictor of being high-income than owning an Apple iPhone? Are we sure there are no further qualifications here?

    • Re:no individual brand is as predictive... yeah (Score:5, Informative)

      by The Evil Atheist ( 2484676 ) on Monday July 09, 2018 @08:45AM (#56915716)
      They defined high-income as in the top quartile. That's a lot of 'tile. Sure, owning a Bentley may predict higher incomes, but no use for predicting for top quartile.

    • Re:no individual brand is as predictive... yeah (Score:5, Insightful)

      by geekmux ( 1040042 ) on Monday July 09, 2018 @08:49AM (#56915734)

      "no individual brand is as predictive of being high-income as owning an Apple iPhone in 2016," Seriously? Owning a Bentley is a worse predictor of being high-income than owning an Apple iPhone? Are we sure there are no further qualifications here?

      Uh, from TFA:

      "In 2004, Land O' Lakes butter and Kikkoman soy sauce were predictive of high-income households. In 1992, Grey Poupon mustard was the strongest sign of a rich family."

      I've found more useful statistical data from bullshit articles on The Onion, which this might as well be. I sure as hell hope taxpayers aren't funding this "research".

    • Re:no individual brand is as predictive... yeah (Score:5, Insightful)

      by ShanghaiBill ( 739463 ) on Monday July 09, 2018 @09:04AM (#56915834)

      Seriously? Owning a Bentley is a worse predictor of being high-income than owning an Apple iPhone?

      Yes. I know plenty of people in the top quartile, and none of them own Bentleys.

      If you want to determine if a randomly selected person is in the top 25% by income, asking if they own a Bentley would be a very poor discriminator.

      Top quartile cutoff is $78k. If your household income is above that you are "rich" according to TFA.

      Disclaimer: I am top quartile. I own an iPhone 6 refurb. I do not have a Bentley.

      • You poor, poor devil. :)

      • Top quartile cutoff is $78k. If your household income is above that you are "rich" according to TFA.

        Disclaimer: I am top quartile. I own an iPhone 6 refurb. I do not have a Bentley.

        The article header here on Slashdot is a little misleading:
        "Owning an iPhone is the Number-One Way To Guess if You're Rich or Not, Research Finds"

        If you're single and make $78k; yeah, you're likely rich, can save the vast majority of your pay check, have lots in the bank and probably never worry about money.

        If you're a family of 6 and make $78k, you're definitely not rich. You probably go without a lot of things, worry about money constantly, probably have no savings -living pay check to pay check- and co

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        Top quartile cutoff is $78k. If your household income is above that you are "rich" according to TFA.

        Depends where you live I guess.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Junta ( 36770 )

      Roughly, they are looking for households making over 100k/year.

      Sure, if you own a Bentley, you are in that group. If you don't own a Bentley, you probably still have about a 25% chance of being in that group, so it's a poor indicator because of the false negative rate.

      Of course, as they point out, this isn't a good measure either. There's a 30% false-positive rate, and presumably a very high false-negative rate. It's just *less* severe than brands like Bentley or Ferrari.

      • I earn less than 100K. I don't have a Bentley. I do have an iPhone.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Junta ( 36770 )

          Which is the 30% false-positive rate that I pointed out.

          In other words, there is *no* singular brand/product choice to indicate wealth very well, but of those product/brand choices, the iPhone comes the *closest* to such a mythical thing. Still not to be used by itself, but as a weighted factor among other pieces of data, if you really need to care that much.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by dcw3 ( 649211 )

          I earn less than 100K. I don't have a Bentley. I do have an iPhone.

          Same as my mom, who lives on her social security. But then, I pay for the phone.

    • Owning a Bentley is a worse predictor of being high-income than owning an Apple iPhone?

      Yup, because you might be seeing a 25%-er that owns a Ferrari instead. Or one who own a Maseratti. Or one who owns a Tesla Roadster with all the stupid options like SpaceX rockets. Or a Porsche. etc.
      But all of them happen to own an iPhone, just like a significant chunk of all the other 25%ers (including that 25%ers who doesn't own any car and entirely relies on professional driver services (you know the services that UberBlack drivers actually do for a living when they're not moonlighting on Uber) )

      --

      More

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mjwx ( 966435 )

      "no individual brand is as predictive of being high-income as owning an Apple iPhone in 2016,"

      Seriously? Owning a Bentley is a worse predictor of being high-income than owning an Apple iPhone? Are we sure there are no further qualifications here?

      I suspect the "research" was done to fit the Iphone owners opinion of themselves.

      Iphones are not a status symbol, the only people who think they are status symbols are hopeless Apple fanboys. For most people they're just another phone, even someone on benefits can get one on a £40 a month contract. Possibly less.

      Likewise you don't have to be rich to own a Bentley, there are a few 90's Brooklands or Mulsannes going for less than £10,000. OTOH, there are people still living with their mum s

      • Iphones are not a status symbol, the only people who think they are status symbols are hopeless Apple fanboys.

        Actually I'd say the only people who think (or hope) they are status symbols are people who are Apple haters. Given that each and every one of my grand parents (and yours too I'm betting) owns an iPhone or an iPad or both, I think we can pretty safely dispense with the myth that they are some sort of status symbol. There's nothing exclusive about them when my grandmother whose only income is Social Security has one.

  • Image over function (Score:4, Insightful)

    by layabout ( 1576461 ) on Monday July 09, 2018 @08:38AM (#56915662)
    It seems to me that owning an iPhone shows that you are more concerned about image over function/capability. Which is also a pretty strong indicator of being rich

    • What? You think sports cars and yachts just look good and aren't actually a pleasure to use too?

      • I know a few sports cars that are exactly NO pleasure to use. Need a shoehorn to get in, need a pulley to get out, shock absorbers that make your spine the actual shock absorber... no thanks.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by dknj ( 441802 )

          Need a shoehorn to get in, need a pulley to get out, shock absorbers that make your spine the actual shock absorber... no thanks.

          Being fat is another indicator of wealth. In the medieval days, being plump meant you were eating well and thus meant you came from wealth. Ergo, found the rich guy.

          -dk

        • I know a few sports cars that are exactly NO pleasure to use. Need a shoehorn to get in, need a pulley to get out, shock absorbers that make your spine the actual shock absorber... no thanks.

          That's called a tradeoff. All that stuff makes a better sports car. Although I have to admit, it IS nice to have a vehicle which can go over broken and bumpy pavement without shaking one to hell. I used to have a 240SX with a 3" drop and over 4x the stock spring rate. It was basically telepathic, but going over bumps was quite painful. Now I have an A8 Quattro. It goes over that stuff like it's not even there, it doesn't even upset the car in a turn. But it also wallows by comparison.

          Honestly, if I could wi

          • Buy a 90s Miata as a toy. We're talking about beer money for one in decent condition, $3000 or so. I drove one daily and it was even fun as that.

            • Buy a 90s Miata as a toy. We're talking about beer money for one in decent condition, $3000 or so. I drove one daily and it was even fun as that.

              You drink very expensive beer... you must be an iPhone owner and well in the top quartile.

            • Buy a 90s Miata as a toy. We're talking about beer money for one in decent condition, $3000 or so. I drove one daily and it was even fun as that.

              Spotted the midget. Mazdas are unsuitable for anyone taller than an oompa-loompah, and I'm 6'7". Otherwise I'd get one, I don't care how gay I'd look. I really should have spent my A8 money on a Boxster, I could have had one. Feel dumb now, even if I am very comfortable.

              • I'm 6' and had a "NA" (90-96) Miata. No idea how well it would fit someone even taller. It actually had more legroom than many sedans since there was no need for the front seats not to block the rear footwells.

      • Depends what you think the function of a phone is. In general I use mine to make and receive phone calls the fact that it's does text, email, calendar reminders, shows me the weather forecast and works like an media player is just a bonus. You won't catch me gaming on my phone or doing other things the screen is just too small.

        That being said walmart has iphones right next to the huawei and LG phones now that apple offers low end models.

        • Depends what you think the function of a phone is

          Not really. The device in my pocket is called a "smartphone" but the fact that it makes phone calls is fairly incidental to its utility for myself and most people. It's really just a small personal computer with the ability to make phone calls added in. I probably use the phone capability less than 5% of the time I'm using the device and I think I'm pretty typical these days. If you use yours primarily to make calls that makes you something of an outlier.

          You won't catch me gaming on my phone or doing other things the screen is just too small.

          And why do we care? You be you. If gaming isn't

      • You think sports cars and yachts just look good and aren't actually a pleasure to use too?

        In a lot of cases they are only good to look at and definitely not a pleasure to use. Have you ever actually driven a Lamborghini Countach? I have and it SUCKED. Looks pretty as hell and is fast in a straight line but James May said it far more eloquently [youtube.com] than I could about why it's a terrible car.

        Just because something looks good and has a high price tag doesn't necessarily mean it is something you'll enjoy owning.

    • Re:Image over function (Score:5, Informative)

      by ShanghaiBill ( 739463 ) on Monday July 09, 2018 @09:09AM (#56915852)

      It seems to me that owning an iPhone shows that you are more concerned about image over function/capability.

      This isn't 2007. Nobody is impressed by an iPhone.

    • nice trollpost ;-)

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by pr0nbot ( 313417 )

      I've owned both Android and iOS phones over the years... an HTC, an original iPhone (which I inherited), a Nexus 4, a OnePlue One, and finally an iPhone 6S.

      The Android phones were flagships of their time and a lot cheaper than iPhones. That doesn't seem to be true any more, or at least, the prices for a top-of-the-range iPhone or Samsung are so absurd that I treat them both as luxury goods not meant for me, and the price difference is irrelevant. It's probably still true that you can get better specs in an

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jsepeta ( 412566 )

      Or maybe you prefer a phone that always gets all the updates, instead of Android phones that are stuck 2, 3 versions behind. After 2 different Android phones I said fuckitalltohell and got an iPhone, and could not be happier.

    • It seems to me that owning an iPhone shows that you are more concerned about image over function/capability.

      No that's just your confirmation bias talking. The primary attraction of most Android phones is simply price. (which is very reasonable) The features are a secondary concern at best for most users. If you are arguing that iPhones aren't functional you are crazy. Most buyers of these devices aren't worried about using every last feature and just want something that works. For most users iPhones are primarily about function (they mostly work great), reliability, and not image at all. My parent's are a p

      • If you are arguing that iPhones aren't functional you are crazy.

        We aren't arguing that :-/ We're arguing that phones for half the price of the iPhone has more functionality.

    • What capabilities do Androids/iPhones really not share? Yes we can get into the nitty gritty of specifications, but more or less anything a person can do with an Android can be done on an iPhone. I honestly very curious. I've owned Androids up until the S7 Edge. I quit rooting and shoving Cyanogenmod on them some time prior. My iPhone does everything I used my Android to do. I've found I enjoy the integrations of the Watch, the MBP, and the Apple TV in what seems to be the most seemless integration of hardw

  • Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Monday July 09, 2018 @08:42AM (#56915686)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Odd, it's different in Europe (Score:3, Funny)

    by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Monday July 09, 2018 @09:10AM (#56915854)

    In Europe, it's mainly a sign that you're an obnoxious douche that wants others to think that you earn a lot of money.

    • In Europe, it's mainly a sign that you're an obnoxious douche that wants others to think that you earn a lot of money.

      I certainly feel that way every time I see a "Sent from my iPhone" message as a signature. That signature just exudes sliminess.

  • From the article: "The research also suggests that owning an Android phone or using Verizon are a strong indicators of being high-income as well. ".

    So there you go. If you own an iPhone or Android, you could be high income. Useful.
  • Well that is pretty obvious, those with more money than sense buy overpriced products for the 'prestige'. Those with more sense than money are more careful with their money.
  • Gotta do something to encourage more people to buy iPhones in light of their dropping market share [statcounter.com]. I mean, if new colors won't do it - maybe trying to hype up the "you look rich if you carry one!" vanity will work?

  • Look at the charts in TFA... why is there always a disparity between having a dishwasher and using dishwasher detergent?? The detergent is horrifically caustic so who is using it not in a machine? Either that or what genius is using a machine without detergent? Messed up....

  • Wealthier people more likely to be able to afford expensive product than non-wealthy ones, hence more likely to buy it.

    Film at 11...

  • Yeah, right, and if we dig deeper who are we going to discover funded this "study"?
    A while back some "study" found that it was healthier drinking coca cola than water - guess who funded that one?

  • Is this a correlation that people who own iPhones have money to burn, or more of a correlation that iPhones are solidly in the over priced category, like many other luxury items?

  • The article is about "it's a strong sign that you make a lot of money". So what? A lot of people that have fancy toys are up to their eyeballs in debt. That's not rich. There is no prize for being on the hamster wheel of wage slavery and consumerism. In fact, it pretty much sucks unless you're a large corporation. That's America for you. This culture is only concerned about status or appearance. They couldn't care less about the founding principles of the country like oh I don't know, Liberty? You
  • "Owning an iPhone is the Number-One Way To Guess if You're Rich" ... through no fault of your own ...

  • Apparently Bill Gates is an outlying point in their data:
    https://www.zdnet.com/article/... [zdnet.com]

  • Insofar as it's an indicator of whether people are careless with their money, sure.

  • Look at the rent they can afford to pay.
    Find the zip code. Take in the average of a city and its rent say in Springfield MO, Akron OH, Tuscon AZ, Rochester NY, Asheville NC, Irvine CA, San Jose CA.
    Factor in rent control, Section 8 housing social experiments in the same part of the city and see what the wage, trust fund covers per month.

    Rent needs a real double working income? Thats not poverty.
    A big brand has to offer millions in real convertible cash to get professional workers able to move to an

    • I do agree but I only posted because no one ever mentions Rochester,NY.
      It's always Buffalo and Syracuse.
      As you guessed I live in greater Rochester.

      P.S. Isn't the 'dw' pair odd? How many words pronounce that like in 'dwelling'

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AHuxley ( 892839 )
        The dwelling could be a shack that needs much more investment, but the land is worth millions.
        A land use restriction on what can be done after spending millions.

  • There are a lot of things I would infer about a person with the ownership of an iphone. Wealth is not necessarily one of them.

  • Your average THOT owns an iPhone.

    Counting on something so fragile is a risky proposition for anyone who gets serious shit done.

  • FTFY (Score:2)

    by dcw3 ( 649211 )

    Owning an iPhone is the Number-One Way To Guess if You're Upper Class or Not, Research Finds

    Top 25% != Rich

    • news for you, that's not even upper class.

      plenty of solidly middle class people own iphones, most the people at work have them. I can afford any phone made...but choose to own android that costs less than half of iphone price

  • Every deadbeat I knw has an iPhone. iPhone ownership predicts that you live in the USA, it says *nothing* about your income except relative to the rest of the world.

  • The iPhone was just the best single product from a very narrow list of products, not the best indicator.

    Owning a passport was one of several better indicators.

    And an Android phone is a 59% indicator. Come on /.

  • Interesting, isn't it? (Score:3)

    by King_TJ ( 85913 ) on Monday July 09, 2018 @01:01PM (#56917660) Journal

    I mean, a total household income of $78,000 qualifies you as in the "top quantile"? I know this gets a bit off-topic of how good an iPhone is as an indicator of being part of that group.... but I find it a bit depressing that our collective incomes have dropped enough to make this a reality.

    This isn't talking about individual incomes, mind you - but total household income. 2 parent families with kids and so forth.

    That means a husband and wife could each have jobs paying less than $40,000/yr. and yet they're among the "richest" in America that these marketing people are interested in zeroing in on?

    I know ..... differences in cost of living by geography and all that. But STILL? My very first "career job" in the early 2000's was doing computer support/helpdesk type work for a small to mid-sized family owned business and I was earning $40,000-ish/yr. pay back then, in the midwest where cost of living was low.

    If you're married and the two of you, together, aren't earning at least this "top quantile" of income or darn close to it? It's not even realistic to imagine you can handle paying the typical mortgage for a small home, a couple of car payments so the two of you have vehicles to get to/from work, and paying everything else while saving the minimum recommended amount towards retirement. (If I'm way off base, please explain! I keep reading the economic advice from the people telling us we shouldn't be putting down more than X% of our income on a car payment, and Y% on a mortgage payment, and yet should be putting Z% into a 401K or IRA ... and none of that adds up as possible with a $78K household income, from what I've seen.)

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