The irony is their core market is not people with disposable income. The vast majority of their customers buy an iPhone on tick i.e. monthly contracts. It’s older people like myself who are the ones with disposable income but aren’t swayed by the ridiculous hype so we don’t buy into the illusion.
We look at the entire designer industry celebrity culture obsession and simply shake our collective heads in disbelief. It’s precisely because we don’t fall for all the sales guff from many varied sources that we have disposable income.
Of course their target market is people with lots of disposable income...
disposable income
noun
- income remaining after deduction of taxes and social security charges, available to be spent or saved as one wishes.
Having disposable income doesn't mean you have cash in the bank, even if you spend every penny every month you can still have huge amounts of disposable income. Just because someone chooses to finance it instead of buying outright doesn't change they fact they have disposable income. Contrary to what the main stream media report it's not just old people with lots of disposable income, young people in this country have huge amounts of disposable income, more of it than ever. Most just choose not to save hard for a house when they come out of education and spend every penny they can....
Look at the festival scene, its exploded over the last decade and there is clearly no young people there with disposable income, oh wait....
Again look at my point about the car leasing/pcp market, I have lost count of the number of 22-35 year old's who lease their brand new fiesta, cant be without that new number plate you know...
Students in particular have huge amounts of disposable income, why do you think there are all sorts of offers to get them in the door (it's not because they are poor...), there are so many 18-25's year old's that wouldn't even think twice before dropping a ton on a night out....
How many 25-35 year old's do you know that haven't been abroad at least once in the last year?
That being said Apples sales are very strong through all age demographics below 65, not just young or middle aged.
The reasons for the disposable income in this instance is irrelevant. What I said is the more mature demographic are the ones with the disposable income (in the main) - which is true, you've just confirmed this yourself.
I was answering b0rn2sk8 post where it was stated that Apple's core market are those with disposable income. I replied the majority of iPhone customers buy them on tick not cash, again which is true. Another little known fact is that women are the biggest buyers of the iPhone in the UK, hence why there is this backlash against Apple for scrapping the SE - women have smaller hands.
Don't shoot the messenger because you don't like the message.
The iPhone SE didn't sell 'well', it never has nor did Apple ever intend it do so. Apple's best selling phone is the flagship, by a country mile, year in, year out. Killing off the SE form factor will cost them very little. I see just as many 'plus sized' phones in the hands of women as I do men, its noting to do with the size of people's hands more the size of their wallet. A modern phone is pretty much a two hand job no matter who you buy it from...
Again, buying a phone on contract doesn't mean you don't have disposable income, its just a choice between paying for something outright or over time. Most people don't do the total cost calculation because they:
A) Don't want to know how much it will actually cost
B) Don't care and are happy with X/month
C) Prefer to spread the cost over time rather than paying it out or unable to actually save any money so X/month is a better arrangement for them
D) Are just naive and don't realise they are paying over the odds.
And back to topic....
, so professional moaners have moaned.... I'm shocked!
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