14 DAY TRIAL // Apple’s iPhone has become the number one indicator of someone being high-income, according to new research, as the top-of-the-range model now costs more than $1,000 in the United States.
Data published by University of Chicago economists Marianne Bertrand and Emir Kamenica in a National Bureau of Economic Research paper shows that Apple’s products are typically products that wealthy customers purchase, as both the iPhone and the iPad are now considered a common status symbol of high income.
According to the research, which is based on a sample size of 6,394 customers, owning an iPhone generates a 69.1 percent chance of having a high-income, while the iPad is a little behind with 66.9 percent. For comparison, Android phones achieved a score of 59.5 percent for predicting the wealth status.
“Across all years in our data, no individual brand is as predictive of being high-income as owning an Apple iPhone in 2016,” researchers explained in the paper, according to BI.
Changing trends
What exactly does high income mean? Technically, the experts define this term as “being in the top quartile of income for households of that type,” so if you make more money than other customers with the same profile as yours, you’re technically high-income.
Using Verizon wireless or owning a Samsung TV set is also an indicative of being high-income, the research shows when analyzing 2016 statistics.
But what’s also very interesting is to analyze how trends changed over time. Back in 1992, a status symbol of high income was considered owning an automatic dishwasher and using dishwasher detergent, while in 2004, respondents put buying a new vehicle and using a dishwasher detergent at the top of the list.
For products, traveling in the continental US and owning a passport were considered two signs of being high-income in 2016, together with having Bluetooth on the car and buying something online.
