It seems unlike Apple, which has scoffed at inexpensive Macs and been viewed as catering to higher-income consumers. However a new study suggests the iPhone is fast becoming a favorite of low-income buyers.
From June through August, iPhone sales grew 48 percent in households earning between $25,000 and $50,000 compared to 21 percent growth overall, according to comScore.
The researchers found low-income consumers see the iPhone as a way to consolidate costs of a phone, broadband connection and music device.
“Smartphones, and the iPhone in particular, are appealing to a new demographic and satisfying demand for a single device for communication and entertainment, even as consumers weather the economy by cutting back on gadgets,” Mark Donovan, comScore senior analyst, said in a statement.
Mobile phones were used by a larger percentage of low-income gadget buyers. Obtaining news and information by mobile phone rose by 5 percent among this demographic, higher than the 3 percent growth overall.
Noting paying $200 for the iPhone and $70 per month for service “seems a bit extravagant,” the findings actually make sense, according to Jen Wu, the senior analyst that authored the report.
“One actually realizes cost savings when the device is used in lieu of multiple digital devices and services, transforming the iPhone from a luxury item to a practical communication and entertainment tool,” said Wu.
Some suggested, however, a different interpretation of the study results.
“Let’s say its true. Its more about disadvantaged overspending like they do on $500 Nike shoes. And then their house gets foreclosed,” Gartner analyst Ken Dulaney e-mailed Cult of Mac.
ComScore defended the study’s methodology.
“We include these people [young people living at home] in our study; but we ask about the individual’s primary device, this does not include other devices in the home,” Jaimee Steele, comScore’s vice president of corporate communications, told Cult of Mac.
Steele said that the study tended to skew toward female retirees.
The spokesperson also said it did not find similar affinity toward RIM, maker of the rival BlackBerry smartphone.
“BlackBerry adoption among this group increased 21 percent–above the market average, but less than half that of the iPhone,” Steele told Cult of Mac by email.
More than the drop to $199, the introduction of the iPhone 3G helped spur adoption among the lower-income group, she wrote.
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
