A few years ago, an Us blogger was slammed for saying, “Indians are too poor to buy an iPhone.” Indians take the iPhone seriously. Do they buy iPhones? Yes, definitely.
In 2020 alone, Apple reported shipping some 3.2 million units of iPhone to India. The question today is not whether Indian buy iPhones or not, it’s why do they buy them? A Reddit user asked the same question and we dug up the internet for answers.
Well, it turns out there are several reasons, including we love selling our kidneys.
1. “I think it’s just a representation of how the western world standards have us by the throat. Same goes for any fashion based brand that does not have any resale value. But I’ve seen some really smart rich people who buy luxury items like Rolex, AP and Patek Phillippe which goes up in value.” – SugaanthMohan
2. “I had bought my first iPhone in 2016 (iPhone 7) and has lasted 5 years. Because its still going strong, I want to switch to iPhone 13, but questioning whether I need to. Had Windows and Android phones before that. All of them lasted about 1-2 years before lagging or some other issue.” – 143AamAadmi
3. “iPhones tends to last longer. Like wayyyy longer. I’ve used flagship or a tier down androids till 2017 and had the urge to switch every 2 year or so. It’s been around 4 years on my X and I haven’t even thought of getting a new one.” – Paper_Nap
4. “If someone has the money to afford it why not?” – kapjain
5. “I use iPhone only due to its long and quick security updates. Almost all android devices don’t release quick security updates and don’t support many years.” – m_a_g_g_y
6. “I have been using iPhone 8 Plus since 2018 and so far I haven’t faced any issue, previously i was using Android phone and in 2 years microphone stopped working, audio jack gone. Apart from that android phones doesn’t even capacity to load 1k+ messages on WhatsApp, my friend is in trading business he specially bought iphone for this kind of load capacity.” – BigBusiness121
7. “On a different note, iPhones retains their value for years. So one can buy it for 1L and sell it for 80K next year and putting just 20K every year to upgrade to the latest phone. This doesn’t work for Android as even after a year the price drops to more than 50%.” – PresenceSalt
8. “Reason you ask? If you’re looking for stability iPhone is a no brainer.” – charismaticEVIL
9. “You think your average businessman of 50 year old listens to iTunes and stuff, no, he just uses it to call others.” – Icy_Bath4750
10. “For the same reason we buy Lamborghini cars, when we know they are not suitable for Indian roads.” – k7archi
If you're building for India, always remember:
— Suumit Shah (@suumitshah) August 14, 2021
Game of status >> Game of convenience 😅
11. The same reason ppl buy Rolls Royce, BMW and Audi to drive on road full of potholes in india….to flaunt their wealth, look cool and frankly feel “special” and “privileged”. – ekbaazigar
12. “They have spare kidneys to sell.” – Able-Nature6103
13. “The camera for one. I have had many many flagship phones so far (pixel. Galaxy series, one plus, even the nokia lumia with the massive 40mp camera), yet none of them can beat how ridiculously good the iphone photos are. I love taking pictures but I hate caring a camera, so I’m always looking for a phone with a good camera. The integration between devices. The minute you sign in to Apple on your devices, they sync within seconds and work in a way Android never could. I experienced this with my company’s macbook and ended up buying a MacBook of my own later.” – kweenllama
14. “Because: People are rich enough to buy it. People want to feel rich by buying it.” – dart17051975
15. “Two reasons: People are judged by their material possessions. This is not just in India but everywhere. Also, we are exhibitionist by nature and want to be seen better than others. How do you come of better then the rest 1.25 billion?” – Quora
All these reasons and more. Then why not buy an iPhone?