[in_cahoots]

The author almost stumbles on the answer to his question when he shows the height distribution. It’s bimodal, because men and women have different average heights. Similarly, flagship and lower-tier phone buyers will display distributions in what they’re willing to pay. If you combine two separate normal distributions you can always make a claim that a single distribution is no longer normal. But that doesn’t make it an interesting insight on its face.

[mrob]

It's not similar to height distribution. At the population statistics level, human height is bimodal because humans either have a Y chromosome or they don't. What is the equivalent binary variable for the phone market?

[in_cahoots]

I suspect there are (at least) two populations of phone buyers: those who see it as a cool gadget with the latest technology, and those who just want a device to browse the web, take some pictures, and play some games. The former upgrade every year or two to the best phone they can afford; the latter are happy paying a few hundred bucks or less when their old phone breaks or no longer holds a charge.

[coldtea]

Obviously income. Are you in the upper 20% that does great (or still fine), or in the 80% that's increasingly scrapping by?

[mrob]

Except income is no longer bimodal. It was back in the 70s, but now there's just a single peak. See:

https://ourworldindata.org/uploads/2013/12/Global-inequality...

However, growth in income is bimodal:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Global_changes_in_re...

Could that affect the phone market indirectly, by consumer confidence? It's possible, but it's not nearly as clear-cut as human height.

[coldtea]

Also account for wealth (we don't make the distinction between income and wealth much in my here parts).

[jnwatson]

The interesting part about IPhones in particular is that they are status symbols. I've seen plenty of working class folks, especially women, flaunting IPhones.

I'm sure part of the reason is that since most carriers (and Apple itself) will finance the phone cheaply, so the practical difference between the cheapest and most expensive phone is $30 a month.

[wetpaws]

Caring about phones as status symbols vs not really. (Which is, again, sort of the point of the article)