Status of owning tech hardware, the fancier your smartphone the
more desirable you are to others, why owning great tech matters.
The efficacy of companies like Apple in creating status is a very impressive thing to observe, people seem to love paying sums of money to own a high status mobile device, I think it is worth remembering that Apple's devices are mostly high power general purpose computer devices using a clean UI on top of a Unix kernel. I think Apple's philosophy of clean, simple and elegant products creates a lot of value and I think in humanist terms people like to feel they are some of those things, the psychology of being clean, approachable, uncomplicated yet capable, expensive and beautiful.
I think it's worth examining what is happening when the user of a smartphone drops and damages the device. The chances are excellent that the user will be in a public place when the damage occurs, other people will very likely see the event, so what is happening here? So glad you asked. The visual stimuli detects an event, the dropping of the phone, the impact of the device and the subsequent damage are usually visible on the device, the device might disconnect from the network making the user less contactable for a while. The investment in money that the user has made has been reduced, the device (as an asset) has been lost to a lesser or greater extent. The humans might conclude that the user is a little clumsy or maybe they have been struggling with carrying stuff. Does the user with a broken phone make straight for a phone store, does some kind of emergency mobile phone replacement service appear with flashing lights and a siren, why or why not?
One of the interesting parts of the phone damage and network disconnection is in terms of the virtual world, people who might be expecting messaging and posts might be wondering why they haven't received them and if there is something important happening in their life this could have interesting and significant consequences. So the user has lost something, their shiny new mobile device, the virtual world is less connected to this individual now.
Next I'd like to discuss the psychology of the time perspective and newness of mobile phone ownership during the first three months of use.
During the early stages of smart phone ownership the user goes through a learning period familiarising themselves with the new functionality of the device. There will be some surprises and some frustration depending of the user's level of technical expertise. Some users will even give up and swap their mobile device for another (more basic) model hoping for an easier operating system experience.
During the first few days the user will probably be in a setting up mode, installing apps and trying to set up all the different ways the user interacts using the network, if we think of how many memberships with web sites and other types of online communities it will take the user a while to configure the device into a state they are happy with.
New features that relate to the new hardware will likely be explored and used, the user will determine whether they like the feature and whether there is a win for them personally or anyone else they care about. Opportunities to show off their new device should not be underestimated, taking the phone and using it in front of other people, taking calls that would otherwise be sent to voicemail, now there is an interesting one.
Confidence in the new device will start off lower and increase during the first few months, by about six months confidence will be quite high as the user will be enjoying good levels of productivity and will sense the reliability of the device having satisfied their real world expectations. The device will be producing convincing real world results and the user will be more comfortable executing sometimes complex processes with success. This is part of the value proposition of a new mobile phone, executing complex and satisfying processes to increase social status and popularity and other social goals of the user.
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