With the news of the iPhone 5 being released into the market, consumers camped outside stores at least 12 hours prior to the product being available for sale, this being a normal occurrence whenever a new Apple product is released. However, just how different is the iPhone 5 from the iPhone 4s? Sure, some new features are added and the length of the screen is an inch or so longer, but can it be just these two new additions to the product the reason that millions of consumers worldwide waited in line outside stores to get their hands on the “newly, and highly innovative” product?
I believe that it is not the product itself that consumers are willing to spend a colossal amount of money on. One customer, Rosenblum, 49 stated, “I wanted to make sure that I got one of the new iPhone 5s, and I wanted to make sure I got one on the first day,”1. The heavy emphasis on needing to be one of the firsts to acquire the product may show that consumers are not buying the product; instead they are buying the idea of being one of the firsts to own such a “cool and hip” product in which they would be able to show their family and friends. If not, why do consumers have to buy the product the moment it is released, having to wait at least 12 hours in line instead of waiting a week after the product is released and possibly not having to line up at all? It is not as if the price of the product is less expensive on the day it is released, as the prices of Apple devices are usually constant. On CBC News, it was reported that “In London, England, some people camped out for a week to be among the first to get the phone.”2 Is the idea of being “first” really that important in the society we are live in to the extent of willing to wait patiently for hours upon hours?
2 http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2012/09/21/apple-iphone-launch-sale.html
