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Are iPhones 'Your Dad's' Phone, Code Word for Uncool?

Are iPhones 'Your Dad's' Phone, Code Word for Uncool?

"...they told me: ‘My dad has an iPhone.’"

The chief executive at HTC is saying that iPhone is starting to suffer from “your-dad-uses-it-syndrome,” which is a description first coined in report by Gartner to describe Windows Phone 7. Even still, rumors surrounding the supposed iPhone 5 and reports of 'unprecedented' demand for it mean that Apple most likely doesn't have to worry.

Mashable (via PC World) has more on HTC acting president Martin Fichter's comment:

Speaking at the Mobile Future Forward conference in Seattle, Fichter related a story about taking his daughter to Reed College in Portland, where he took an informal survey of her dormitory buddies. “None of them has an iPhone,” Fichter said, “because they told me: ‘My dad has an iPhone.’ There’s an interesting thing that’s going on in the market. The iPhone becomes a little less cool than it was. They were carrying HTCs. They were carrying Samsungs. They were even carrying some Chinese manufacturer’s devices.”

Added Fichter: “Macbook Airs are cool. iPhones are not that cool anymore. We here are using iPhones, but our kids don’t find them that cool anymore.”

A report by The Neilson Company of smartphone demographics in 2010, did find that slightly a slightly higher percentage of those under 34 use Android (55 percent) versus iPhone (47 percent). A 2011 poll by the Pew Research Center (via 24/7 Wall Street) also found that it isn’t until the 55-64 age group that iPhone owners outnumber Android, which is only  1%. 24/7 Wall Street does note that iPhones are considerably more expensive compared to Android.

But the popularity of iPhones probably isn't going anywhere -- especially among current users. RBC Capital analyst Mike Abramsky was reported by PC World as increasing his first quarter 2012 prediction for iPhone sales to 27 million from 24.4 million and fiscal year 2012 estimates from 105 million to 110 million. PC World has more:

Of the 2,200 people surveyed by RBC in August, 31 percent were somewhat or very likely to buy the iPhone 5, up from the 25 percent who said the same ahead of the iPhone 4 launch. About 66 percent of existing iPhone users want to upgrade to the new iPhone.

If Apple expands the number of carriers offering the iPhone, meanwhile, 54 percent of Sprint subscribers and 53 percent of T-Mobile subscribers said they would lean toward the iPhone when buying a new smartphone.

Rumors are still saying Apple should unveil its plans for iPhone 5 sometime later this month.

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