

Acting president of HTC America: iPhones are for old people - mun2mun
http://mashable.com/2011/09/12/iphones-old-people-htc/

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jase_coop
He's publicly announcing his market predictions based on one interaction with
his child and Mashable decided to publish it.

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corin_
It's called PR spin, not market predictions.

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sunkencity
Of course the kids in general have cheaper phones, that doesn't mean they
don't want luxury goods if they could afford it.

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dagw
I don't know. I don't think I've ever had has much disposable income as I did
as a single 21 year old, working my first full time job and living in a tiny
apartment.

And either way. We're talking about consumer level mobile phones, not a car.
The actual price difference between a mid range HTC phone and a top of the
line iPhone is pretty tiny all things considered. If you can afford on, you
can probably stretch to afford the other if you really wanted to.

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sunkencity
With first job yes, but when you're at school? I find that most younger people
I know do have android phones. Some have iPhones and just because it's more
expensive it's a luxury item. The entry-level android phones are pretty
competitive to iphone, they are a lot cheaper and provide almost the same
functionality. Having and android phone also rhymes a little better with the
pirate stance, as buying apps is not as interesting for kids as buying beer
when free apps can be had online. I would think that the entry level android
phones are most popular, but cannot back that up with stats though.

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technoslut
I would disagree. All of these kids want two expensive purchases: a car and a
phone. They are social status items.

It does help Android that there are a lot of low-priced models.

>Having and android phone also rhymes a little better with the pirate stance,
as buying apps is not as interesting for kids as buying beer when free apps
can be had online.

I'm not exactly sure about piracy. They seem more interested in streaming
content, at least when it comes to music. More than any other generation they
view it as being disposable.

I can guarantee you they care about buying apps. There is a reason why the
most popular apps are games.

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czhiddy
This angle of attack definitely makes sense when you consider HTC's $300
million investment in Beats By Dre - a brand that primarily targets the youth
market.

Good luck convincing a generation raised on iPods that the iPhone is old and
stodgy, though. It also doesn't help when promotions like
<http://www.supercuts.com/promotion/SuperAccess/default.asp> effectively lower
Android's perceived value.

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dagw
I'm guessing your second point is the reason why HTC is pushing HTC Sense so
hard. "Any piece of crap can run Android, but if you want a Sense phone you
have to get an HTC"

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technoslut
If Sense is the main selling point then it isn't a very good one. I'm not a
kid anymore but I can tell you that, while they may know a lot about phones
than their parents, they don't care about different Android skins. Those that
are aware want stock Android.

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sjs382
I prefer HTC Sense. It's why I waited for a HTC phone to come out on Verizon
rather than jump on the original Droid.

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michaelbuckbee
While the iPhone may or may not be "cool" for the younger set, the iPod Touch
is from everything I can tell massively popular with tweens, teens and college
students (and while there are now some iPod Touch Android equivalents, nothing
close to the ubiquity of the Touch).

For a while Apple's educational discount just flat out gave an 8GB iPod Touch
to students/teachers when they bought a Mac.

This seems like the real 'gateway drug' to the iOS ecosystem.

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michaelpinto
This made me do a bit of research -- and I didn't come across anything that
really points to HTC being a youth brand above all else. They do well in the
youth market, but so does Apple. If you look at their ads they're trying to
appeal to Gen Y, but I can't honestly say that they have the same sort of pull
with that demo that you see with a brand like say Scion or even Google.

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tychobrahe
Judging from the advertisements in local phone stores here, I'd say that
Samsung and Motorola appeal much more to the young folks, while HTC is more of
a premium brand for executives and uber-geeks who want to fiddle with the
bootloader.

I think Apple is still sort of both... it still has the "cool" factor
inherited from the iPod. But I know a bunch of 13, 14 year old kids (I work at
an university, and we have a school) who have iPhones, and not one who owns an
Android.

But YMMV

