edit to clarify: What statements can you (anyone, not just personally you) make about the expression I'm making with any degree of accuracy or confidence?
I think I can safely say that offering a variety of colors would not be an appealing feature to you. I also feel safe guessing battery life is a bigger factor in your purchasing decision than the brand of the phone. You're probably not very influenced by which celebrities use which phone. You also probably don't buy new phones on release day.
> I think I can safely say that offering a variety of colors would not be an appealing feature to you. I also feel safe guessing battery life is a bigger factor in your purchasing decision than the brand of the phone. You're probably not very influenced by which celebrities use which phone. You also probably don't buy new phones on release day.
- Maybe it's a work phone and I had no choice in the matter?
- Maybe I have a specific requirement (like a specific app I need) which requires a specific platform?
- Maybe my preferred phone recently broke and I could only immediately afford the phone in my hand?
- Maybe the phone was a gift and I had no say in the matter?
There are lots of not-unlikely scenarios like the above which mean any conclusion you might try to draw would have a very low level of accuracy.
I'm not interested in defending/participating in your particular evaluation of whatever phone you think I might have, I'm just making generic points that those guesses are essentially worthless, except for making internal musings and assumptions about me (which you could do about anything).
> There are lots of not-unlikely scenarios like the above which mean any conclusion you might try to draw would have a very low level of accuracy.
But it sounds like all my conclusions are still accurate in all your hypothetical scenarios. I never tried to guess which phone you had. Only a few basic things that would be prime targets for advertising. Such as in every hypothetical you mention, the fact that <pick a celebrity> uses a certain phone has no influence on the purchase. Except maybe the gift, but then it's not about your thoughts on phones, but the one purchasing the gift (hopefully they know you well enough that you prefer function over form).
> I'm just making generic points that those guesses are essentially worthless
Not at all. They may not 100% apply to your directly, but a company isn't selling to you. They're selling to a statistical distribution including you.
The guesses are only worthless now that you're offering hypothetical scenarios. Your earlier comment is definitely telling about your decisions in using and purchasing a phone.
I think you're saying there is some subset of people out there that consider their phones to be some non-trivial public statement about who they 'are' and what they 'stand for'. I agree with that. I find it ridiculous, but I agree that there are probably folks out there like that.
I guess I'm just complaining out loud because I don't like the idea of every product that is pushed at me trying to claim that it somehow defines me as a person and what I stand for.
If you were to get this phone, I'd hazard that you're interested in supporting this kind of brand and what it stands for, even if only a small aspect of it.
You could hazard that guess, but you could be wrong or at the very best case you're making an assertion that you cannot prove true or false in which case it seems pointless to try to draw further conclusions from it.
edit: Actually you could only assert that I have a cigar. I could have purchased it as a gift for someone else, or am currently being asked to transport it, or maybe I found it on the ground... etc. It certainly does not with any certainty make a 'public expression' about me.
edit to clarify: What statements can you (anyone, not just personally you) make about the expression I'm making with any degree of accuracy or confidence?