How the iPhone created a whole new class in India

Once upon a time, a Chinese teenager sold a kidney to buy an iPhone. Now, seeing the rush at the only Apple showroom in Mumbai, one can assume that no one needs to sell a kidney to buy an iPhone anymore. It’s not that Apple has lowered its prices, but owning an iPhone has become a new obsession. While Mumbaikars are usually disciplined in queues, avoiding attempts to jump ahead, when it comes to buying the latest gadget from Apple, the iPhone 16, a few were seen trying to enter the store before others. They want to experience the phone they believe will catapult them into a different league. Some were perhaps there to upgrade their older iPhones to the latest model, ensuring they remain part of the club that owns an iPhone. In fact, there’s a whole new subclass within the larger class of iPhone owners: those who always pick the latest version.

Why is such an expensive phone selling like hotcakes?

The EMI, low-cost interest rates, cashback offers, and exchange offers make these expensive gadgets affordable for anyone willing to own them and pay in instalments. Nowadays, you don’t have to pay the full amount at once. I believe the queue would be shorter—or there might be no queue at all—if one had to pay the entire price upfront. So, the struggle at the shops and the EMIs are a small price to pay in this new class struggle.

I asked five of my acquaintances why they are so fascinated with the iPhone. All of them answered, ‘Because it’s so cool.’ Their response reminded me of my 5-year-old son when I had asked him how his first day at school was. He replied like an iPhone owner: "It was cool." I didn’t understand then what a 5-year-old meant by "cool," and I still don’t understand what they meant when they said, ‘The iPhone is cool.’ To me, ‘cool’ is not a well-defined concept and is essentially a vague term, unlike hot, cold, sweet, or sour. You can taste those, feel them, and react to their states. But how do you define ‘cool’—something that is neither hot nor cold?

Birth of a new class

Yet an expensive gadget like the iPhone is selling like hotcakes because it makes the owner feel ‘cool.’ Perhaps that’s why there’s such a rush to own it. It evokes a feeling of coolness. The people who own these uber-cool gadgets form a new class that can’t be typified as lower, middle, or upper class. Rather, those who have uber-cool gadgets like an iPhone represent a new class—the "cool class," transcending all other social classes. It’s the birth of a new class with new aspirations and new struggles beyond the bread and butter. This class is driving consumption, helping the economy stay hot, and preventing it from cooling down.

Get an iPhone 16 in 10 minutes