If you’ve ever gone without your phone for a short time period, you’ll quickly realize how much of a necessity they are. Being used for communication, entertainment, education, it would almost be impossible to get by without one. With such an important market to be in, one would expect the phone market to be full of different brands competing with one another.
That is not the case, especially for young people and teenagers. Nine out of 10 teenagers own an iPhone, while the statistic being sizably lower for adults at a rate of one half of adults using an iPhone.
This level of dominance in the phone market sort of makes sense. Since the iPhone came out almost 20 years ago in 2007, it redefined the smartphone category. With a simple touch screen interface and the introduction of the App Store, the iPhone was revolutionary for the time. Smart phones changed from being a gadget to a must-have device, storing a whole computer in one’s pocket. As the popularity of this new type of phone took off, Apple was able to take more and more of this phone market pie.
Although there are Samsung and Google competitors that are often arguably just as good and more affordable, iPhones have such a high usage rate among teens because of strong peer influence. Over the years, the iPhone has become a social symbol of wealth and coolness, while Android phones are seen as “broke” or out of fashion. Students can feel like they don’t belong just due to the fact that they aren’t using an iPhone.
In today's world, using an Android phone can almost be embarrassing. “Every single time people see I have an Android they make kind of like a small comment and they'll laugh at me in like a teasing way,” said Nava Boyarin, Berkeley High School sophomore.
This effect is heightened due to differences between the phones. For example, an Android user’s text messages will show up in a green bubble instead of the iPhone's blue message. This is where the green bubble stigma comes from, it being an instant indicator that someone is not using an iPhone and doesn’t “belong” in the social circle. Android phones can’t be added to already existing groupchats, often leading to exclusion to these groups. “I can't be added to a lot of (groupchats). So, I just don't get added to them,” Boyarin said.
This issue with groupchats is especially frustrating when trying to plan with other people. BHS senior Steven Denherder and android user explained the difficulty of trying to stay in the loop. “There was a group chat that was made with some of my friends. I'm not in that group chat,” Denherder said, “If all the other people are going to a party, I don't know if they're going to that party, that's basically the big annoyance.”
At the end of the day, iPhones aren’t the phone that all teenagers get because they are objectively better phones. How good the phone's camera, battery life or the internal hardware is often not even considered. The choice is more about fitting into what's convenient. The iphone will likely stay the default not because it’s the best phone but because it's the safest option.