Why is it that people in the most visible positions in the tech industry sometimes say the dumbest things? First there was Nokia’s U.S. president, Chris Weber, who claimed that Apple’s focus on apps in iOS was “out-dated.”
Now we have HTC America’s acting president Martin Fichter telling an audience at this week’s Mobile Future Forward event why college kids don’t think iPhones are cool anymore. GeekWire relays Fichter’s ridiculous comments…
“Apple is innovating. Samsung is innovating. We are innovating. Everybody is innovating. And everybody is doing different things for the end consumers. I brought my daughter back to college — she’s down in Portland at Reed — and I talked to a few of the kids on her floor. And none of them has an iPhone 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 manufacture’s devices. If you look at a college campus, 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.”
Ok, and as 9to5Mac‘s Seth Weintraub said, “They must also have no interest in dad’s Porsche either.” Although Fichter’s comments come from in-depth scientific research (I’m obviously being sarcastic), recent reports beg to differ.
We just told you this morning that the iPhone 4 is selling better than ever. Analysts have actually had to readjust their projections because they figured iPhone sales would decline in anticipation for the upcoming refresh, but they haven’t.
I don’t doubt that kids, teens and adults are all trying different handsets out. Anyone can peek into a wireless retail store and see that. But I don’t think that asking a few kids in a college dorm what devices they are using is enough evidence to back up these kinds of comments.
What do you think? Has the iPhone’s “cool” factor gone down?