You are right - it's all gut feeling, but one that's educated based on experience. I've been in Singapore since 2013. I carry my smartphone, visibly, in all sorts of social, work, and other scenarios - and not a single time in 2 years, has anyone even looked twice at it - even when new. Also, people aren't really into iPhones here - this is really a Samsung City.
Smartphones are so saturated in this city, with close to 90%+ of people glued to them on the MRT, that absolutely nobody pays any attention to what model somebody is using.
This is totally unlike what my experience was like in the Bay Area, 2009-2011, in which every time I picked up a new iPhone, everyone (Restaurants, work, friends) was all over the new phone, asking to check it out, see how light it was, etc, etc...
Now it's just a rectangular hunk of glass.
Your basic question, though, is a good one - how the iPhone / Galaxy / etc.. is seen as a status symbol, and how that might have changed over time.
Smartphones are so saturated in this city, with close to 90%+ of people glued to them on the MRT, that absolutely nobody pays any attention to what model somebody is using.
This is totally unlike what my experience was like in the Bay Area, 2009-2011, in which every time I picked up a new iPhone, everyone (Restaurants, work, friends) was all over the new phone, asking to check it out, see how light it was, etc, etc...
Now it's just a rectangular hunk of glass.
Your basic question, though, is a good one - how the iPhone / Galaxy / etc.. is seen as a status symbol, and how that might have changed over time.