By Ruma Dubey

People standing in queues for new iPhone 5s in USA on launch day? Well, we have seen and heard that, guffawed at their petty mentality but long queues in India too? It was baffling to see people, well heeled and obviously the ones who can afford this iPhone, standing patiently in serpentine lines, longing eyes riveted on the showroom doors, pining for it to open.  One could have mistaken these lines for that leading to a temple or for darshan of Ganapati drinking milk! But for buying a phone was indeed a sight to be seen.

The 5c version comes in five colors - white, pink, yellow, blue, and green. But it is gold, the 5s model which was sold out within 24 hours of its launch. Not just in India but even in USA, when the phone was launched in September, the iPhone 5s was sold out within a few hours. There, people had paid stand-ins lining up in front of the stores and once word got out that the 5s was sold out, many walked away.

On the first day of its launch in India, on 1^st Nov, the flagship phone of Apple, iPhone5s ran out-of-stock, not just in one store but all across India! It did not come cheap – the three variants of iPhone 5s went on sale at a price ofRs.53,500 for 16GB,Rs.62,500 for 32GB and Rs.71,500 for 64GB. This was much higher than the price of Google's Nexus 5 at a much lower price of Rs.28,999. Tech analysts had not expected the 5s to do so well but looking at the way stocks have flown off the shelf, with a jam packed advance order book, surely Apple is a case study in itself.

Reliance Communication which has a tie-up with Apple, offering the phone for a year contract, reportedly sold out the devices in one and a half days.  The gold iPhone is not available even in the small shops and in the grey market, it is being sold at a price tag of Rs.70,000 as against the official price of Rs.53,500.

What is this fascination that we have for all things American? Remember the long queue to get into the first Starbucks in Mumbai and the lines at McDonald’s continue till date. Dominos and Pizza Hut are doing roaring business. 

It is the brand building which USA does so wisely. The build up before a launch – news leaks, rumours  and similar news after the launch is so high that people who have not eaten a McDonald or had the coffee at Starbucks feel that they are not “cool” and are missing out on something very big in life.  Apple iPhone 5s was launched in USA and China ahead of India and there was news splashed all over about it being sold out within a few hours. That was essentially a buildup for those in India – it soon became an obsession where, price tag did not matter, one just HAD to possess the iPhone; it became a matter of prestige or status.

That is the kind of obsession which Apple generates. The dull gold color, very classy and tasteful without being flashy is just another iPhone 5 but because news reports started coming in about how “different” this phone looked, people had to buy this phone. Also being gold in color, it is easy to flaunt it  as the distinctive gold color sets it apart from the other ‘me too’ products. Yes, the 5s was about the owner being able to make a fashion/status statement that he had the new iPhone, which is sold out. With color becoming such a big deal with Apple, when no one cares about that when choosing a Samsung or Nokia, clearly it is an indication of the strangehold which Apple has over the people and the entire smart phone industry.

There are other similar, identical products like the iPhone in the market, so why this obsession with Apple? Its more media created – where even the most trivial of news on Apple becomes big news. Blog posts about Apple get more hits than any other article – so it  starts with the media initiating it and then people take over and drive it to a frenzy. Just before the launch on the new iPhone, search interest in Apple had almost reached the same level it did when Steve Jobs died. And to his credit, Steve Jobs created a brand which has become a lifestyle statement. The iPod revolutionized the way we listen to music and the iPhone and iPad have been equally life changing. Others have merely imitated Apple. Also Jobs, had managed to stoke an incredible, worldwide fascination with every Apple product announcement and the same legacy continues.

Yes, offering the gold iPhone was a brilliant move and indicates that even after Jobs, there are some geniuses at work in Apple. Recognising the need of today’s generation to ‘stand-out’ by just giving a gold color and creating history with this color, explains why Apple is an obsession.