This ridiculous article now circulating on the interwebs intends to “prove” by research that Iphone users are “younger, richer and more productive” than other smartphone users.

If you actually look at the data this is another case of interpreting results as creatively as possible.

Let’s break it down…

Younger:  The results show that 30% of iphone users are generation Y and 38% are generation X.  And?    So what?  Since that is the percentage of those polled that HAVE a smartphone that means over 60% of each generation is using something else… and I doubt it’s a RAZR.

Richer:  Among those carrying smartphones, 67% have an iphone.  This is another example of suggestive display of data.  In a large city a college educated adult making $70,000 a year is hardly a huge acheivement (especially if you’re in your 30s).  “Ah, but that is not just those making 70k, but everyone making above 70k as well – and of all those 67% have iphones!” you say…  Well, think about this.. how many 500k salary CEOs are there and how many 75k middle managers are there?  Do you think it is a 1:1 ratio?  And which of those two types (the boss or the employee) is using an iphone?  Think!

Which brings me to the most hilarious assumption: Iphone users are more “productive“ than other smartphone users.  Why, you ask?

“Those who carry Apple’s handheld device are more likely to stay connected to their employer’s network.”

#1 if you dig deeper into the “data” their explanation for this is that the Iphone users “often leave their laptop at work” suggesting they use their iphone to do work the rest of the night.  Another reason is that the iphone users use the internet on their phone much more.  What do either of those have to do with productivity?  Thus the sly usage of the work “likely” in the statement above.  Twittering from the coffee shop after work does not count as “being more productive.”  Neither does leaving your company laptop AT WORK when you go home… Who makes $70,000 or more and doesn’t have another computer at home??!

It is also a careless assumption that this internet usage is spent working because the iphone does not have the same “network connection” tools available on other smartphones (running windows mobile).  Ask an IT specialist.  Yes, you can rig an iphone to sync with outlook – but it falls flat when doing things like OTA outlook syncing, exchange server syncing, remote desktop applications, etc.  The iphone couldn’t even send an MMS message until…well… as of this writing it still can’t since the “S” model isn’t out yet.

Oh, and try rewriting code remotely on your company server without being able to copy and paste… or even sending the server location of a file to another employee without being able to copy and paste…   Good luck.

Oh, and accessing the network when not at work doesn’t make you more productive.  It means you can’t get your job done when you’re at work… which…usually means you’re not productive (or you’re suffering under mismanagement and have too much work).

I’m positive you could spin these same numbers to support Blackberry except for the “younger” part.  The Blackberry was never seen as a toy with a billion apps/games to download for fun.  I guess Apple wins there.

PS – the Storm and Pre don’t have 50,000 apps in their catalog because they aren’t two years old.  I’m sure the VCR manufacturers used this argument to convince people not to buy DVD players in 1997.  You could use the Apple App Catalog argument to explain why we all still have cassette decks in our cars, analog broadcast television, encyclopedias on our shelves, a booming postal service delivering more personal letters than ever, ever-growing usage of land line telephones and so on….

oh wait… that’s right, the network effect (in economic terms) only holds until a superior product is released and all those things I mentioned, despite having a vast network of available products were replaced by a new product with few options (at first).  Having a lot of something only works if it is something people still want.

The only reason people still “want” the iphone is because there are so few other valid choices to replace it in the United States.

Little known fact:  Despite the fact that I’m sure the new 3GS commercials will tout the phone as the fastest out there – the Pre has a processor 100 Mhz faster.  Apple may be technically right, the iphone probably will seem faster… because it can only do one thing at a time.

Okay, I think I’ve spent more time refuting this article than the original author spent researching it…

calm down, Andrew… (counting to ten slowly)…

Editor’s Note:  I’m actually disappointed that Apple didn’t come out with a “real” new phone last week.  Apple (recently) has been a force in the industry to spur technological development in its competition.  A teeny tiny iphone would have forced competitors to do the same… I hope this 3GS nonsense doesn’t convince BlackBerry and Palm (and HTC) that they can just sit back and shove slightly faster processors in their phones instead of innovate.  Oh, and yes, 32GB would be nice to have on my phone – Palm was incredibly stupid to remove their removable media slot from the Pre – since a new 64GB SD card is about to be released….