If gold hadn't sold out, it would have been a failure. The only function of the gold iPhone is to be hard to get, if it were common as mud, it'd be seen as the bedazzled tacky fashion-gadget shit it is.
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Apple Ran Out Of Gold iPhones Because It Underestimated How Much Asia Likes Gold
21–30 of 61 posts
Re: Apple Ran Out Of Gold iPhones Because It Underestimated How Much Asia Likes Gold
#22The pervasive casual racism when discussing the gold iPhone is just astounding. If news outlets were talking about black people this way, there would be riots in the streets. Why is this considered acceptable?
"People in Asia like gold a lot, as evidenced by the demand for the gold iPhone 5S." What about this is racist? Or is looking at data based on location now racist?
Re: Apple Ran Out Of Gold iPhones Because It Underestimated How Much Asia Likes Gold
#23The pervasive casual racism when discussing the gold iPhone is just astounding. If news outlets were talking about black people this way, there would be riots in the streets. Why is this considered acceptable?
Oh, please grow up(1). What specifically in this article are you calling out as casually racist? Was Mr. Lian, who is quoted as saying "Chinese people like Gold" being racist about his own race? My wife has said much the same thing to me. She's Chinese, though now a naturalised Brit. (1) I apologies to my esteemed HNers for that, but it seems appropriate and if I take a karma hit for it, so be it. It was worth it.
This article takes a racial stereotype (Asians love gold!) ignores confounding factors (turns out, lots of people like gold, even non-Asians!) trots out a token Asian (some of my best friends are black!) and produces no evidence whatsoever to support its claims.
In fact, the article itself basically admits that the entire premise is full of shit:
"...gold in Asia is perhaps even more fetishized than in the West."
"Perhaps". This entire article, this entire kind of article, is based on a wild guess. Yet this doesn't stop everybody from running with the "Asians love gold!" theme.
Probably two thirds of the people in the iPhone line I was in wanted gold. Yet I don't see any articles saying "Americans love gold!"
Writing crazy and uninformed articles about faraway people while ignoring similar behavior at home? Yep, that's racist.
Re: Apple Ran Out Of Gold iPhones Because It Underestimated How Much Asia Likes Gold
#24The pervasive casual racism when discussing the gold iPhone is just astounding. If news outlets were talking about black people this way, there would be riots in the streets. Why is this considered acceptable?
"People in Asia like gold a lot, as evidenced by the demand for the gold iPhone 5S." What about this is racist? Or is looking at data based on location now racist?
Demand for gold is high everywhere. I've yet to see any evidence whatsoever that demand or preference for gold is higher in Asia than in the rest of the world. Yet everybody runs with it because "Asians like gold!" as if that's somehow different than anyone else.
Re: Apple Ran Out Of Gold iPhones Because It Underestimated How Much Asia Likes Gold
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
What exactly is racist about saying one product type appeals to a certain set of cultures more than others? It is well known the Korean culture values extra settings and controls as a sign of status, for example, and that Koreans value replaceable batteries more and carry them around more often. Is it racist to say replaceable battery phones sell better in Korea than elsewhere? There are already OEMs that make differ…
It's not racist if it's backed up by data. So far I have seen no data whatsoever to back up this idea that Asian people prefer gold more than other people in the world. Articles like these simply take a racial stereotype and run with it to the conclusion they want to reach. That's racist.
More just an unproven hypothesis.
It's not like the article claims that you are a worse human being for preferring a gold iphone.
Re: Apple Ran Out Of Gold iPhones Because It Underestimated How Much Asia Likes Gold
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
What exactly is racist about saying one product type appeals to a certain set of cultures more than others? It is well known the Korean culture values extra settings and controls as a sign of status, for example, and that Koreans value replaceable batteries more and carry them around more often. Is it racist to say replaceable battery phones sell better in Korea than elsewhere? There are already OEMs that make differ…
It's not racist if it's backed up by data. So far I have seen no data whatsoever to back up this idea that Asian people prefer gold more than other people in the world. Articles like these simply take a racial stereotype and run with it to the conclusion they want to reach. That's racist.
Red and Gold are the Chinese lucky colors.
India values gold disproportionately as well.
Those are such well known facts, maybe the authors didn't think they needed to explain them
https://www.google.com/search?q=gold%20in%20asian%20culture
http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Importance-of-Gold-in-Chinese-...
http://heryyansen.hubpages.com/hub/The-significance-of-the-c...
In India, gold is usually part of dowrys. (I read a great National Geographic article which I can't find online)
Edit:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6431446
and the sibling comment
Re: Apple Ran Out Of Gold iPhones Because It Underestimated How Much Asia Likes Gold
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
What exactly is racist about saying one product type appeals to a certain set of cultures more than others? It is well known the Korean culture values extra settings and controls as a sign of status, for example, and that Koreans value replaceable batteries more and carry them around more often. Is it racist to say replaceable battery phones sell better in Korea than elsewhere? There are already OEMs that make differ…
It's not racist if it's backed up by data. So far I have seen no data whatsoever to back up this idea that Asian people prefer gold more than other people in the world. Articles like these simply take a racial stereotype and run with it to the conclusion they want to reach. That's racist.
India, China are gluttons for gold [1]. So much that Indian government has to impose curbs on gold import to safe guard its national currency [2]. Most of this gold ends in private citizen hands as jewellery or bars and buscuits.
[1] http://www.gold.org/investment/statistics/demand_and_supply_... [2] http://in.reuters.com/article/2013/08/19/india-gold-timeline...
Re: Apple Ran Out Of Gold iPhones Because It Underestimated How Much Asia Likes Gold
#28It has little to do with the color gold and more to do with the social status. Money spent on home appliance is minimal and an after-thought, and this is because you cannot impress people with your home appliances while you're out of your home. Meanwhile you can flash your Gold iPhone everywhere you go and it implicitly shows everybody around you that you can afford a Gold iPhone. Social posturing is a central part o…
Isn't that prevalent everywhere? Some cultures show off gold, others show off cars and their accessories, others show off the latest tech toys.
"Look at me, I have so much income, I can afford to spend it frivolously!"
Re: Apple Ran Out Of Gold iPhones Because It Underestimated How Much Asia Likes Gold
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
What exactly is racist about saying one product type appeals to a certain set of cultures more than others? It is well known the Korean culture values extra settings and controls as a sign of status, for example, and that Koreans value replaceable batteries more and carry them around more often. Is it racist to say replaceable battery phones sell better in Korea than elsewhere? There are already OEMs that make differ…
It's not racist if it's backed up by data. So far I have seen no data whatsoever to back up this idea that Asian people prefer gold more than other people in the world. Articles like these simply take a racial stereotype and run with it to the conclusion they want to reach. That's racist.
Isn't this data? "In Australia and China, online Apple Store shipping times for the iPhone 5s rapidly slipped to 7–10 days for all colors and capacities, with immediate unavailability of the 64GB gold version."
It's not big data in the Facebook/Twitter sense of the word, but in this case, how quickly unavailability is reached seems to be the best data point.
Re: Apple Ran Out Of Gold iPhones Because It Underestimated How Much Asia Likes Gold
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not racist if it's backed up by data. So far I have seen no data whatsoever to back up this idea that Asian people prefer gold more than other people in the world. Articles like these simply take a racial stereotype and run with it to the conclusion they want to reach. That's racist.
Red and Gold are the Chinese lucky colors. India values gold disproportionately as well. Those are such well known facts, maybe the authors didn't think they needed to explain them https://www.google.com/search?q=gold%20in%20asian%20culture http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Importance-of-Gold-in-Chinese-... http://heryyansen.hubpages.com/hub/The-significance-of-the-c... In India, gold is usually part of dowrys. (I read a…
Which of these is supposed to support the idea that it's disproportionate?
Of course they love gold. Everybody loves gold.
Americans are going crazy over the gold iPhone too. But nobody's talking about that, because they'd rather talk about Asians.
If it can be demonstrated that cultural preferences have translated into a disparate demand for gold iPhones in Asian countries, then and only then can this claim be made with a straight face. As it stands, it's just uninformed discussion about people who are "different".