Symbolic Consumption: The iPhone In this era of emerging economies and increasing globalization, the demand for symbolic goods continues to expand, and at a rapid pace. With recent advances in technologies like personal digital assistants (PDAs), satellite/tracking devices, cell phones, and many others popping up almost every day, it's no surprise that consumers are willing to part with large amounts of cash for these products. One such technological advance is the iPhone, a fascinating example of adaptation, which is quickly becoming a highly sought-after brand. The question, however, is whether this new technological advancement of the iPhone will be a continuing trend or will peter out in the near future. To fully understand the phenomenon of symbolic consumption, we must first understand what it means. According to Kerrigan et al. (2004), symbolic consumption is concerned with the consumption of products and services as sources of meaning. An important aspect of symbolic consumption is that consumers no longer consume products simply for their functional value, but for their symbolic value, for what these products mean to themselves and others (Kerrigan et al 2004). In other words, these products more or less become signs of commodities. Digital age consumer goods such as the iPhone are symbolic markers or what Thorstein Veblen would call conspicuous consumption or “status symbols” (2007). To make sense of this enthusiastic reception, the iPhone should now be examined as a notable example of symbolic consumer culture. In June 2007, the hottest cell phone came to town, with a vast array of never-before-seen technological wonders packed into one tiny gadget. called mobile (Blokdijk 2008). It was Ap......middle of paper......d therefore argue that products involve a form of natural process within which the designer plays a key role. Like every product, the iPhone has its own lifespan or, in other words, an evolutionary timeline, its own inherited traits, its own product design, and its own adapted state through its environment. As global technology is continually introduced and replaced, a stage would be reached where the symbolic value of the iPhone would no longer be appreciated. This is because more advanced and higher quality mobile devices would come into existence, thus stealing the limelight from the iPhone. Furthermore, the study of behaviors and attitudes towards a specific technology such as the iPhone is extremely vulnerable to new products and trends, making the results of any study obsolete in a very short period of time. In other words, social values ​​also change over time.