When any technological device has two colors, one of the first questions that is always asked: “Is one color for men and another for women?” The simple answer when it comes to the white iPhone 4 vs. the black iPhone 4 is NO. In fact, many discussion forums and websites have investigated this very thing. Although there is no hard evidence coming from Apple, it appears that the color of the iPhone is chosen more based on individual taste than gender-specific guidelines.
There was a quiz on Macforum.com asking iPhone users to indicate what color iPhone they had and what their gender was. The questionnaire had some surprising results.
- Man with black iPhone: 106 people or 53.54%
- Man with white iPhone: 72 people or 36.36%
- Woman with black iPhone: 10 people or 5.05%
- Woman with white iPhone: 10 people or 5.05%
Although this survey is not scientific in any way, it gives us an idea. Men were more likely to have a black iPhone than a white iPhone, but women were just as likely to have either (although this is from a significantly smaller sample size). Surveys on other websites returned very similar results, but in most cases, even women chose the black iPhone over the white iPhone. When asked what color iPhone 4 you want, the results were consistent.
The bottom line is that both men and women prefer the black iPhone to the white one. Black and white models were offered with the iPhone 3G and 3Gs, and black consistently outperformed white. The same goes for Google searches when a new iPhone is about to launch. Early on, when the black and white iPhone 4s were going to be released, average monthly Google searches for the black iPhone 4 far exceeded those for the white iPhone 4. The black iPhone 4 had 2,900 searches, while the white iPhone 4 had 10% 260. Overall, for both men and women, black iPhones are more popular than their white siblings. The fact that seems to get lost the most is that these are black and white iPhones, not pink and black iPhones. If that were the case, there would probably be a much more pronounced gender preference.
When asked what color iPhone they wanted, the responses were never consistent across gender:
“I’m going to buy the white iPhone 4 because it has a clean look and I heard the finger smudges won’t show as much.” -Trent Pirillo
“I like the black iPhone 4 because of its sleek design. The chrome looks much better on black than on white.” -Julie Hodge
“I got the black because it’s out and I don’t have to wait. I don’t care about the color because I put a case on my iPhone anyway.” -Paul Bowman
It is difficult to know if the color of the iPhone is a matter of gender. From interviews and online surveys, it doesn’t seem like gender has anything to do with what color iPhone a person chooses. What is very apparent is that most people like the black iPhone over the white iPhone. When “The White” finally comes out, it would be interesting if Apple released gender-specific stats. Give a choice which one would you choose?
