With (worrying) reports out of the US that people who shop online using an Apple device can be charged a premium as much as 25 per cent due to the perception Apple fans are less price sensitive comes a new study that suggests that iPhone users are, indeed, richer than their Android-using counterparts.

The study (which you can read here) by the research group the National Bureau Of Economic Research found that 69.1 per cent of iPhone users are in the top income bracket in the US.

It’s widely thought that Apple users are so loyal to the brand and so keen to be seen with its latest gadgetry that price is often no object. In fact, they’re often prepared to sleep out the front of stores just to get their hands on it first.

As an example, the recently released top-of-the-range iPhone X sells for upwards of $1800 in Australia. The bog-standard 8 model’s closer to the $1000-mark, similar to what you’d pay for a Samsung equivalent.

The study noted that Apple or, more to the point, owning one of its iPhones was, indeed, a status symbol for many users.

It also noted how status symbols had changed in the past two decades or so. In 2004 (some three years before the launch of the smartphone), status symbols included owning your own car or home computer. While in 1992, you were seemed to have made it if you owned a dishwasher, answering machine and even enjoyed eating Dijon mustard!

Authors of the study noted: “We measure the cultural distance between two groups as the ability to infer an individual’s group based on his or her (i) media consumption, (ii) consumer behaviour, (iii) time use, or (iv) social attitudes.

“Knowing whether someone owns an iPad in 2016 allows us to guess correctly whether the person is in the top or bottom income quartile 69 per cent of the time. Across all years in our data, no individual brand is as predictive of being high-income as owning an Apple iPhone in 2016.”