Few things in modern life polarise opinion quite like Apple products.  To fans they are the epitomy of style and elegance, whilst to many of the rest of us (yes, sorry but I’m not a fan), they are the epitomy of style over substance.  The release of the iPhone 5 seemed to sum up that difference, with some 5 million people flocking to buy the device on the launch day, all no doubt certain that the new features offered would change their lives sufficiently to justify the investment.

Of course those not on the Apple fan wagon aren’t quite as favourable in their assessment, believing as we do that the new features are far from sufficient to justify such a hefty investment.  Some new research might provide some useful insight for those on both sides of the divide.

The researchers wanted to look at how we reacted to new features prior to purchasing something, and then subsequently how this influenced our feelings about the product after purchase.

Across five studies and four product domains, assistant professor of marketing Joseph K. Goodman found that consumers fail to estimate their feature usage rate before purchasing multifunctional products, which negatively affects product satisfaction.

“We propose that consumers focus on having features instead of elaborating on how often a feature will be used, and this can lead to a decrease in product satisfaction,” Goodman says.

In other words, we often like the sound of whizzy new features, but often fail to take into account how often we’ll actually use them.  Subsequently having lots of nice but un-used features makes us feel bad about the purchase.

“Consumers focus too much on just having the latest features, and don’t spend time elaborating on how often they will use the features,” Goodman says.

“When they do actually elaborate on usage, then they tend to buy lower featured products and they tend to be more satisfied with their purchase, regardless of whether they buy a high or low feature product.”

Of course this doesn’t really take into account those that buy something for its fashion value rather than its features, but does nonetheless provide interesting insight into the psychology behind what we buy.

Have you bought the new iPhone?  Did you evaluate how often you’d use the new features before purchase?