Many indonesians have acute obsessions on mobile phones. They care about their phones a whole lot, by equipping them with various accesories, such as, extra case, necklaces (so that the can be wearable as a necklace), and so on.
Mobile phones are apparently considered as a status symbol, similar to watches, in the likes of patek philippe, vacheron constantin, or the most well known, rolex. Watches however has more or less lost its function of status symbol, thanks to the abundance of fakes in indonesia (this shall be further elaborated in another post).
being status symbol means mobile phones are mostly not bought based on the needs nor income of the buyer. So it is common to find smartphones (a particular brand has been the trend recently), being used by those who actually do not need the premium features a smartphone offer, and the phone may cost 3 months salary of the owner. Mind you that in indonesia, getting a phone from a subscription contract is highly unlikely.
this hype however, opens a new field of business. There lots and lots small shops selling accesories, many of them are clustered together, with each shop busy with at least 3 customers at a time. Interestingly however, finding a bluetooth handsfree headset in these clusters is almost impossible.
in short, if you wish to be humble, get a cheap-ish phone, however risking being ridiculed, covertly at the very least. If you want to make an impression or perhaps, make friends, get something over your budget. You just have to flash it, don't have to know how to use it..
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