The Time Magazine author just bought a new smart phone six months ago. The last thing he needed, by self admission, was a new phone. He bought an iPhone anyway and then started wondering why we’ve all gone iPhone crazy.

"Why would a rational well phone-equipped person consider dropping a perfectly good device and plunking down $599 (because a 4 GB model is out of the question if an 8 GB model is available) for a new phone?" Bill Tancer wondered. "With analysts estimating over 500,000 phones sold just last weekend, perhaps search term data could help us figure out why we’ve gone iPhone crazy."

Mr. Tancer looked at the demographics of visitors to the official iPhone site. A potential buyer is slightly more likely to be male (51.8 percent), between 18 and 24 years old (31 percent), and most interesting, earns less than US$60,000 per year.

In June, iPhone searches surpassed iPod searches -- which for the last three years were the most searched for electronic device. The most often searched for iPhone term was the cost, and second was for a review of the iPhone.

So far, not unexpected.

Then, without a lot of compelling logic, the author observed "The best indicator of equipment-lust would be the top sites where people ended up after entering "iPhone" into their favorite search engine. A total of 56% of searchers landed on the Apple iPhone page or at AT&T’s site; these individuals, like myself, probably just wanted the phone and wondered if it was worth the high cost."

It seems the author didn’t really know after all why he was consumed by the lust. He just knew he needed one. Apparently, a lot of other people, maybe something like half a million people on that first weekend knew they needed an iPhone too, and they didn’t really know why.

Even spouses, who are supposed to be the epitome of sanity and practicality, gave in. The author’s wife pleaded with him. "Just go ahead and buy the thing."

Many are no saner two weeks later. However, like the Time Magazine author, most are very, very pleased.