I thought the exact same thing. This article seems to be reinforcing the idea of a gold phone as a shallow spectacle.

The point I inferred was that some people want the gold iPhone simply because they like the way it looks and not because they want to signal the world that they own the latest iPhone.

Is he chiding the reader? I just felt that he pointed out that those things are fashionable right now, even though a lot of us in the tech crowd think they're silly - just like the gold iPhone.

You probably don't even ride a Penny Farthing.