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Here’s some unconventional market research. According to NBC New York, a pair of robbers stopped three different people recently, each near Columbia University in Manhattan. In each instance they demanded that the person hand over an iPhone.

The first unlucky victim was forced to hand over an iPhone. The second victim didn’t have one and offered an Android phone, which, apparently, was not worth the criminals’ time. They turned down the phone and demanded cash.

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The third victim also denied having an iPhone, prompting the robbers to throw her against a fence and search her.

So, there you go, people deciding between an Android phone and an iPhone: Either you can be so cool that your phone is the only one desperate criminals on the street will accept, or you can be lame and avoid being mugged.

I kid, I kid. The problem, of course, isn’t fashion-conscious robbers, but the insanely high resale value of iPhones. Looking for a 16GB iPhone 4S? You can find them on eBay with prices hovering around $500. That’s quite a haul if you can round up enough of them.

To be fair, some of the newer, high-end Android phones also have high resale values, but you can hardly expect robbers to read tech blogs all day just so they can yell “Give me your iPhone or Samsung Galaxy Nexus or, you know, maybe even a Droid RAZR, or wait, is that new Windows Phone out yet, you know, the Lumia? No, I don’t want your BlackBerry!”

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