The new iPhone is such a status symbol that this company sends an employee to buy one for all its executives on launch day

The iPhone is far and away the most popular smartphone in the world, shipping hundreds of millions of units per year and bringing in $122 billion (£80 billion) in revenue for Apple in 2015 so far.

One of the more hard-to-measure statistics surrounding the iPhone is how entrenched it has become in our everyday lives, both functionally and culturally.You will undoubtedly know at least a few people with one and they likely espouse the virtues of it frequently.

This adoration extends to the executive suites of major corporations.

Business Insider spoke to the head of IT at Gazprom Marketing and Trading, a branch of the 400,000-employee natural gas giant, who said that for the executive team the iPhone is "a kudos thing really." The executives want the new iPhones on the day of its release - and that means that an employee has to visit the Apple Store to collect them.

"I have to have a guy sitting outside the Apple Shop when they release a new iPhone," they said. "If he has got an appointment for 10:30 he just makes sure he's b****y early so he doesn't lose his slot."

Upon arrival back at the office, the individual iPhones are handed out. "It's all a bit hero-y," the person said, conjouring up images of the "Wolf of Wall Street."