Apple iPhone owners are the most loyal smartphone buyers
RIM shot by wavering BlackBerry owners
iPhone owners are more loyal to their chosen handset than Android fans are to theirs.
So says GfK, a market watcher, after interviewing 4,500 folk across Europe, the US, Brazil, China and Japan.
It found that 84 per cent of iPhone users will buy another Apple handset when they upgrade, the company told Reuters.
Only 60 per cent of Android smartphone owners would make the same commitment to their current operating system.
RIM won't be happy to learn that only 48 per cent of BlackBerry owners said they will stick with the brand when they come to get a new phone.
Vendors, then, still have plenty of scope to win punters from rival platforms. Apple, though, needs to work less hard than other vendors, though it can't afford to take its fans' loyalty for granted.
And tricks like this, from Samsung, only serve to help Apple.
What most appeals to smartphone owners about specific handset-OS combos? GfK said that more than 70 per cent of consumers indicated the reason they would stick with their current phone brand was because of the handset's seamless integration of features and access to content. ®
COMMENTS
Two Explanations for This – Pick One
1. The iPhone is quite good, people like them, they tend to work reliably and they make people happy.
2. iPhone users are complete idiots. Mindless zombies under control of the baby eating, jackboot wearing oppressors who hate freedom and whose success is due to marketing, fashion and absolutely no other reason whatsoever.
One of these explanations belongs on planet Earth. One is borne out of unhinged nutzoid hate. Pick which is which.
Out of curiousity...
If this article claimed that iPhone users were the ones most likely to switch to another type of phone when it came to upgrade, would people still be saying what a pointless, awful story this is?
"Im sure Apple are so proud they've managed to snag the idiots."
Ever wondered if the idiot if the guy you see each morning in the mirror? All those iPhone users may be right and you may be wrong.
Some people are happy to change their phone every 12 months - I want a phone that gets good support and works - it's only an Apple iPhone 3GS but it's still going strong (compared to colleagues who seem to have to tinker / change their Android phones all the time).
People would buy another iPhone because it 'just works' and works well - looking good is not so much of an issue but seems to be with Samsung et al as they clearly felt the need to copy it so closely.
Apparently you can get addicted to iTunes exactly the way you can get addicted to McDonalds.
In both cases, personally speaking, no. Just no.
