This article is more than 1 year old

Android, BlackBerry phone owners favour Apple tablet

OS brand loyalty, they've heard of it

Now the Fandroids are not going to like this, and are advised to look away lest they suffer an apoplectic fit and shower their keyboards in even more drool than usual.

US market watcher Maritz Research asked 2500 North American smartphone owners which tablet they would like to get. Many said they'd like an iPad, Forbes reports.

No surprise there, perhaps, but 41 per cent of the folk who said they own an Android phone revealed that they'd like an iPad too.

Only 19 per cent of them said they'd go for the Android-based Samsung Galaxy Tab and 15 per cent for the Android-under-the-hood Amazon Kindle Fire.

BlackBerry owners proved even more covetous of the Apple tablet. Some 53 per cent of them want an iPad, but only 8.5 per cent want a BlackBerry PlayBook. Kindle Fire? 12 per cent. Samsung Galaxy Tab? 11 per cent.

Some 40 per cent of Windows Phone owners said they would choose an iPad, while 16 per cent opted for the Kindle Fire and 12 per cent for the Galaxy Tab.

Of the folk who have already bought a tablet in the last three months, 50 per cent have an iPad, 13 per cent a Kindle Fire and nine per cent a Galaxy Tab.

iPhobes who've regained their composure will have spotted a potential flaw here: only the Galaxy Tab and Kindle Fire have been mentioned as choices, suggesting those polled picked these from a list of suggestions. Had other Android tablets, from Sony, Acer, Asus et al, been listed, perhaps they would have been selected too.

Or perhaps too few folk mentally included them by ticking the 'Other tablet brand' box.

And some readers will take heart from the notion that combining the Galaxy Tab and Fire scores for Android phone owners puts the Google OS on the want list of 34 per cent of people with an Android handset - only just behind the iPad's 40 per cent score.

What this all shows is that branding is key, and if Android tablet makers want to sell more kit, they need to market their products as well as Apple, Amazon and, to a lesser extent, Samsung do. This happens with phones, because if the vendors don't promote their handsets, the network operators do. That's not the case with tablets. Asus, Acer and co. should learn from this and up their marketing budgets, or forever lag behind those who companies that have.

That's the trouble, people. Generally speaking, advertising sells products better than technological virtuosity does.

Pricing matters too. There's a direct correlation between tablet choice and the amount on money punters were willing to pay for one. The iPad was tops with folk happy to spend $500, while the Kindle Fire was the prime choice of those only keen or able to spend less than $250, Moritz's numbers show. The Galaxy Tab sat in the middle. ®

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