A recent survey by German research firm Gfk noted that Apple iPhone users are the most loyal compared to other smartphone brands. According to Reuters:
“Loyalty with a handset is a lot more complicated these days in that people buy into experiences at the high-end level,” Ryan Garner, the lead analyst on the survey, told Reuters.
“If a phone doesn’t do what it says it will do or what the owner hopes it will do, the maker will lose loyalty.”
The survey found that just 25 percent of smartphone owners planned to stay loyal to the operating system running their phone, with loyalty highest among Apple users at 59 percent, and lowest for Microsoft’s phone software, at 21 percent.
Of users of Research in Motion’s BlackBerrys, 35 percent said they would stay loyal. The figure was 28 percent for users of phones running Google’s Android software, and 24 percent for users of Nokia Symbian phones.
So we have Apple leading the pack with a 59% loyalty rate, followed by RIM (35%), Android (28%), Nokia (24%), and filling out the basement, Microsoft at 21% (although Windows Phone 7 is relatively new).
How can this research be interpreted? People could be loyal to iPhones because they are relatively easy to use compared to the competition, offer a full fledged App Store, and software updates can be easily applied. Think of these three factors and apply them to Blackberrys, Android devices, Nokia’s Symbian devices, and phones from Microsoft–can the same be said?
POLL TIME: If you currently own an iPhone, what was your previous smartphone?
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I do love my iPhone
Before the 3G in 2008 I had a Motorola Razr 🙂
I have had the luxury to own all theses types of phones, and i can totally agree with those numbers stated.
my first Smartphone was an HTC running Windows Mobile 6.1 although it served me well with the exception of the speed bogging way down until the next restart, once i started seeing other phones i wasnt to happy with my HTC anymore lol
Then from BlackBerry Curve to Bold, then Storm. Since then i have only owned iPhones (7 of them) and its the only phone i can say i have been 100% confident and satisfied with.
I have never owned an Android, although i have used a bunch of them and they look promising. Not enough to make me want to dumb my iPhone ^_~
i cant vote this poll as i would vote other…i had the LG Rumor 2.
i had it for only 4-6 months before i got the iP4
Before the 3G in 2008, I had the iPhone 2G. 🙂
I remember when the first Storm hit Telus in December of whatever its release year was. I also remember it being the fastest device to go from 199.99 on a 3-year to $0.00 on a 3-year within 30 days! And even then, people wouldn’t buy it!
I had a Nokia slider phone, the thing was a bring and lived through many drops – but its functionality was crap. I’m not sure whether I’ll stick with iOS after my 3GS contract is up. Definitely between android and iOS
Before my iPhone 4 I own a Sony Ericsson C902.
before the 3G i had the Treo 650 (which i still love….size of a brick or not lol)
My previous phone was a Treo 700p which I didn’t really like as a phone. It was OK as a PDA but having had Palms before, I found the screen too small to be useful.
None of the above? I didn’t own a smartphone. lol
I owned a Blackberry Storm before my iPhone 4 with Telus which was faulty from the get go. Telus was kind enough to replace it, it was still a dud so they wait listed me for iPhone 4 32G which I got in August 2010 and I am extremely happy with iPhone 4. Love it!
Liked the old Windows Phones, had a HTC P4000 before getting the iPhone 3G and before that an Audiovox 6600.
Of course, I liked those, but love the iPhones!
The poll was an attempt to recreate–the poll.
Once the iPhone 3G came out (with iPhone OS 2x) and the AppStore was introduced, I jumped on board. The iPhone 2G was just potential but so closed (very Apple) I had no interest and used a Windows Mobile 6 phone. Since then I’ve owned a couple 3G’s, a 3GS, and today I get my iPhone4 :D.
Andriod, in my opinion, is the closest contender at this point, but as much as I dislike Apple and a lot of their business practices, the iPhone is truly a trend-setting, fantastic phone, and everyone else is just trying to catch up.