Buying a new phone isn’t as easy as it used to be. Back in the day when all everyone did was call and text, it really didn’t matter which device you decided to purchase since everything on the market did the exact same thing. The reason you picked one model over another was styling, size, and towards the middle of the last decade people started taking the cameras in mobile devices a bit more seriously. Fast forward to today and take a look at the comments section of any article on either IntoMobile or one of the many technology sites on the internet and notice how people are hurling violent insults at each other to defend the platform that they’re deeply invested in. The analysts at GfK call this loyalty, meanwhile we call it fanboism, and the results of a survey the did on over 4250 smartphone owners in 9 different countries last month confirm that people’s preferences are indeed quite strong.
For folks who own both an iPad and an iPhone, 19% of them said switching from iOS would be a process more difficult than “changing bank accounts or gas or electricity providers.” So when does a first time smartphone owner turn into someone who finds the idea of switching platforms a complete turn off? The “tipping point” for “customer loyalty” is when a smartphone owner starts regularly using 7 or more applications or services. Who uses that many services? No surprise here, 61% of Americans say they do versus 56% of Chinese and 53% of Brazilians. Who uses the least number of services? UK (42%), Spain (43%), Germany (45%), and France and Italy (46% each). When asked what’s the most important characteristic of a smartphone, Europeans said ease of use, whereas the Chinese said they want access to the most amount of content. We see that in our coverage, where Chinese companies are coming out with their own Android ROMs, whereas in Europe nearly everyone has an iPhone.
All that being said, a large number of the devices that are still sold today are feature phones, which is why it’s so exciting seeing everyone battle it out to get those first time shoppers. That and just because a platform is dominate today, doesn’t mean it’ll be dominate tomorrow. There’s always someone out there working on something new.