Fans' loyalty questioned as iPhone popularity plummets iPopularity is in a state of decline, with "Apple loyalty" said to have fallen for the first time since the iPhone's 2007 release. Only 75 per cent of iPhone owners in Western Europe say they'd choose an Apple device for their next smartphone, new data from market watcher Strategy Analytics show. That still seems a relatively …
Ok, I had 3 generations of iPhone before I moved to a galaxy note, because I need a mapping program, and and the bigger screen was needed.
So I stroll into a store and play with the iphone5...and I realise apple have dropped the ball. The screen is not enough - micron levels of finish? Irrelevant. Apple have misread the market. Samsung have not.
However... The polish as general attention to detail in ios still makes android look like a work in progress. IMO. Will I go back to iOS? Hmmm.. Sorry apple... Nice operating environment, but the hardware specs are not what agnostic consumers want.
Those fandroids make me laugh...
Bought the flagship Android Motorola Atrix 4G phone last summer, and despite Google buying Motorola's Phone Division, and Motorola posting a public statement saying it would upgrade it to ICS, they changed their minds, stuffing the owners.
Welcome to the world of Android - a dog's dinner of software upgradability, maker's skins on top of wildly different versions, and the product lifespan of an X-Factor winner...
I haven't bought an Apple product in years, but at least they retain their value more, have a more consistent user interface, support older models for longer, and have an excellent high street presence and choice of accessories.
I bought a Google Nexus 7 weeks ago, and it's already in danger of being superseded with a plethora of newer models and versions.
They are beyond pathetic.
Spreading lies in a hope to make a fool of people to then really sell more Android and WindowsPhone Metro crap.
The iPhone +58% sales for this quarter tells everything.
If people were really jumping ship then Apple wouldn't be getting a +58% and +26% iPad sales. That is for sure.
Google and Microsoft surely would love to get such a huge positive percentage.
"They are beyond pathetic.
Spreading lies in a hope to make a fool of people to then really sell more Android and WindowsPhone Metro crap."
Oh wow, Joerg and Obviously! in the same article's comments, this is like the idiocy Olympiad. Let's see if we can persuade them to have hate babies, someone cross the streams..
"Google and Microsoft surely would love to get such a huge positive percentage."
Equip flail. Google and Microsoft don't rely on shipping handset. Samsung , Nokia etc... do. In their respective core markets Google and Microsoft have a near-100% fidelity rate. I mean come on, "google" is even a verb these days, and "PC" is synonymous to "MSWindows".
When it comes to selling phones, there is a big difference between Apple in one hand, and Samsung, Moto, and even Nokia as of late: Apple's business model relies almost entirely on branding and brand fidelity, whil Samsung and Moto ship utility handsets. Nokia used to rely on brand fidelity a lot (not as much as Apple does though) but they let that slip, big time, and that's the origin of their woes. For Nokia the fall began with a percepted lack of innovation and a percepted lack of listening to the users, that eroded brand fidelity. And now it seems that Apple's brand fidelity gets eroded because of a percepted lack of innovation and lack of listening o the users.
The writing is on the wall, now a quite energetic change of direction at Apple may save them frrom what happened to Nokia (once more dominant than Apple has ever been to date, now an average-to-minor player).
The recent changes in management may be just that.
Comment #124 which nobody will read...
There's nothing 'new' about the iPhone 5 except for rather boring hardware upgrades.
The innovation is now coming from Android devices - the galaxy s3 for instance, has turned a *lot* of heads.
In my small circle, I've seen three former iPhone users switch to it and they are *really* happy with the choice.
The OS is nowhere near as tightly controlled. Whilst that does have it's downsides, the flexibility and choice you have simply runs rings around Apple. Want to slap a widget on any screen? Go for it. Heck, chuck three or four on there. Change the theme? Yep, no problem.
iOS is pretty solid, but it's starting to get dated. I had an iPhone 4S for about a week and found it ... dull. It wasn't that different to my ageing iPod touch 2g. Yes, there's something to be said for continuity and yes, later versions of iOS have multi-tasking - I get that.
What I really don't like is how truly locked down the devices are. Apple may think they know what you want and maybe 8 times out of 10, they probably do. It's the other 2 times which piss me off.
There's three things which have *hurt* iPhone sales:
1. Maps
2. Perceived lack of innovation from the 4S to the 5
3. Android devices have got *damn* sexy
The iPhone - yep, it's great - but really, I like my devices with a serving of freedom - and I reckon a lot more people feel the same way, despite what Apple may think is best for you.
There's three things which have *hurt* iPhone sales:
1. Maps (really have you tried it? Didn't think so it's ok, so was goole maps) Try Economy down the drain.
2. Perceived lack of innovation from the 4S to the 5/ And that would be about the same as the S2/S3 so doesn't really count - Lets try lightning connector, need to replace lotsof still useable kit, and £25 for a connector/adaptor that should have had a couple in the box.
3. Android devices have got *damn* sexy (really name one? Hint the S3 is not sexy, it's white/black plastic) Here's a proper 3 for you, Android devices have gone from cheap shite (anyone remember the Walmart $70 Android coaster that every tech site pulled apart as it was so bad that touches took over 30 seconds to register?) to ok shite. http://android.dcemu.co.uk/50-dollar-android-tablet-at-walmart-492655.html
Same with cheaper android phones. HTC Wilfire - utter shite. T-mobile vivacity..ok. needs modding and all sorts to make it useable, but it's not utter shite.
Who knows may be next year we'll see really really good devices. But so far the nexus 7 (great device great price) nexus 10...oops that's going to show up the sd apps ever more now...nexus 4...if it's really £239 sim free, well that's tempting.
Google needs to sort out it's app store.
However it's promblem is this big..
http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/4fb3df97ecad04ef32000003-610-/android-fragmentation-chart.png
and getting bigger.
It seems to me that these stats don't answer any question about iPhone 'popularity' other than a decline in repeat iPhone customers as a percentage of the user base. Sales over time (and therefore the current user base) are still increasing according to more recent figures, so all this indicates to me is that some customers are jumping ship to look at alternatives, not that its popularity is in decline - quite the opposite, in fact.
Often people enjoy trying new things.
One of the major issues with my iPhone4 (with a case on!) is that I just don't see the point in buying anything new yet. It all works well on IOS5.1.1 for what I use it for.
Often the way in which something is used could be contained within what you call 'functionality' - it's not all about the core function itself. I've used Android phones and they certainly don't have the slick, polished interface. That's not to say that Apple haven't made mistakes with certain implementations, but I don't plan on upgrading to the iPhone5, IOS6, or any of that nonsense, including LTE. I don't wish to be a beta tester for any company or technology.
On any platform I do think users can often be moronic...I'm sure we all know of a friend who can't seem to do the most basic of tasks or resolve the most basic of non-issues, it's just par for the course.
I had an iPhone 3G, then got the 4 which I've had for 2 years. Love it but thought "I really should try out Android again". I used it on and off years ago and did not like it. Felt kludgy and thrown together with a UI that did not know what it wanted to be. Also the opposite of slick or smooth. But lots of people swear by it so, I had to find out what I'm missing.
Well the S3 came out - way too big but with enough grunt that I assumed Android would be smoother by now and I got one about 5 weeks ago.
Biggest mistake ever. Android is still a kludgy mess of mismatched UI paradigms and sluggish even on that top spec hardware compared to my 3 generation old iPhone 4. Watching rubber banding on the S3 just by scrolling a simple webpage up and down quickly compared to the 4 being relatively smooth... it hurt.
Having totally disconnected thinking where the experience of using the device is a set of discrete process steps as hurdles rather than one smooth 'work'flow... it hurt.
And having a device that was too big to use one handed (I would have bought a 4" screen device with the same faster hardware much more readily) which is slippery as a fish... it hurt.
So yes, I'm one of the increasing number that looked elsewhere and jumped to the theoretical "flagship" Android phone device (at the time) but I don't think I'm the only one who is now looking to flog his S3 on eBay and going back to my old iPhone 4 until I can afford the 5 outright or wait for the 5S/6.
Just for a second, stand back and think.
Most people on here are probably somewhere between 25 and 40. Now think back to 1995 and think what the mobile phones were like back then, just a mere 15 years ago.
Now just fucking grow up and realise that we have this absolutely amzing technology in the palm of your hands. Tech that means I can be standing in the sodding Cairngorns and phone someone in the middle of Tokyo to ask if they got such and such a report. I can get the weather at any moment, anywhere on the planet. I can be stuck in a basement in Prague and find out the Circle Line sailings around Manhatten if I so wished!
Yet all we hear on forums is lots of silly little middle-aged children, most of them blokes who still think they are in the playground, "Yeah but mine's better than yours 'cos you're a moron with no taste!", "Yeah well my Dad's bigger than yours, so ner ner!".
I bought an 4S and there's no compelling reason to upgrade to the next one and a few things holding me back. I dont want to use an adaptor for my docs, and with updates coming along and being able to wipe apps of MY iPhone I'll stay where i am. There's less reason to stick with apple when I'd have to change my docks anyway.
I also have an iPad2 but cant see a reason to upgrade. The 3 is too heavy and the mini is too small and adaptor is wrong. Again not feeling a need to upgrade.
How about the fact that it just isn't "cool" to be associated with patent trolls? If Apple makes the greatest hardware, then surely that should stand alone head and shoulders above clones and wannabes (think: there are many own-brand chocolate bars that look and feel like a Mars bar, but in general they taste poor because they are not the genuine article).
Personally, I feel that Apple is on dangerous ground here for we are talking about something based upon "image" and "perception", and the behaviour of the company will be a large factor in this...
Nerds are the only people who use the term "patent troll".
Mom and Pop average don't even know what a patent is and couldn't give a rat's arse about patents. They just want a phone that works like it says on the tin. Nerds won't understand this and are continually spouting their failure to comprehend in forums such as this one. They will die, failing to comprehend and be discovered in their mom's basement several weeks later.
Nerds ARE NOT APPLE'S MARKET.
Apple don't care what nerds think
Apple are not in a specification race with other HW manufacturers.
Apple users by and large are no more cool/not cool than the users of any other gadget, nor do they perceive themselves as such (replace Apple with almost any other HW manufacturer and the statement holds). There are people on each end of the distribution curve, but they are by definition a vanishingly small minority and largely irrelevant to all but themselves.
The iPhone5 has arrived in the office. Surprisingly light and they seem to just work - much faster. A lot of HW engineering has been put into this device and it shows. HW perfection? No. State of the art? Yes.
"Apple are not in a specification race with other HW manufacturers"
Really? Go take another look at the iPad mini launch, specifically the bit where Apple compare the iPad specifications directly with those of the Kindle Fire HD.
If they are not in a race, why are they trying to convince the world they're winning it?
Did you actually watch Apple's launch presentation for the Mini yourself? What they were pushing was usability not specs. They were saying things like "this is why we think a 7.9" 4:3 screen is better than our 7" competition", not talking about how many DPI it had.
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