Since the launch of the original iPhone nearly 5 years ago, Apple has prided itself on keeping customers coming back for more with every new release.
With 75% of iPhone 4S customers said to be "very satisfied" with their new purchase, a trend of iPhone users changing for another manufacturer doesn’t seem a likely eventuality – at least not in the near future.
Unfortunately for rivals, the same cannot be said, and Consumer Intelligence Research Partners reckon as many as one third of those buying the fruit company’s latest smartphone are users (or should we say, former users) of Research In Motion’s BlackBerry or one of Google’s many Android-based devices.
Despite the iPhone 4S retailing at a more premium price bracket, it seems consumers are willing to pay that little bit extra for the Cupertino company’s device.
There’s no doubt the popularity of the once-dominating Blackberry is in decline, massively. BlackBerry Messenger was – and remains – its main selling point, but not only are there too many alternatives available through third parties, but other companies are bringing in their own iterations of brand-only communication – such as Apple with its relatively-new iMessage, allowing any iDevice user connected to the internet to chat with others boasting an iOS device touting iOS 5.x.
As you’ll probably be aware, Android is the most-used OS of them all by some distance, with Google Android Chief Andy Rubin speaking quite proudly of 700,000 daily activations during the course of the festive season. Still, such findings will surely have head honchos at the Big G on red alert as Tim Cook’s company company continues to – barring those battery issues – perform perfectly in the smartphone department.
CIRP also studied the trends of second-hand iPhones, in which it concluded Apple’s smartphone to once again be ahead of the chasing pack. Almost half of iPhones are either passed on as gifts or sold, compared with just 21 percent of BlackBerry devices and only 15 percent of Androids.
The iPhone – no matter how old, seems to be the device everybody wants. After all, the 3GS, which initially launched in 2009, was not only still retailing in the run up to the iPhone 4S launch last October, but on many carriers, it was actually fending off competition from newly-released devices.
(via AppleInsider)
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