Apple has left Samsung behind, as it claims the position of the top mobile brand in China, in both awareness and loyalty. One of the largest smartphone consumer market in the world, China has conveyed its dismay with Samsung, given the Apple choice.
Samsung has always been Apple’s biggest rival for most part of the recent years, with Samsung always being the top mobile brand in the large Chinese market in terms of consumer awareness and loyalty. China Brand Research Center has been conducting surveys to rank different brands through the China Brand Power Index, where Samsung has always enjoyed the top position for the mobile brand since 2012.
The recent 2014 survey however, has Apple rocketing across Samsung to snatch the top position. The latest survey polled some 13,500 Chinese across 30 cities, aged between 15 and 60 and was conducted from August 2013 to January 2014. The results note that Samsung did actually improve this time around, but Apple managed to squeeze past Samsung with one big leap.
The research center finds that Samsung has been losing its focus on consumer loyalty, where the Korean electronics giant has been occupied with increasing the market share of its devices, something that Apple was not solely focused on. The team at the Chinese Brand Research Center said, “If companies are focusing too much on market share, while ignoring the concerns of consumers, it will cause a problem in brand management.”
Apple’s China plans were up and about for over two years now, with the company making it clear that it was about time that Apple taped into the vast market. The recent record breaking iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus pre-orders in China were unlike anything Apple had seen at home, in the U.S. or abroad, so much so that in Korea, Samsung Galaxy Note 4 pre-orders paled in comparison as well.
In light of these positive developments, and the existing aim of capturing a huge chunk of the Chinese market, Apple is looking to open 25 new retail stores in the next two years in the country that has a population of over 1.4 billion.
This has truly been Apple’s year so far, and if we look back at 2013, Tim Cook said “China is currently our second-largest market, I believe it will become our first.”
(via: CNet)
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