A new ChangeWave survey of 4,163 consumers has taken a fresh look at smartphone demand trends – including mobile OS and smart phone preferences going forward.
The June survey focused on key comparisons between the Apple iOS and Google Android OS – including the impact of Apple’s new iCloud service – along with the latest momentum trends for Motorola and Research in Motion.
ChangeWave Research notes that this survey focuses primarily on the North American smart phone market – with the sample being 89% U.S. respondents and 11% outside the U.S.
Mobile OS Preferences Among Consumers
The Apple iOS and Google Android OS continue to dominate preferences for mobile operating systems, according to the latest ChangeWave survey results. Going forward, the Apple iOS remains the number one preference for buyers – with 46% of those planning to buy a smart phone in the next 90 days saying they prefer to have the Apple iOS on their new phone, up 2-pts since the March survey.’
MacDailyNews Take: Inflection point: iPhone 4 for Verizon.
OS Customer Satisfaction
ChangeWave Research also looked at OS customer satisfaction ratings based upon the operating system consumers have on their smart phones, and once again Apple is the clear leader – with 70% of customers using the iOS saying they are Very Satisfied.
In an encouraging sign for Microsoft, ChangeWave Research continues to see a big difference between the high Very Satisfied rating for Windows Phone 7 (57%) vs. the much lower rating for Windows Mobile OS (14%). Even so, the higher Windows Phone 7 rating has yet to produce a sustained momentum boost for Microsoft in term of buyer preferences.
Impact of Apple iCloud Service
Apple recently announced the iCloud service, which will automatically store music, photos, apps, calendars, documents, ebooks, etc., and wirelessly push them to any Apple device – allowing anytime, anywhere access for users.
ChangeWave Research took a close-up look at the potential impact of the iCloud service going forward, and found 29% of Apple product owners say Apple’s iCloud announcement makes them More Likely to buy Apple products in the future, as do 13% of Non-Apple owners.
This initial look at the impact of Apple’s new iCloud service shows it enhancing existing customer loyalty. But the survey also provides highly encouraging signs that iCloud will generate additional customer demand for other Apple products, not only from current Apple product owners but from a substantial numbers of non-owners as well.
Smart Phone Manufacturer Demand
Despite no new Apple model launch, demand still appears strongest for the iPhone in terms of North American planned purchasing. Nearly half of respondents (48%) planning on buying a smart phone in the next 90 days say they’ll get an iPhone – up 1-pt since our previous survey in March and the highest level of demand in the smart phone industry.
The same can’t be said for Motorola (8%; down 4-pts). After benefitting tremendously in the years Verizon subscribers were barred from the iPhone market, Motorola is now seeing a loss of market share at least partially attributable to the Verizon iPhone release that occurred earlier this year.
Still, Motorola’s situation is considerably less daunting than that of Research in Motion’s. Seven of the past 10 ChangeWave quarterly surveys since 2008 have shown a drop in RIM’s planned purchase share. Importantly, its customer satisfaction ratings have also fallen in nine of the past 10 ChangeWave surveys – and the latest survey shows them at their lowest level ever for this most critical of indicators.
The complete ChangeWave report is available here.
Report details include:
• Competition between Apple (AAPL), Motorola (MMI), Research In Motion (RIMM), Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Samsung and HTC, among others
• Customer Satisfaction Ratings by Manufacturer
• Satisfaction Comparison: Apple vs. RIM BlackBerry – 4 Year Comparison
• Planned Buying Trends by Operating System – biggest winners and losers
• 3 Year Comparison of Android OS Demand vs. Apple iOS Demand
• Customer Satisfaction Ratings by Mobile OS
• Growth Trends: Overall Smart Phone Market
• Impact of Apple iCloud Service and Planned Consumer Usage
• Mobile Apps: Android OS vs. Apple iOS – comparison of money spent and number of apps downloaded in past 90 days
Source: ChangeWave Research
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz,” Dan K., and “Sarah” for the heads up.]
Just wait when it is released for Sprint, and T-Moble is ether assimilated or also gets the iPhone. Personally, I don’t know how good or bad Android is, never had the necessity to find out. But I really love my iPad 2, my iPhone 4 and my Apple TV 2. Apple will only make them better this September, when iOS 5 is released.
I think what you are seeing on the chart is a climb toward release date. Notice that iPhone demand went skyward in June of each year. Verizon is helping of course, but the climb we are seeing is toward the rumored September release.
Now remember, this is one device by one manufacturer beating all the Android devices by many manufacturers combined. That’s like the Chevy Volt single-handedly challenging (and beating) all vehicles running on unleaded gasoline.
(BTW – The Volt thing above? Ain’t gonna happen. Unlike the iPhone, the user experience is not astronomically better on the electric fuel platform verses the gasoline platform. The opposite is probably true, if everyone else was making electric cars, the lone gasoline using car would be king.)
This tells me that you already own an ZEV electric car, which means you’re one of the lucky few who got a chance to buy a Volt or a LEAF.
I’d like to find out how can an electric car NOT be noticeably better than one with internal combustion engine? The noise is significantly lower, and the engine pick-up should be noticeably better than the gasoline engine, whether starting from zero or trying to overtake at 110kmh. Speaking without personal experience, I’d love to hear thoughts of an actual owner on this.
Something is amiss. The article says 57% of Windows Phone owners are “very satisfied” but the chart says 27%.
57% is for wp7, windows mobile is 14% so you get the 27% between them both
Now think quickly of a few creative headlines that might well offset this Changewave claim, and help short the stock day after the quarterly report.
I’ll start: Steve Jobs wasn’t present during the quarterly report presentation.
Apple is doomed.
The combination of the iPhone 5, iOS 5 and iCloud is going to rocket the last quarter off the charts. What’s on the horizon for Android? Ice Cream Sandwich? Jell-o?
And after Jell-O, Google will release the K-Y Jelly edition of Android to ease the pain a Fandroid will feel when the soon to be banned HTC Uninspiring is shoved up his ass, forcefully by Andy Rubin.
@Chris
I think they blended the Windows Phone 7 and other Windows Mobile OS’s satisfaction rates.
What I wanted to see most was the 3 year trend predicted between Android and Apple but MDN did not post it. Does this mean that the numbers were not favourable for Apple (which I find hard to believe)?
$1500 to view the report???? Add a few bucks and get 5 shares of AAPL instead for a much better investment!
Pet peeve: “going forward” used at least three times in this report. Why not use “future”; that’s one word instead of two, and is precise because it refers to time, whereas the phrase “going forward” usually refers to motion.
And when it is talking about present “preference(s)”, the future is implied.
Got that off my chest!
Key takeaway here is… RIM is dead! Oh, and even though “free”, Android can’t keep up…
Preference doesn’t mean anything. If you look at the graph iOS has always been in front.
That doesn’t relate to sales though.