“Apple Inc.’s newest iPhones are fueling a surge in trade-ins of Android-based smartphones, threatening to loosen Samsung Electronics Co.’s grip on the large-screen smartphone segment as users switch allegiances,” Tim Higgins reports for Bloomberg. “When Apple’s main product, featuring bigger displays and faster chips, goes on sale starting in Australia, they may be best remembered as the generation of iPhones that won over consumers from rival smartphones. Trade-ins of Samsung phones with smartphone reseller Gazelle Inc. tripled last week and about a quarter of potential iPhone 6 buyers are new to Apple’s ecosystem, according to RBC.”
“Buzz has been building since the new iPhones were unveiled on Sept. 9 at an event near Apple’s headquarters, with pre-orders topping 4 million units in the first 24 hours and surpassing earlier releases. A third of Android users polled by Boston-based Gazelle said they’re likely to upgrade to the iPhone 6, with 39 percent saying the bigger screen was driving the decision,” Higgins reports. “Last year, a 10th of the smartphones traded in when the iPhone 5s and 5c went on sale were Android-based devices, according to Chris Sullivan, Gazelle’s CEO. ‘We’re seeing a higher propensity to switch,’ Sullivan said. ‘The combination of the screen size and the functionality’ indicates that ‘this is going to be a strong and compelling product for Android users to switch,’ he said.”
“RBC Capital Markets polled 6,000 consumers and found that ‘an impressive 26 percent of respondents who intend to purchase an iPhone are new’ to Apple’s ecosystem, with the majority coming from Android, Amit Daryanani, an analyst at RBC, wrote in a note to investors,” Higgins reports. “‘This is going to be a nightmare for Samsung,’ Tim Bajarin, an analyst at Creative Strategies Inc., said of the larger-screen iPhones.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take:
As we wrote back in May: An iPhone with a larger screen option will hurt Samsung immeasurably more than myriad, unending traipses through the legal morass.
Have a nice, toasty iPhone 6/Plus launch day, Samsung!
Don’t settle for less than the best. With Apple’s all new, 64-bit smartphones, the gorgeous 4.7-inch iPhone 6 and the stunning 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus, there’s never been a better time to stop settling for chintzy imitations and make the move to the real thing.
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