With new smartphones growing expensive and inflation reducing the purchasing power of a large part of the population, choosing where to spend money becomes more important than ever. From the manufacturer's point of view, winning the loyalty of existing customers is at the heart of marketing strategy.
The two main mobile operating systems, Android and iOS, have been fighting since their origins. Although the strategies may be different, the objective remains unchanged. So which operating system has more loyal users? In the battle When it comes to the loyalty of Android vs iOS users, who is gaining ground? Here is an in-depth analysis.
Marketing strategies
The big manufacturers are really good marketing their products to the right customer segments: it's not an easy task to convince people that your product is worth their salary. However, manufacturers must also take into account Satisfaction. It may sound strange, but the profit margins on a smartphone sale are among the lowest in the entire industry. In some cases, storage options and official accessories are more cost-effective than the actual device.
If someone buys your device and it is disappointed, this customer will avoid buying other products of your brand. In addition, he will share his negative experience with his friends. The members of this network will discouraged, which effectively turns that into negative marketing. Keep in mind that people are inclined to give more importance to negative comments than to positive comments.
As a result, manufacturers must create a product that will appeal to people, while maintaining a good profit margin. A good product encourages customers to stay loyal to the brand. Plus, it's generally easier to sell something that customers are already familiar with.
What does it mean to be faithful?
The answer is quite simple but not obvious. Being faithful to something means that you continue to choose that thing rather than an alternative. the problem this is it iOS necessarily means Apple, or even more precisely, iPhone. On the other hand, when you say Android, you could talk about a wide variety of brands. An Android user could stay loyal to the operating system while switching to different manufacturers.
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Let's take a look at an investigation by Morgan Stanley and analyzed by Statista:
The survey involved 1,000 users who planned to upgrade their device within 12 months. We asked them if they were satisfied with the current brand and if they prefer stick to her or switch to another. The graph immediately shows that 92% of iPhone users planned to stay with Apple. Or better, as for the official report, "fairly or extremely likely to stick to the brand".
This is not to say that they were guaranteed to buy another Apple smartphone. Instead, we should read this graph as if we were talking about Satisfaction rates. For this reason, it makes much more sense to think about unfair users. In fact, we are not sure if a satisfied the user will stay with the same brand, but we can guess that one unhappy the user will switch to another brand as soon as possible.
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What brands are users interested in?
Horace Dediu (Twitter: @asymco) is well known for sharing informative marketing and economic information. In a recent tweet we can find a very interesting chart showing the orientation of the customers towards various brands. Take a look at the following image:
35,523 people participated in this research. the columns display the current device, while lines show the one expected. the green cell highlight the likelihood of staying with the current brand for the next purchase. At first glance, it may seem that Apple has the highest loyalty rate. However, keep in mind that we are comparing Android to iOS, rather than all manufacturers against each other.
One thing we can read is that the interest in Apple products by users of other brands is very constant. However, in most cases, users seem more brand-inclined than they are already using than anything else. In addition, pricing often plays an important role in the final decision.
You should look at this information with a grain of salt. We don't have precise distribution figures and intentions don't always translate into action. However, the table gives us an overview of the reflections of the demographic group analyzed. In the next section, we will talk about why Android users are more loyal and why it doesn't necessarily matter.
Android users are more loyal, but …
Various research has revealed that Android users are more loyal than iOS users. As in the previous cases, most of these studies involved a limited number of samples. Everyone has their own way of thinking and thinks that their opinions are unique. However, scientific evidence such as Pareto law (principle 80-20) or Zipf's Law (breakdown of rankings) shows how predictable certain behaviors can be. This reflects the results of different research samples on a subject: most of the results are very similar to each other.
Now, after analyzing the speculative ideas, let's take a look at some realistic ones loyalty of the clientele The data. The following report was created by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP). The information is based on official reports but also takes into account the responses of about 500 users surveyed in the United States.
Consider the 2 year period between December 2015 and December 2017, which seems fairly stable. Loyalty to iOS is estimated to have varied between 85% and 88%, while Android retention rates range from 89% at 91%.
These are great results for both platforms, however, loyalty does not take the lost users in consideration. The reason why this is a problem is that the number of iOS users is much lower than the number of Android users. Therefore, the percentages, as shown in the last graph, have different meanings. Before we talk about numbers, we need to better understand the market shares.
We already know that Android devices are much more widely distributed than iOS devices. I'll tell you more, Samsung and Huawei have more users than Apple. But what size do they really have in comparison? For some indicative information, we will refer to IDC reports. First, here are the market shares based on manufacturers:
We can see that the market shares have changed a lot over the course of just 18 months. If we look at the same statistics under the operating systems"Perspective, here's what we get:
Future actions have been speculated by experienced economists, however, current and past information is fairly clear. You can begin to understand that a single percentage point is much more important when talking about Android. Now let's go straight to the numbers.
Android loses more users than iOS
All the data you find here has been approximated for a better understanding. It will suffice to get a better idea of the real situation. For this analysis, we will refer to the Period 2017: during the year Apple sold 215.8 million iPhones, while the number reached 1.244 billion for Android manufacturers. Meanwhile, 14% of iOS users and 9% of Android users have switched to the other OS.
It means that 30 million IOS users started using Android and 112 million Android users bought an iPhone. Now, we cannot be sure that the data we have is accurate. This research completely ignores the presence of people who use both operating systems. In addition, the presence of mobile phones is quite relevant. These devices are becoming very popular in developing countries thanks to lower costs combined with new operating systems such as KAIOS.
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When it comes to the activity of iOS and Android users after installing apps, they also seem to be losing some ground in this regard. According to data published in Liftoff 2016 Mobile Index, the post-installation engagement activity of users of the two operating systems differs.
Why is Apple doing so much better?
From Apple's point of view, more Android users mean more opportunities. In addition, many of them are already showing l & #39; interests in iPhones. There are two major problems in stopping them: ignorance and price. Many people have never tried an iOS device before, and they are afraid of the learning curve. In addition, Android users typically buy cheaper devices, with the latest flagships costing as much as a basic iPhone.
The way Apple wants to handle this is pretty clever. First, their "Switch to iPhoneThe app allows users to automatically export most of their data, making the process easier. Second, they launch the iPhone XR at a more affordable price. These two factors should encourage even more customers to go to them.
For an iPhone user, switch to android is a much more difficult task. Most data can be easily transferred these days, however, there are some drawbacks. First of all, you cannot transfer your Application store purchases. Second, all proprietary services such as iMessage or iCloud would not be accessible. Finally, you would lose l & #39; Integration with all the other Apple products and accessories you own.
the ecosystem is the reason Apple is so successful: it encourages you to buy premium products and accessories that work perfectly together. Everything should be Easy and designed to look modern. Switching to Android becomes more and more difficult with the time you spend on it, but as a customer you don't care because you feel like they are already offering everything you need. This is the real reason why higher Android loyalty rates don't really matter – and loyalty is not why we like it. as much.
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sources: IDC | Internal of the business community | Forbes | Twitter