Survey reveals Apple brand loyalty is skyrocketing, Samsung isn't
In the 3rd quarter of last year, Samsung managed to overtake Apple in sales for the first time in four years. Soon after, the iPhone 12 helped catapult Apple back to the forefront in Q4, all the way to becoming the top smartphone seller in 2020.
Amidst this neck-and-neck competition, SellCell has created a survey to see where people's loyalties truly lie. The survey is a follow-up from another one done in August last year, which demonstrated that despite sales fluctuations, 90% of iPhone users planned to stick with Apple when they upgrade.
Now in 2021, SellCell surveyed over 5000 adult smartphone users from the US. It also looked at Google, LG, and Motorola users alongside Apple and Samsung. The survey studied the following factors:
- brand loyalty of five major smartphone brands,
- preferred brand of choice for switchers,
- factors affecting brand loyalty and brand switching,
- most popular and least popular flagship smartphones.
The results reveal that brand loyalty for Apple is higher than ever, beating even last year's numbers, with a whopping 92% iPhone users saying they'll stick with their brand for the years to come. At the same time, loyalty for Samsung dropped pretty heavily, going from 85.7% in 2019 to only 74% this month.
It turns out that 53% of those ditching Samsung plan to switch to an iPhone for their next upgrade. The majority of the defectors have said they were doing so due to privacy concerns. (Could the App Tracking Transparency feature be an incentive?) Over 25% are naming value for money as the driving factor for switching brands.
71% and 62.6% of Motorola and LG phone users, respectively, have announced they are switching brands for their upgrade, making them the most disloyal group. Following the trend, the majority of these (46.6%) are defecting to the iPhone 12 series, with most others leaning towards the Galaxy S21 line-up.
Google Pixel users' brand loyalty has also dropped from 84% in 2019 to 65.2% today.
The reasons Apple loyalists list for sticking with the brand vary, but the vast majority are claiming that they simply like it best and never had any issues with it, and many admit they are simply too deep into Apple's ecosystem to get out now.
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