Apple’s iPhone 5 iPhone 4S releases today, and as usual it’s gobbled up its fair share of the tech buzz ever since its announcement. But according to a recent survey by Retrevo, most of the consumer interest is coming from existing iPhone users, not the ever-expanding Android userbase. According to the 1,300 responders, just 12% of Android users are planning on purchasing a new iPhone.
That’s a steep decline from current Apple users. 44% of iPhone 3 and 3GS owners said they’d buy the new phone, while a surprising 42% of iPhone 4 owners said they’d spring for the modest upgrade. Keep in mind, nearly all iPhone 4 owners will be paying full price for the 4S, since they’re at most about 16 months into a 24 month cellular contract. What’s even more surprising is that only 24% of Blackberry users said they’d buy a new iPhone, despite RIM positively bleeding marketshare in the last few months – no points for guessing where the rest are probably going.
In other news, the iPhone 4S’s lack of true 4G connections is a major disappointment. Over 70% of smartphone owners and 50% of iPhone owners lamented the lack of LTE in the new model. The iPhone 4S will feature an HSPA+ radio, achieving speeds which AT&T has been advertising as “4G”, but it won’t be able to connect to the faster LTE network on Verizon or AT&T. That’s a pretty typical move for Apple – remember that the original iPhone launched with EDGE amidst a sea of 3G smartphones and featurephones.
There’s no denying that the iPhone 4S will sell a boatload of units, but as with previous generations, it’s mostly selling to the Apple faithful. Expect a larger turnaround when the true iPhone 5 appears next year – of course, by then Android phones will be even further ahead in specifications and market share.
[via eWeek]
Not surprising. It’s not a compelling upgrade for anyone with a high end android handset and there’s enough competition in the android space for any android user looking to upgrade to find something that they like. The 4S is barely compelling enough for a lot of iphone 4 users in contract, so doing a complete OS switch is less likely. For 3GS users, definitely.
Still… you have to admit, that pie-graph showing a 50-50 split on whether to get a modestly upgraded phone is pretty impressive. I’m not an Apple fan, nowhere close, but that’s still good numbers, considering its among all smartphone owners polled.
Yup. Without a doubt, Apple has some of the best marketers and salesmen in the world.
I don’t know if those are good numbers or not. The iPhone 4 users makes sense, since they are still in contract. But the 3gs and 3g users are due for an upgrade. So does that mean they are fine with what they have? Or does it mean that 56% of those users might be open to another OS?
I wonder how many iPhone owners are considering an Android phone. Anybody got guesses or data?
@Azaraith: I can only make an unedjucated guess, but the past year i have seen aprox 50% of people i know switching from iPhone to Android, only heard of 2 that went from Android to iPhone, and all first time smartphone owners i know buys without exception Android 🙂
There is only one person I know that isn’t even considering an Android phone over an iPhone. He says he doesn’t like them, because they have “too many business features” and that he only wants entertainment. Won’t even accept that Android can be an alternative to iPhone.
As for me, Android all the way!