Smartphone Market

Can Sprint Cut Out the Competition by Cutting Bills in Half?

Sprint’s ‘Cut Your Bill in Half’ promotion offers AT&T or Verizon customers the opportunity to switch to Sprint and, you guessed it, cut their bill in half. The graph below compares consumer review buzz and delight from the weeks before and the weeks after the promotion began. Though this promotion was designed by Sprint to steal the competitor’s consumers, as of its start on December 5, Sprint has seen no gains in perception according to consumer reviews.

The deal has only been available for a couple weeks, but Sprint’s plan to gain customers has failed to work so far. Since the start of their ‘Cut Your Bill in Half’ promotion, both Sprint and Verizon have seen less promoters and less happy customers, while only AT&T saw improvement. Only time will tell if this promotion will lure customers to switch carriers.

Looking to conversation on Social Media, however, tells a different story. While the data from consumer reviews displayed in the graph above represents the reaction of actual consumers who have used and reviewed the carriers, the social data displayed below is more representative of branding and general awareness. The volume of conversation increased to a small peak on the day of the launch then steadily fell back down. This trend demonstrates an initial lack of interest which helps explain the limited interest shown through reviews. By tracking both consumer reviews and social media conversation, Argus Insights can compare branding to reality to paint a comprehensive picture of consumer engagement. In this case, lack of social engagement prior to the promotion was a precursor to limited adoption.

For an in depth look at how consumer demand is effecting the Smartphone Market, check out our November Consumer Demand Reports. For personalized consolation, custom reports, or access to our data, please contact us.

Are People Still Using Smartphones as Phones?

Smartphones now come with so many features that the original calling function is often overlooked. With texting, email, facetime, snapchat, and several other ways to communicate, the modest phone call has become an antiquated practice. While there are several different ways to communicate on a smartphone, users are still concerned with making calls, and their feedback is predominantly negative. Despite all the other capabilities, a smartphone is ultimately still a phone, and consumers are not satisfied with this primary function.

This shift in usage is happening across all smartphone brands, but negative feedback is more prominent for less popular brands like Kyocera, Sharp, and ZTE, since users are willing to overlook poor call quality in favor of other features from more popular brands like Apple, Sony, and Samsung.

We drill down into specific complaints and consumer sentiment about phone usage by brand in our Peek and Focus November Smartphone Consumer Demand Report.

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Argus Insights tracks consumer behavior in several markets. Reports are also available for the Wearables and Home Automation markets. If you are interested in custom reports, consultation, or gaining access to our data, please contact us.

Sales Match Delight as Xiaomi & Huawei Threaten Samsung & Apple

On December 5^th, Argus Insights published a blog detailing the Rise of the Chinese Smartphone Manufacturers, which examined the improvement in Huawei, Lenovo, and Xiaomi’s consumer buzz and delight, compared to Samsung’s falling approval, from May to November of 2014. On December 15^th, Gartner published their Q3 numbers, declaring that “Samsung Lost Market Share While Top Three Chinese Manufacturers Combined Smartphone Market Share Grew by Four Percentage Points”[1]. Examining the change in consumer reaction from Q2 to Q3 shows that consumers are finding delight in the smartphones they are increasingly purchasing from Huawei and Xiaomi, a promising trend that will likely lead to increased adoption.

Xiaomi saw an increase in delight, but a decrease in buzz volume, which can be partly attributed to the fact that China Unicom is the only Chinese carrier included in this data set. Nonetheless, the consumers that are reviewing Xiaomi smartphones are delighted. Huawei saw an even more dramatic increase in delight, driven largely by Amazon and China Unicom customers, which we detail in our November Consumer Demand Report. Apple and Samsung remain ahead in terms of review volume, but both these popular brands saw lower Net Promoter Scores than the rising Chinese manufacturers.

Consumers are turning to lower priced smartphones as brand becomes less important. This trend is catapulting other manufacturers into a market long dominated by Apple and Samsung. Argus Insights will continue to track changes in consumer preference but if you are interested in custom reports, access to our tools and data, or personal consultation, please contact us. For weekly updates on the Smartphone, Wearable, and Home Automation markets sign up for free newsletter.

[1] http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2944819

OnePlus One or OneMinus One?

In November we covered the new kids on the block in the smartphone market, Chinese manufacturer OnePlus. Their goal was to disrupt the market by selling high-end smartphones for more than half the price of Apple, Samsung, HTC, etc. They succeeded in driving awareness to their campaign and gained approval from the consumers who took notice of their budget friendly smartphone, which boasts the same high-end features that are sought after in the iPhones and Samsung Galaxy phones.

OnePlus got off to a fast start as consumer demand quickly overwhelmed the limited supply of smartphones available. Due to the fact that the company is microscopic compared to the juggernauts in the industry, careful planning and strategic production were essential in growing the company and lowering the risk of bankruptcy. OnePlus came up with an invite system for consumers that were interested in purchasing the One, which allowed them to only produce what they can sell to prevent excess inventory. Lucky adopters that got their hands on an invite purchased the phone and delight numbers grew rapidly.

Unfortunately, success sometimes is a double-edged sword, being that high praise and reviews led to demand magnifying at a rate that OnePlus could not keep up with. Consumers were left wanting to get their hands on the product, and found it almost impossible to get an invite. The struggle led to frustration, and that frustration gave way to sellers that took advantage the limited supply. OnePlus One smartphones started to emerge on Amazon, and other secondhand vendors, where the phone was being sold to those willing to pay a higher premium in order to get the phone they wanted. Many buyers were misled, and bought phones from sellers that got their hands on the Chinese variant of the OnePlus One that was not supported on the GSM networks in the United States. This drove down consumer delight scores, as users filed angry reviews about the second hand sellers.

The combination of hungry buyers waiting for OnePlus to refill their buffet stations, and scalpers taking advantage of eager buyers, led to a drop in delight for the company towards the end of October as consumers began to voice the unpleasant experience in OnePlus’s supply chain and useless Chinese variants that are now nothing but expensive paperweights. It is also vital to point out that the drop in delight mostly reflects unhappiness due to limited supply, high prices on Amazon, and consumers that were duped into buying the Chinese variant of the OnePlus One. Overall, those fortunate enough to get their hands on the unicorn phone are still delighted in the One as a viable alternative to the more expensive smartphones on the market.

Argus Insights will continue to keep a close eye on OnePlus and the rest of the smartphone market as the year comes to an end and manufacturers push to move more inventory from retailers into the hands of consumers. To learn more, sign up for our free weekly updates about consumer smartphone perceptions.

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Visit our website to learn more about how Argus Insights can help you understand your consumers. Please contact us for custom analysis, personal consultation, or access to our data.

Rise of the Chinese Smartphone Manufacturers

According to global market intelligence provider TrendForce, Chinese smartphone vendors will rise to “38.6 percent of the worldwide total” of smartphone sales by the end of 2014. As consumer interest is shifting to reasonably priced, lower end smartphones, it is not a surprise to see that users are finding delight outside of Samsung and Apple devices. Chinese companies Huawei, Lenovo, and Xiaomi have not been shy about their aspirations to “become the global top dog,”[1] and Argus Insights found that consumer reviews support this projection. Overall, these Chinese smartphone companies have gained mindshare as customer feedback for Lenovo and Huawei has grown in both volume and positivity since May this year, while Xiaomi saw an increase in review volume and a drop in NPS.

The growth is even more pronounced within the United States smartphone market. Delight levels have soared past global market leaders Apple and Samsung as buzz increased steadily. Adoption of Chinese handsets in the US is slow, but the consumers that are using these phones are reporting satisfaction.

Argus Insights will continue to track Lenovo, Huawei, and Xiaomi’s quest for the hearts and minds of smartphone consumers all over the world. For weekly updates about consumer smartphone perceptions, sign up for our free newsletter.

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Visit our website to learn more about how Argus Insights can help you understand your consumers. Please contact us for custom analysis, personal consultation, or access to our data.

[1] http://www.cnet.com/news/chinese-handsets-account-for-almost-40-percent-of-global-shipments/

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