Attend an Argus Insights Webinar on Tuesday, October 7, 2014, about Q3 demand straight from the mouths of global consumers. Argus Insights CEO John Feland will share secrets pulled from the hearts and minds of millions of consumers that anticipate smartphone demand at a free webinar on how consumers are shaping the future of the smartphone market.
Join us for insights on how the release and subsequent scandals surrounding the Apple iPhone 6 affected other smartphone releases from Samsung and Amazon at this hour long webinar. Can Apple recover from #bendgate, #hairgate, and iOS8 bugs to reign supreme once again?
Find out Tuesday, Oct 7 by joining Argus Insights!
The smartphone market seems to have paused in anticipation for Apple’s iPhone 6 launch. As has been the trend before with big Apple launches, consumers took a breath while awaiting what Apple had in store.
The chart below maps consumer mindshare across different major brands in the smartphone market. It is clear that mindshare overall dropped about a week before Apple’s new product launch on September 9th. While at first glance this trend could appear to indicate a lack of interest in smartphones, it actually demonstrates how consumers are willing to drop everything to wait for Apple’s new toys. While this is beneficial for Apple, it is not for Samsung who suffered a steep drop in mindshare, and Motorola, and LG which remained mostly stagnant after Apple merely announced their announcement of new products.
While other brands experienced a steady decline before Apple’s announcement, Apple saw a slight increase in the weeks leading up to it. This increase was caused by retailers lowering the price on old iPhone models to clear the shelves before news of the iPhone 6 broke. If the retailers did get people to upgrade to 5S iPhones with promotions just weeks ago, Apple will have a few disgruntled customers to deal with. Verizon and other retailers are already offering promotions to encourage people to upgrade to the iPhone 6, because that is crucial for the new Apple Pay system to thrive. With the sale of almost 4 million iPhone 6s in pre-sale, it appears as if Apple has once again shaken the market awake after sending it into anticipatory hibernation.
Argus Insightswill continue to investigate the effects of the iPhone 6 on the smartphone market, sign up today to receive reports on a regular basis.
With the annual consumer electronics convention IFA right around the corner, tech companies are scrambling to catch consumer’s attention. Countless new product teasers are being released, but Lenovo’s teaser for its new Vibe X2 smartphone is creating quite a buzz.
The image of a lollipop is a nod to the upcoming Android L (it’s rumored codename being lollipop) and the tagline “we can’t say anything either” is a play on Apple’s recent comment “wish we could say more” with regard to the iPhone 6. Assuming the participating companies do not want to give away details about their products before they are launched, they are relying on these clever marketing techniques to peak consumer interests.
This teaser appeared to be instrumental in creating discussion about the new Vibe X2. People tweeted about Lenovo’s subtle jabs at Apple and Android, and in return created a notable peak in interest surrounding the Vibe X2. By sharing articles that speculated the meaning behind the Vibe X2 teaser, along with personal inquiries about Lenovo’s new smartphone, the advertisement was successful at getting consumer’s talking. In the competitive smartphone market, Lenovo found a way to use the prominence of other popular companies to move the focus to their announcement.
Amazon’s Fire Phone lit into the hands of users late last week. As typical Amazon customers, early Fire users were not shy about sharing their views with others. But unlike Kindle Fire Tablet customers, Fire Phone users are not ablaze with desire for more of their new handsets. Bad fire puns aside, new users flamed Amazon with some of the lowest delight scores we’ve seen for a new phone launch this year.
In fact, when compared to the Kindle Fire Tablets, this is the lowest delight scores we’ve seen for Amazon.
What gives? Is the Fire Phone doomed to spark interest in smartphone consumers? The early data is not very promising. As we get more insights as to the why, of course we’ll share them here.
Though it hasn’t been the main thrust of our business at Argus Insights, every quarter we round up our mobile data to see who is winning the battle for hearts, minds and wallets. Since we use public data mined by listening to consumers themselves, we’re able to judge the quarter almost immediately after it closes. These metrics have been successful in beating Wall Street estimates for both iPhone and Samsung smartphone demand almost every quarter for the last two years.