Smartphones

OnePlus Stimulates Demand by Delighting Consumers, Amazon Should Take Notes

OnePlus is a smartphone manufacturer that exclusively sells its bargain high-end One Plus One. This phone is only available for purchase with an invitation, but that has not stopped 500,000 consumers from purchasing it over the past 8 months. OnePlus has grown a solid base of promoters by providing a quality phone at a good price (they only make $10 profit per handset) and despite a limited inventory and weak supply chain, “Android fans have been clamoring for the limited invites” to purchase the OnePlus One.[1] This Cinderella story juxtaposes curtly with Amazon’s failed launch of the Fire Phone. The differences in success can be attributed to the vast dissimilarity in consumer experience. While both handsets were the sole smartphone launched by each manufacturer, the sparse OnePlus early adopters were delighted by a surprisingly cheap, capable handset, while Amazon Fire Phone adopters paid a whole lot for a Pandora’s Box of problems. Consumer reaction to these respective launch journeys is captured in the graph below. Delight around the OnePlus One slowly increased even though buzz volume remained fairly low, while consumers became less delighted by the Fire Phone as more and more people talked about it.

OnePlus One Delight Skyrocketed as Fire Phone Delight Fell

So how did the previously unknown OnePlus beat the most popular retailer on the block in smartphone sales? They are building their “brand around bargain hardware and online buzz,” driven by a quality product that pleases their customers. [2] Brand awareness can attract consumers, as it did initially for Amazon, but if they are not delighted, early adopters are destined to become the only adopters. OnePlus is taking advantage of happy customers to develop as a company despite limited supply and lack of initial profit. They plan to sell 1 million OnePlus One phones by the end of 2014,[3] and Argus Insights will continue to track their progress.

To learn more about where OnePlus and Amazon fall in the smartphone market according to consumers (spoiler alert: OnePlus was the most delightful brand of September), take a look at our Monthly Smartphone Reports. If you want just a Wink^TM of insights to keep you informed between blogs and reports, sign up for our Free Weekly Newsletter.

Argus Insights provides individualized analysis, custom reports, personal consolation, and data access for several sectors of consumer technology, appliances, home automation, and more, please contact us with specific inquiries.

[1] http://www.engadget.com/2014/11/06/oneplus-smartphone-sales/?ncid=rss_truncated
[2] http://www.cnet.com/news/oneplus-ships-500000-phones-targets-one-million-by-year-end/
[3] http://www.cnet.com/news/oneplus-ships-500000-phones-targets-one-million-by-year-end/

Webinar Monday 11/17: Black Friday Bargains Do Not Always Equal Brilliant Buys

The Black Friday advertising has already started to hit consumers in full force. Every year for the past few decades, retailers have ratcheted up the deals and steals used to temp consumers to shake off their post Thanksgiving food comas and shuffle like the walking dead to their retail outlets in the twilight of the early morning hours before any self respecting rooster would consider it polite to greet the rising sun. The sequel to this mass retail migration to participate in the largest mixed martial arts contest with your fellow holiday cheer bringer is the equally frenzied Cyber Monday sales during which Amazon’s bandwidth and electricity consumption for a single 24 hour period could power all of Latin America for a year. Are the millions spent by retailers to extract billions from our pockets in these magical 8 days each year focused on the right products? Is that laptop priced at $150 really worth knee surgery you’ll have to schedule after the holidays due to injuries sustained while clawing it from the hands of that nice grandmother that lives down your street? Is a new myPad you got for under $300 really going to drive smiles come January?

Argus Insights separates the hype from the reality in our first annual Black Friday Hit Parade webinar. Pulling on the insights gathered from the most important voices in retail, consumers themselves. Argus Insights CEO, Dr. John Feland, will walk through the hottest products on the market today. Based not on what the brands are promising or the pundits are selling, but on what is delighting consumers. See if the new iPhones are all that, what is the best tablet for hard fought recession dollars, whether Chromebooks really replace laptops for consumers, and more. With data on over 7,000 products across over 400 brands, Argus Insights will identify likely winners of the holiday shopping frenzy and uncover hidden gems that are better candidates for the top of holiday wish lists than the dominant brands.

Why pay attention to Argus Insights? Our metrics of consumer adoption have embarrassed Wall Street estimates of iPhone sales almost every quarter for the last three years. While others track the hottest brands, we measure what consumers decide are the hottest experiences, a proven predictor of market success.

Get insightful with Argus on November 17, 2014 and join via webinar us as we cover a variety of popular product segments that consumers camp out for: 2-in-1s, laptops, tablets, wearables, smartphones and appliances.

Reserve your spot with us today by clicking here!

Apple is Winning the Popularity Contest in China, and Has Been For A While

According to the China Brand Research Center’s 2014 China Brand Power Index, Apple replaced Samsung as the leader in the Chinese mobile sector this year. These results were garnered through polling about brand awareness and loyalty. Argus Insights found that Apple’s usurpation of Samsung’s top spot in the Chinese market was inevitable. Consumer review data proves that China Unicom customers have been more delighted by Apple than by Samsung for over a year now.

Apple Has Had A Higher Delight Score Than Samsung in the Chinese Smartphone Market For The Past Year

Argus Insights data preceded the results of the poll as consumer experience foretold subsequent brand perception. Apple has been consistently better delighting consumers in the Chinese market, and as this trend persists, Apple as a brand is becoming increasingly popular. CNet analysis suggests that Samsung is losing favor “due to a focus on market share leading to falling consumer loyalty,”[1] and Argus Insights tracks exactly that. Samsung is continuing to acquire higher review volumes, but is failing to please individual customers, as much as Apple is, in the process. Brand indexes tend to lag market performance as hope in the brand promise persists even after brands fail to deliver on that promise as was the case with Samsung.

Argus Insights listens to consumers to track how mindshare relates to marketshare. We have found on several occasions that consumer delight, as calculated from reviews, is a strong indicator of adoption and loyalty, as it was for Apple in the Chinese smartphone market. Read about how this affected Samsung’s big screen TV sales during the holiday season of 2009, and how Argus Insights helped Samsung sell more TVs, in our case study: Samsung Discovers Their True Competition to Improve Sales.

For more information about how to harness consumer feedback to improve your business, personalized analysis, data access, or individual consultation, please contact Argus Insights. To see the effect of Apple’s iPhone 6 and 6 Plus launch on the Smartphone Market, take a look at our September Smartphone Market Report.

For just a Wink^TMof insights to stay informed between blog posts, sign up for our Free Weekly Newsletter.

[1] http://www.cnet.com/news/apple-replaces-samsung-as-top-mobile-brand-in-china/

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