Most loyal smartphone users
Apple users are the most satisfied with, and most loyal to the iPhone brand, though its closest competitor, Samsung, still absorbs the most device-hopping customers.
These were the findings from the WDS Mobile Loyalty Audit for 2014, which tracked customer satisfaction responses from over 4,000 mobile customers across 30 mobile networks in four countries, including South Africa.
According to the findings by WDS, a Xerox company, Apple customers expressed the greatest level of satisfaction with their devices – with 70% of all iPhone customers surveyed expressing high levels of satisfaction, while only 6% expressed low satisfaction.
Motorola, Samsung and Sony follow Apple, with 69%, 64% and 60% of highly satisfied customers, respectively.
Device satisfaction is highest in the first six months of ownership, according to WDS, where 65% of customers expressed that they were highly satisfied during this period. This falls to 58% from month seven onwards, the group found.
Device customer satisfaction
When it comes to brand loyalty, Apple users were once again found to be standing strong behind the company.
Globally, Apple leads brand retention, with 75% of its customers replacing their device with another Apple device. Samsung managed to achieve a 54% retention rate – the second highest rate.
“As the frequency with which customers replace their smartphones increases, brand loyalty becomes a vital measure for device manufacturers,” WDS said.
“On average, 58% of customers indicated that they will switch brands when it’s time to replace their device.”
Competing brands pale in comparison to Apple and Samsung’s dominance, with device makers such as HTC, LG and Sony only able to retain under 30% of their customers.
Device customer retention
“Despite ground-breaking features and high marketing spend, competing smartphones have a difficult task ahead if they are to break the Apple and Samsung duopoly,” WDS said.
Samsung, however, is the overall winner when it comes to migrating customers, with 33% of all switching customers heading to the Samsung stable of devices.
Counter to the global trend, in South Africa, BlackBerry remains a strong player in the market, with 36% of all switching customers moving to a BlackBerry device in the review period.
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