Apple enjoys a cult-like loyalty among its fans. In fact, over the years, the brand loyalty of Apple fans across the globe have helped them earn various titles such as ‘sheeple’ and ‘fanboys’. However, a new study on brand loyalty by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) suggests otherwise.
According to the new study — Android users have higher brand loyalty than iOS users.
The group found out that on switching to a new smartphone, 91 percent Android users stay with the brand, while only 86 percent stay with iOS. While the difference in brand loyalty might be minimal, the report states that Android’s brand loyalty has been on a steady rise since March 2014 and overtook iOS in September 2014.
“Over time, Android loyalty gradually increased, as it achieved parity in the availability of apps, music and video, and as the user experience on the two platforms became more similar. Android users also benefit from a wide range of phones from different manufacturers, so they can switch hardware without learning a new operating system,” partner and co-founder of CIPR, Mike Levin said in the press statement.
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The report further said with fewer first-time buyers, legacy smartphone OS and basic phone users, Android and iOS operating systems compete in the market more aggressively than ever before such that they gain and lose users to the other OS. Interestingly, the rate of switching between Android and iOS operating systems is different than the absolute number of users that switch between the two operating systems.
“We know Android has a larger base of users than iOS, and because of that larger base, the absolute number of users that switch to iOS from Android is as large or larger than the absolute number of users that switch to Android from iOS. Looking at the absolute number of users in this way tends to support claims that iOS gains more former Android users than Android does former iOS users,” Levin added.
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Interestingly, this report takes further a February 2018 report by a data research firm Gartner, which highlighted the percentage of the market captured by both the operating system. According to its data, Android had a market share of 85.9 percent, which accounted for 1,320,118.1 devices, in 2017, while iOS just captured 14 percent of the total market, which accounted for a total of 214,924.9 devices globally.
