This characteristic was measured by calculating how many people ended up purchasing a new phone within the same brand every 12 months, with Apple being pitted against Samsung, LG, Motorola, and an “other” category (see graph above).
Now, this could be a result of Apple’s smartly curated ecosystem—once you own a couple of Apple’s gadgets, it’s very difficult to break away from the convenience of devices that work and sync together so well, and people often eventually end up buying more.
We think it’s safe to say that Apple has managed to make its brand something of a status symbol.
It’s truly a peculiar foothold the company has gained and maintained not only on American society but on an international level, where many of their gadgets are just affordable enough for the majority of western society to afford, and are held in equal high esteem by people from all different walks of life.
On the other hand, Apple users’ “loyalty” could also be simple lack of choice, to a certain extent. Once you set up an iCloud account, all your activity is locked into Apple’s ecosystem—your apps come from Apple’s iPhone App Store, and your backed-up data is all tied to Apple’s own operating system.
For the record, over the past three years, Samsung has kept a hold on 54% of Android-running handsets on the market, and boasts 31% of all smartphone sales in the United States (compared to Apple’s 43%).
So, what do you think? If you fall into the group of people who upgraded within the same brand in the last three years, we’d love to hear your reasons for staying true—is it loyalty, or something else?
