News
Nielsen: iPhone 4S helps to close sales gap with Android
By Charles Starrett
Contributing Editor
Published: Wednesday, January 18, 2012
News Categories: iPhone
According to the latest research from Nielsen, the launch of the iPhone 4S had an “enormous impact” on the percentage of new smartphone purchasers who bought an iPhone. Among recent acquirers—those who said they got a new device within the past three months—44.5 percent of those surveyed in December said they chose an iPhone, compared to just 25.1 percent in October. Interestingly, the same metric for Android buyers dropped over that same period, from 61.6 percent in October to 46.9 percent in December. In addition, 57 percent of new iPhone owners surveyed in December said the bought an iPhone 4S. Overall, 46 percent of U.S. mobile consumers had smartphones as of Q4 2011, with 60 percent of recent purchasers choosing a smartphone over a feature phone. [via Fortune]
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1
I doubt that it’s the iPhone 4S per se that’s responsible, more like the new “free with contract” price for the iPhone 3GS. Although it makes little objective sense since the $99 the 3GS cost before the 4S was announced amounted to only about 5% of the total ownership costs, data phone users have proven remarkably math adverse. Now that the major brand is free as well, the trend seems to be that iOS could even start outselling Android again this year; interesting.
Posted by Code Monkey in Midstate New York on January 18, 2012 at 7:23 AM (PST)
2
I switched from a Droid X2 to the 4s on Verizon. I think there are several reasons for the change in momentum:
- Many Verizon customers were smart enough to not buy the 4 in April but instead wait for a new iPhone
- Sprint
- Switchers (like me) from Android. I have used Android since the first Droid came out. While the specs have gotten better, Android phones have gotten buggier and (at least for Motorola) have worse displays. The new phones are also very buggy and unstable.
- iOS 5 with dual core in the 4S. I did not like iOS compared to Android until I could task-swap quickly and have good notifications. The 4s has killer hardware that beats just about every Android phone in responsiveness, stability, usability, quality, and the camera.
Posted by John C on January 18, 2012 at 8:12 AM (PST)