Android to iPhone trend accelerating
Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) released new data highlighting, among other things, that an increasing number of Android users are making the leap to the iPhone.
AppleInsider was able to access the entirety of the report and relayed a few of the more notable details.
Specifically, CIRP interviewed 400 new iPhone 5s and 5c buyers and found that 20 percent of surveyed respondents were upgrading from Android devices. In 2012, that number was 16 percent.
Also of note, and clearly evident in the chart above, is that many iPhone buyers are already existing iPhone owners. Indeed, the stickiness of the iOS ecosystem is often overlooked when evaluating the significance of smartphone marketshare. As for specific data points, the number of existing iPhone users upgrading to new iPhone models this year checked in at 65 percent, an increase from the 55 percent figure CIRP recorded during last year's iPhone 5 launch.
On a related point, and speaking to the stickiness of the iOS ecosystem once again, CIRP found that just 7 percent of Samsung smartphone buyers were upgrading from iPhones.
There's a lot more data over at AppleInsider that's worth checking out.
On a final note, I think it's important to point out once more that iPhone users, by and large, exhibit more brand loyalty than other smartphone users. While cynics will likely attribute this to "fanbois" or other such nonsense, the reality is that consumers are likely to stick with brands and products that they enjoy and which work well for them.
To that end, smartphone marketshare can be informative, but not necessarily as instructive as it would otherwise appear. In short, Apple doesn't busy itself trying to amass market share, however temporary, to appear like a popular brand in surveys. On the contrary, Apple is more concerned with the type of user it attracts than the sheer volume of users that other companies are seemingly preoccupied with.
