The smartphone industry witnessed a tremendous growth in the past few months. The increase in demand appeared to have been more towards the want for a smartphone rather than a simple one. A survey conducted by ChangeWave to view the consumer demand popped up surprising results on this front. The company took into account two smartphones mainly Apple’s iPhone 4 and the HTC Droid Incredible and centered on gauging the impact of these phones and other smartphones.
Including about 4,028 consumers, it was completed on June 24 and suggested that the next 90 days displayed a seemingly high growth in consumer smartphone sales record. The rising demand for Apple and HTC was interestingly found to affect the sales of Motorola and RIM. The transformation in mobile OS preferences is said to have influenced the demand for the Apple OS which claims to have grown while appeal for the RIM OS declined. Reportedly, the smartphone growth hints that 16.4% respondents planned to purchase a smartphone in the next 90 days. This number is apparently higher when pitted against the overall buying plans seen during the iPhone 3GS release about a year ago.
As per the research, the smart phone market share indicates that Apple has increased its share by 34% and is up by 1-pt since the March survey. RIM continues to be at 34% and seems to have decreased by 4-pts. Android-based phones continue to be in demand with HTC covering 8% of the market share as gained by The Droid Incredible and EVO models. Motorola remains unchanged as it maintains itself with a 6% share.
From the perspective of future buying plans, the most demanding phones will be the ones by Apple and HTC. Apple’s iPhone 4 seems to have changed the graph of the industry at 52% and one-in-two consumers plan to purchase the phone in the next 90 days. This demand increases by 21-pts over previous surveys. HTC claims to have grown by a 19% share with a 7-pt increase. Compared to the previous reports, Motorola has gone down with a 9% share and 7-pt decrease.
The most affected phone company appears to be RIM with a mere 6% market share, registering a fall of 8-pt. The latter is claimed to be the lowest level of the company ever in a ChangeWave survey. Palm seems to fare even worse and registers a less than 1% share. As far as customer satisfaction is concerned Apple’s iPhone has hit the jackpot as 73% of users are reported to be quite happy with their phones. The second position is taken by HTC at 39% followed by Motorola and Palm both at 34%. RIM has moved down to the sixth position with 30% which is their seventh constant quarterly down fall.
The survey concluded that Apple with its new iPhone 4 and the iOS 4 has created a new wave amongst consumers. Additionally, HTC is rising with its Android OS phones like Droid Incredible and the new EVO 4G. With the combination strengths of these two companies users’ interest in purchasing smartphones only seems to be surging.