Two recent studies in North America (US, Canada, and Mexico) and the UK revealed rising interest among mobile users in Apple’s forthcoming model of iPhone.
According to the study conducted by mobile ad network InMobi, 41% of mobile phone users plan to buy the iPhone 5, half of them will not wait more than 6 months to make their purchase.
The study goes on to indicate that this interest will go down significantly if Apple only announces an upgrade to the existing model (and this is what has happened). “If this does turn out to be the case, not more than 11 percent of clients will remain interested in a possible iPhone 4S/4GS,” the study states.
The study further says that 51% of current iPhone owners would switch to the iPhone 5 but that only 11% of them would choose a so-called iPhone 4S. A somewhat similar set of data was collected in UK too.
The expectations from Apple event on Tuesday were sky high. But the announcement of an upgraded iPhone has disappointed mobile users and tech analysts in India too.
“Tough for me to really express how truely disappointed i am. after steve jobs…apple really did need a earth shaking game changing iphone 5,” tweeted leading Indian news channel NDTV’s Technology Editor Rajiv Makhni.
“How do you follow up a hit product like the iPhone 4? Slap a S at the end and tell people it plays Angry Birds faster,” tweeted a gadget enthusiast Prateek Mansharamani.
“That’s why Apple’s stock was down 5% at one point after the announcement. Apple definitely underwhelmed, and the failure of the company to release another game-changing design at the first launch announcement after Steve Jobs announced he was stepping down as CEO will filtered through fears that, without his obsessive drive, the company will lose its edge. Steve Jobs was about inspiring design, not about faster hardware stuffed into last year’s gadget,” Tech expert Kevin Anderson wrote on Firstpost, a leading Indian news portal.
Apple’s market share in the Indian markets is already under threat with reports that the iPhone-maker is way behind Nokia and BlackBerry in terms of smartphone sales in India.
According to Framingham, a Massachusetts-based researcher IDC, the figures for the Indian smartphone market share for the second quarter of 2011 are: Apple 2.6%, BlackBerry 15%, Samsung Electronics 21%, and Nokia 46%.
So, while Research in Motion’s (RIM) BlackBerry is losing its market share in global markets, it is actually way ahead of Apple in India, considered to be the world’s second largest mobile phone market. Also, smartphone shipments to India are expected to grow almost 70% a year until 2015 and if Apple wants to expand its global presence, they need to come up with a strategy for the Indian market.
Apart from its high prices (around $406 for iPhone 3GS and $705 for iPhone 4), the other main reason for less enthusiasm towards the iPhone is the limited wireless network infrastructure in the country.
The data speeds offered by the telecom networks are not fast enough to utilize all the functionalities the phone has to offer. And same will be the case with iPhone 4S. The 3G network has just been introduced in India and it will be a while before 4G comes into effect.
