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Apple has the world's second most loyal users — after Netflix

A study of brand loyalty claims that Apple users are enormously more loyal that Samsung owners, but they're both easily beaten by Netflix.

It's previously been claimed by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP), that Apple has the most loyal smartphone customers in the US, and that it's better at getting people to switch from Android. Now, though, a global survey of brand loyalty says Samsung is 24th on the list, Apple is 2nd, and Netflix is 1st.

"When it comes to brand loyalty, Samsung beats Apple on awareness, with scores of 1.01 and 0.82 respectively," say researchers at British energy, technology, and legal firm Bionic. "But when it comes to reputation and impression, Apple ranks significantly higher than its Korean competitor, who falls short especially on brand stability with a score of only 1.15 compared to Apple's 2.62."

Bionic's methodology comprised analysing data from UK polling firm YouGov, plus search demand and social media statistics. It also focused only on what it describes as household name companies.

That means for a chiefly business to business firm, it chose to explore only consumer loyalty. Then despite its claims of tracking global brand loyalty, the results include names such as John Lewis, Debenhams, and Sainsbury's that are comparatively little known outside the UK.

"[A] recent [unnamed] study showing that 92.6% of iPhone users plan to stick with Apple for their next phone, which is compared to only 74.6% of Samsung users," says Bionic. "64% of iPhone users have stated that they are highly unlikely to switch to another phone brand in the future."

Bionic ascribes this to "Apple's brand image, quality, reliability, and customer service."

Apple is still beaten by Netflix, which Bionic says "unsurprisingly ranks highly... [in] brand awareness with a score of 0.79, loyalty at 2.98, impression at 4.35 and reputation at 3.62."

"This combined with social media and Google search analysis gave Netflix the highest ranking score of 78.57 out of 100," it concludes.

Apart from saying Samsung comes 24th in the list of brands with the most loyal users, Bionic only lists a top 20. There are three technology firms in that list with Apple at number 2, Amazon at number 3, and Microsoft at number 11.

Recently, a US-based survey from Statista, Apple edged out Samsung for loyalty, but few Google Pixel owners responded, and 57% said they were likely to switch.



8 Comments

bloggerblog 16 Years · 2520 comments

I wouldn't associate auto-renew services with "loyal". Also, once one is subscribed to one network, they would probably just stick with it. Netflix was the first and the name is synonymous with internet videos. Every smart TV has it preinstalled.

chasm 10 Years · 3624 comments

I’m “loyal” in that I have Apple One which includes Apple TV+. Hardly ever watch anything on there though…

Not to foster FOMO, but you are missing out on some great television over there. While not every show on Apple TV+ is to my taste, there isn't a "dud" in the bunch these days -- it's just a matter of what's my main interest at this time. It's lovely to have a service where you know *everything* is well-made and well-funded, with excellent casts and visionary writers. "All killer, no filler" as the saying goes.

chasm 10 Years · 3624 comments

Netflix was the first and the name is synonymous with internet videos. Every smart TV has it preinstalled.

I was on Netflix in the early days, when they had more variety, but every year I look around to see if it can woo me back, and every year my main thoughts are "this is just like bad commercial TV, only without the commercials." Too much junk, not enough things I would be interested in, by tastes vary of course and mine are probably off the mainstream.

danox 11 Years · 3442 comments

Apple TV Channel, PBS, Netflix, and Brit Box, if there was a Nordic Channel I would join that too. Four channels is my limit. I don’t particularly like Apple being in content, but Apple did do the right thing by building up from the ground and not buying any of those existing failed studios.

kdupuis77 15 Years · 160 comments

chasm said:
Netflix was the first and the name is synonymous with internet videos. Every smart TV has it preinstalled.
I was on Netflix in the early days, when they had more variety, but every year I look around to see if it can woo me back, and every year my main thoughts are "this is just like bad commercial TV, only without the commercials." Too much junk, not enough things I would be interested in, by tastes vary of course and mine are probably off the mainstream.

I tapped out of Netflix 3 years ago and recently took a week free trial just to see how it was nowadays... Oh man, you aren't kidding on scraping the bottom of the barrel! Browsing through Netflix now feels like looking through the $3 DVD bins at the local WalMart haha... Just terrible, heck even Amazon Prime video has more worthwhile stuff in it to watch now.