Apple seems to be looking at some tough times ahead as its most important asset declines steadily. Most people agree that what Apple has going for it is customer loyalty, so once somebody gets the iPhone, they are most likely going to purchase the next iPhone or other Apple products, but recent statistical data suggests that Apple is losing customer loyalty steadily as Android becomes stronger and more popular, the question that haunts the minds of many consumers and analysts across the globe is if Midas is losing its golden touch?
The main cause linked to this loss in customer loyalty has been identified as negative press; statistically now only 88% of iPhone owners within the United States are likely to purchase an iPhone which is about 5% less than the study conducted in 2011, when 93% of iPhone users were sure that their next handset would be the iPhone. The phenomenon is even more pronounced in the western hemisphere, where only 75% of iPhone users plan to continue with the brand as compared to 88% in 2011, which is a 13% fall! Apple needs to figure out how they are not only going to retain but also enhance customer loyalty if they want to beat the king of the Android market: Samsung, as well as the many Windows Phone 8 launches this season.
Consumers seem to be quite fickle minded as Android continued to gain market share across Europe in the 12 weeks that ended on the 30th of September; in the same period Google cornered 67% market share as compared to its 51% in the previous year, whereas iOS slipped to 16.5%.
Not only is Apple losing customer loyalty, Android has now become a very viable alternative to the iPhone, especially with its new voice search features (competition for Siri). Google has launched its enhanced voice search software which has finally made it to the markets 3 months after its demo. The software is apparently quite similar to the functionality of Google’s search software in Android as a part of Jelly Bean and makes Apple’s Siri look quite much slower and less accurate in a test run conducted recently.
Not only were the results for Google’s voice search software much faster, the queries while being spoken showed voice transcriptions as well . Siri does not do the same until the query is finished.This new feature is being integrated into Google’s search services and is expected to support the iPhone 5 and iOS 4.2 and above.
