The march of the Androids – Apple iPhone pushed into 4th place as Android models dominate online discussion according to social media research specialist DigitalMR

London (PRWEB) January 12, 2012

Social media research specialist DigitalMR releases latest findings on what customers are saying about smartphones on the internet.

DigitalMR analysed over ¼ million customer comments about smartphones across September-October 2011. Nearly two-thirds (62%) of these customer views are positive, compared with 38% negative.

Android models are the most mentioned smartphone brands. Samsung attracts the most mentions with a 30% market share of all positive comments and a 31% share of the smaller, negative comments group. Next placed is HTC with 22% positive mentions and 19% negative, followed by Motorola with 17% positive and 15% negative.

Together, the three Android brands account for two thirds (68%) of all measured online customer comments regarding smartphones.

Although Apple has fewer overall mentions it attracts more negative mentions than Motorola with a 17% share of all negative comments. This may well be related to customers experiencing teething problems when switching over to the new iOS operating system in October.

Results are based on comments posted by consumers on the major smartphone brands: Apple, Motorola, Samsung, RIM (Blackberry), HTC, LG, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Kyocera and HP across Sep-Oct 2011.

Established smartphone models from Apple and RIM (Blackberry) only account for 14% and 7% of total customer comments respectively.

DigitalMR’s analysis (powered by SocialNuggets) is based on comments posted via a range of relevant websites and open access social media platforms. It measures, not only the number of comments posted by consumers on the internet, but also their sentiment – whether posts are positive or negative in nature.

Managing Director of DigitalMR, Michalis Michael commented: “The march of the Androids continues with their increased sales and market share gains being matched by consumers’ conversations online.”

All the brands measured, achieve a positive Net Sentiment Score (NSS) for Sep-Oct. NSS provides an overall percentage score of net positive posts.

The average NSS taken across all the brands measured is 24%. This shows customers are generally very happy with their devices and are sharing the good news online.

Of the three most talked about brands on the web, HTC had a NSS of 31%, followed by 29% for Motorola and a slightly below par score of 23% for Samsung.

The highest NSS is achieved by HP with 50% (although this is derived from a relatively small base number of mentions) followed by Nokia (47%) with the lowest NSS recorded by Sony Erickson (4%) and Apple (6%).

Click here for further data

Features

DigitalMR measures thousands of customer posts regarding the services and features attributed to smartphones.

“Operating system” and “Service provider” features generate the most comments overall. “Operating system” attracted a 17% share of positive mentions which was outweighed by 28% share of negative ones. The next most mentioned feature “Service Provider” produced 23% positive vs 19% negative. “Body” – the design and shape of the handset – received far more positive comment than negative (20% share positive vs just 8% share of negative.

In their words – customer comments sample

Nokia

“excellent choice. It still remains Nokias best phone despite other models released after it. I have one, its the most amazing device and i know i’ll be keeping mine for years and years and with easy free updates for the next five years atleast, its a solid investment”.

http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20111015041838AAnjcKx

Apple

“Agreed! I do feel disappointed – I ordered on the 7th but my order still says processing. Every person I know who wanted a 4S now has one except me – the difference – I’m the only person to pre order directly from apple rather than turn up at a store or get one through my phone company! Seems pretty unfair really!!!!”.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3372464?start=120&tstart=0

Click here for further customer comments and more about web listening reports

Contact

For regular reports and more information:

Michalis A. Michael

mmichael(at)digital-mr(dot)com,

tel: +44 751 571 0370

http://www.digital-mr.com

About DigitalMR

DigitalMR understands what people think and feel when they share views online. It is a specialist agency which provides a holistic approach to web based market research. It specialises in utilising social media research, especially active web-listening, and online communities to enhance its business consulting approach. The agency has pioneered new methods in online focus groups alongside tools such as video diaries, bulletin boards and online ethnography. DigitalMR is headed by founder and MD, Michalis Michael and has offices in London UK, Nicosia Cyprus, and Columbus Ohio, in the US.

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