Find Out Which Brands and Products were the Biggest Winners in Barcelona
Argus Insights has been monitoring social conversations at this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Before MWC, we hosted a webinar highlighting the brands and products that drove the most mindshare heading into the showcase, for which the slides and presentation are now available to download. Simply fill out the form and we’ll send that your way immediately.
Now that the event has passed, find out which brands, products, and tech trends were sparking interest during MWC. Argus Insights would also like to offer a free Post MWC 2015 Report (usually valued at $3,000) as a gift. The stories that we are finding are just too good that we believe everyone can benefit from the data. The world is talking and we’re listening, take advantage of our comprehensive analysis:
Discover what topics are most important to consumers
Examine market trends and consumer preferences
Gain actionable insight
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In November we covered the new kids on the block in the smartphone market, Chinese manufacturer OnePlus. Their goal was to disrupt the market by selling high-end smartphones for more than half the price of Apple, Samsung, HTC, etc. They succeeded in driving awareness to their campaign and gained approval from the consumers who took notice of their budget friendly smartphone, which boasts the same high-end features that are sought after in the iPhones and Samsung Galaxy phones.
OnePlus got off to a fast start as consumer demand quickly overwhelmed the limited supply of smartphones available. Due to the fact that the company is microscopic compared to the juggernauts in the industry, careful planning and strategic production were essential in growing the company and lowering the risk of bankruptcy. OnePlus came up with an invite system for consumers that were interested in purchasing the One, which allowed them to only produce what they can sell to prevent excess inventory. Lucky adopters that got their hands on an invite purchased the phone and delight numbers grew rapidly.
Unfortunately, success sometimes is a double-edged sword, being that high praise and reviews led to demand magnifying at a rate that OnePlus could not keep up with. Consumers were left wanting to get their hands on the product, and found it almost impossible to get an invite. The struggle led to frustration, and that frustration gave way to sellers that took advantage the limited supply. OnePlus One smartphones started to emerge on Amazon, and other secondhand vendors, where the phone was being sold to those willing to pay a higher premium in order to get the phone they wanted. Many buyers were misled, and bought phones from sellers that got their hands on the Chinese variant of the OnePlus One that was not supported on the GSM networks in the United States. This drove down consumer delight scores, as users filed angry reviews about the second hand sellers.
The combination of hungry buyers waiting for OnePlus to refill their buffet stations, and scalpers taking advantage of eager buyers, led to a drop in delight for the company towards the end of October as consumers began to voice the unpleasant experience in OnePlus’s supply chain and useless Chinese variants that are now nothing but expensive paperweights. It is also vital to point out that the drop in delight mostly reflects unhappiness due to limited supply, high prices on Amazon, and consumers that were duped into buying the Chinese variant of the OnePlus One. Overall, those fortunate enough to get their hands on the unicorn phone are still delighted in the One as a viable alternative to the more expensive smartphones on the market.
Argus Insights will continue to keep a close eye on OnePlus and the rest of the smartphone market as the year comes to an end and manufacturers push to move more inventory from retailers into the hands of consumers. To learn more, sign up for our free weekly updates about consumer smartphone perceptions.
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There has been a new development in the failed launch of the Amazon Fire phone. It has been reported that a majority of negative consumer reviews for the Amazon Fire phone are a result of a Green Peace inspired protest, and are written by “environmentalists unhappy with the fact that Amazon’s massive cloud computing infrastructure is powered by coal.” Here at Argus Insights, we have been tracking consumer perception of the Fire phone since its launch. After investigating the nature of negative reviews we found that while Green Peace inspired negative reviews did impact unfavorable perception, plenty of consumer disapproval stemmed from other issues with the phone.
After sorting out the Amazon Fire phone reviews driven by the Green Peace protest, the lack of consumer satisfaction remains evident. The Green Peace ‘spam storm’ temporarily drove down the product delight score, but the impact of those negative reviews were quickly normalized.
Argus Insights is dedicated to providing quality data. After taking Green Peace’s protest of the Amazon Fire phone into account, we can confidently report that unhappy environmentalists were not its ultimate downfall. For more information about how product perception is influenced by social scandal, access to our data, or for custom reports on any product, brand, or market we cover, please contact Argus Insights.
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Scott Moritz’s coverage of AT&T’s recent miss of Wall Street expectations is just another bit of evidence that launching a new handset on AT&T’s network has not worked out well for AT&T or the handset manufacturer. The graph below demonstrates that AT&T is not alone in this descent, as every Smartphone retailer except T Mobile saw a drop in consumer delight from Q2 to Q3. As retailers are fighting to maintain subscribers, it appears they are sacrificing service as their new and current consumers are reportedly less satisfied.
After Amazon’s Fire Phone underperformed earlier this year with AT&T as its exclusive retailer, the bad news keeps coming. While AT&T is still the most loved retailer on this chart, they saw a drastic drop in NPS. AT&T saw a growth of “785,000 monthly subscribers,” but they are losing revenue as “7 percent of customers…brought their own devices instead of buying one.” This, along with other factors, reportedly drove the average AT&T customer bill (excluding installment payments) down 8%. The Quarter brought less money for AT&T, less new handset sales for manufactures, and less delight for consumers.
Consumer delight is dropping across retailers in the Smartphone market as retailers are participating in a “pricing battle” to “protect their subscriber base.” Argus Insights will continue to track this battle in the smartphone market and keep you updated. For more information about any retailer, brand, or product across any of the sectors we cover, please contact Argus Insights. If you interested in free weekly insights about Smartphones, Wearables, or Home Automation, sign up for our Weekly Newsletter.
Takashi Mochizuki recently published an article that Sony has once again cut their sales targets for mobile devices, which was a prudent move for Sony given the global competition they face. But hold in there, they aren’t dead yet. Our analysis shows that Sony has actually gained Mindshare in Q3 2014, just not at a rate to move the needle on quarterly expectations. Sony still lags behind all other handset brands in terms of buzz volume, but saw a spike in Net Promoter Score. This means that while their products are not widely discussed, the few consumers reviewing them are delighted. Motorola experienced a similar resurgence thanks to the Moto G and Moto X. The increasing delight surrounding Sony and Motorola show that consumers do not need the prestige that comes with an iPhone of Galaxy smartphone; in fact, they are enjoying less popular handsets more.
Pitting Sony against smartphone giants Apple and Samsung in terms of consumer interest paints a grim picture. However, if we measure Sony against themselves, it is clear that their mindshare is growing. The thin grey line above the giant block that is Samsung represents consumer interest by way of review volume for Sony Smartphones over the past 2 years. This line is slowly but surely growing thicker as Sony is commanding more interest.
While Sony is clearly not as popular as Apple and Samsung, they are seeing a different type of growth. People cannot stop talking about iPhones and Galaxy phones in general, but consumers cannot stop saying good things about Sony smartphones. It is one thing to be popular, but a few delighted allies can go a long way.
We will continue to track Sony’s progress along with consumer perceptions of Motorola, Apple, Samsung, and others. Please contact Argus Insights if you would like more specific information regarding any smartphone brands or products, or information about any other sectors we cover. If you want more information about the market as a whole, you can order our Monthly Smartphone Report or sign up for our free Weekly Newsletter. Let us tell you how to make consumers happy to make your business even happier.