Is Apple Losing Its “Rockstar” Status?

Apple just had its biggest release of the year and no one seems to care.  At Argus Insights we track markets , product launches, and companies to quantify how consumers feel about their products and brands.  Over the past decade, Apple has been the darling of the public’s eye, but now seems to hardly be noticed after their biggest product release of the year.  The evidence is in the data – demand for the new iPhone is MUCH lower than anticipated.

Experience tells us that this market response to Apple’s launch is a dramatic disappointment for Apple.  Although Apple claims they sold 9 million handsets within the first three days to “hungry markets,” our analysis indicates this “hunger” is outside the United States since the domestic demand is lagging.  For the American market, such little chatter about Apple may be caused by the fact that the iPhone 5c is being mostly purchased by and for younger consumers, who do not show up as much in social media.

The social media data confirms that the iPhone 5s clearly has outperformed the iPhone 5c.  By mapping comments to geolocations, Argus is able to decipher chatter coming from real people and separate it from chatter generated by corporate marketing sources.  This reiterates the fact that actual humans are mostly silent on the topic of the Apple iPhone 5C.

So what does this mean?  This could mean that the iPhone 5c may be one of the world’s worst smartphone launches this year.  This assertion is supported by evidence from Localytics, which reported the Apple 5s outsold the Apple 5c by 3 to 1.  If this is the case, the implications are significant because a company that has occupied the hearts and minds of consumers over the past years is now starting to fade.  Apple has failed to catch the attention of consumers with its latest phone, which means people are looking to other companies for innovation and alternatives. This may be the dawn of a new era in which Apple products and innovations no longer dominate consumer attention, but instead the competition will take the lead as the new “apple of our eyes.”