With smartphone survey info, it’s always a tough call between “the glass is half empty or full” analyses. Such is the case with a new study of 1,500 US smartphone owners by MKM Partners on brand awareness. The survey asked about what consumers know about current smartphone trends and their future buying plans.
Microsoft’s Windows Phone did not do terrible but it’s still not ideal either. For instance, out of the 1,500 respondents, a full 60% did not even know that Windows Phone 8 had launched. By comparison, 83% did not know about BlackBerry 10 hitting Canada and Europe.
But in fairness to BlackBerry, their US launch coincided with the survey, which took place over the last three weeks, so perhaps that knowledge should not be expected by average, non-techy folks. Compare that to Windows Phone 8, which was available since last November and clearly Microsoft should have the upper hand for advertising and brand awareness. On the other hand, these numbers reveal that it is BlackBerry whom have the most catching up to do.
Nokia was also singled out as having low association with Windows Phone, which should not be too surprising since they never ever mention “Windows Phone” in their advertising, instead focusing on their “Lumia” brand. For future purchase intentions, 4.4% of the respondents are considering a BlackBerry but only 0.7% for Nokia. In the US, Nokia has never been a big player here, and although a lot of people have heard of them, their Symbian smartphones have always been a blip on the radar of carriers.
Clearly Nokia has a lot of work to do to, but if HTC can go from ODM to OEM, garnering 3.1% for future purchases, then undoubtedly Nokia (who is more media savvy) can do the same.
The good news here is a full 44.5% are unsure of what their next purchase will be, which leaves wiggle room for either Microsoft or BlackBerry to woo potential new customers. In terms of robustness and prime selection of devices, we’re of course betting on Windows Phone but one cannot deny BlackBerry’s name and legacy unambiguously has long legs.
We should be cautious of such survey's though because since we don't have precedent to compare it to it's hard to judge trends in a proper context.
