Apple is attracting more Android users to iOS this year since launching its latest iPhone models, a new survey found. Despite strong signs of a slump in iPhone sales, which have forced Apple to cut production figures and announce it will no longer publish unit sales for iPhone, a survey by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners indicates that the new iPhones’ market force is quite impressive in wooing consumers from the rival smartphone operating system Android.
The report found that Apple’s iPhone XR is leading the campaign. 16 percent of iPhone XR buyers within the period of 30 days after its release upgraded from an Android phone. This surpasses the number of converted Android users within the same period the previous year following iPhone launch. In September 2017, the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus release lured 12 percent of iPhone buyers from Android phone, while iPhone X’s release in November 2017 attracted 11 percent of iPhone buyers from Android phone.
iPhone XR is seemingly serving the purpose of attracting current Android users, said CIRP co-founder Mike Levin in a press release. Though Apple did not disclose its launch strategy, the pricing and features are enough indications to infer that Apple positioned the iPhone XR to attract potential Android operating system switchers, Levin added.
Almost one in every three new iPhones sold in the US is the cheapest new model, the iPhone XR, CIRP report found. iPhone XR sales claimed as much as 32 percent of the total iPhone sales in the US within the first 30 days after its release in October 2018. Within the same period, sales of the pricier models; the iPhone XS and XS Max jointly claimed 35 percent of the total iPhone sales in the US.
In support of the survey result, Apple’s product marketing VP Greg Joswiak last month in an interview with CNET disclosed that the iPhone XR had “been our most popular iPhone each and every day since the day it became available.”
While Apple’s launch strategy this year has paid off, it’s clearer that the US tech giant will refrain from its previous launch strategies to better shape the new working strategy. Apple will critically study what the iPhone XR offers that’s wooing Android users. Well, it’s difficult to accept the trick is not quality at a good price. The question now is if Apple will continue to live up to the strategy or even become more aggressive in sweeping Android users. Apple will surely trade this carefully. Of course, business is for profit.
