14 DAY TRIAL // A survey by UK company SIMOnlyContracts suggests that iPhone owners are suffering from a form of mental illness: “blind loyalty.” The company also wonders how long can Apple keep users hooked.
The survey asked around 2,000 iPhone owners how they ended up using Apple’s smartphone. Some said they’d switched from a BlackBerry, while others admitted that iOS was the only mobile operating system they wanted to use.
Whichever reason they had for owning an iPhone, pretty much everyone was diagnosed with “blind loyalty.”
Roshan Bholah, founder of SIMOnlyContracts, said “It’s really interesting to discover this blind loyalty amongst iPhone users – they’ll no longer consider other mobile phones on the market, purely because they trust Apple and perhaps like being associated with the brand.”
It should be noted that many users prefer their iPhones over any other smartphone simply because it suits their needs best. Which is something Bholah himself admits as a possibility for this so-called condition.
“However, the old saying ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ could ring true here, as it’s clearly a case of them having a positive experience with the handset. It’s ultimately the loyalty all brands hope to achieve with their customers – old and new.”
Like many others, SIMOnlyContracts wonders how long Apple is going to be able to keep its customers hooked on the iPhone.
“Product lifecycles are fickle, so it’ll be interesting to see how long Apple can maintain this relationship with its customers, not forgetting to mention how long they can keep their competitors at bay,” added Bholah.
Editor’s note While the study itself certainly seems legit, the conclusion appears to be highly biased. Calling a bunch of people blindly” loyal simply because they prefer a certain handset is like saying you’re addicted to good food. Surveyors would find just as many Android worshipers if they bothered to interrogate that camp as well. How about brand loyalty? That's certainly more objective thinking.