iPod Owners Not As Loyal To Brand As Mac Owners

Virtual_Raider writes "A survey indicates that iPod owners may not be as loyal to their devices as Mac owners are to their computers, thus opening the possibility for Microsoft's Zune to enter the market. Surveyed people also indicated a high likelihood of buying the much maligned brown device. But that doesn't mean that the market is now at Microsoft's mercy." From the article: "ABI Research believes that a critical factor will be whether or not Microsoft can differentiate the Zune from competing products in some meaningful way. One differentiator, Zune's Wi-Fi peer-to-peer sharing, which Microsoft is playing up heavily, 'isn't all that compelling, at least not now,' notes Wilson. 'There's a lot more you could do with that capability.' But given the results of ABI Research's survey, Apple will need to make some big announcements in 2007 if it is to maintain its edge in the industry. Says Wilson, 'Apple needs a new high-end device that works really well and looks really cool, because other brands are catching up.'"

Comments

but can Zune become the new iPod? No.

[yagu]

iPod may be falling victim to its own popularity. Marketing, excellent design, cachet, marketing, cuteness, and marketing gave Apple a great foothold in the portable music player market. iPod is a great product (I don't own one, don't intend to), and captured the imagination of a public wanting the next new cool thing.

Problem is, the next new cool thing isn't new anymore. And with so many owning iPods now, it's almost not even cool anymore. With Apple's continued re-invention of iPod, iPod has managed to keep iPod as "next".

The loyalty for iPod is different from the loyalty for Mac. iPod is more public, more connected to the owner (until there are wearable Macs)... Once the newness and coolness factors wear off owners want the next greatest thingy that shows their hipness.

So, can Zune fulfill that and capture Apple's market? Maybe. But Microsoft has been kicked around so much lately I think any product by Microsoft is likely to scream "I'm cool". To accomplish the deed, the Zune would almost have to be sublime. Microsoft brought some interesting ideas (wireless, community, sharing), but in typical MS fashion appears to be delivering a product so wrapped around the axle and DRM'ed I can't imagine it will catch fire.

Yes, the survey indicates a high number of iPod users could/would switch, but polls and surveys in a commercial setting hardly bring credence to the point. My guess, far fewer would really switch than indicated by the survey.

And I also think we're not far from some kind of Apple "new" iPod with better screens, and wireless... and the new iPod will be compatible with the old line, and you can bet they'll continue to trump MS in usability. For me, "It Just Works" is better than "Plays for Sure" (I know, MS has abandoned that for the Zune, but whatever the new catchphrase, it's code for "only plays with MS stuff).

Time will tell, but I'll continue to put my money on Apple.

why is this surprising?

[boredandblogging.com]

Gung-ho Mac users think Apple has changed their life (for the better). Most people who buy iPods do it because its cool and cute (gag). The same people who bought iPods because they were cool are just going to move on to the next cool thing.

Re:why is this surprising?

[Queer Boy]

When's the next cool thing gonna happen? Because it's been 5 years now waiting for the next cool thing. I'm not sure about you but I think that clearly falls out of the "fad" realm.

This just in...

[BadMrMojo]

Harley Davidson bandana owners not nearly as loyal to brand as Harley Davidson motorcycle owners.

Film at 11.

Seriously... what did you expect?

Isn't this sort of a no brainer?

[Thansal]

Mac owners are there for the OS for the most part, iPod owners are there because it is "THE MP3 Player" (Often they don't even know wth an MP3 player is, they only know that it is an iPod).

MacOS is something that is substantialy different then other things like it (windows/linux/etc), where as most MP3 players are relativly the same (UI being the big thing that iPods stand out with).

Just think about it, try and get a windows/mac/linux usser to switch to another OS. Hard, often futile.
Try and get some one to use a different CD Player/VCR/DVD player? If you can just go "look, it is more efficent and costs less" and tadah, they switch (Assuming they need a new device).

meh.

If some one can create a device that is better and/or cheaper, people will switch.

shoddy methodology

[Aurisor]

A new survey conducted by ABI Research has shown that many prospective MP3 player buyers--even owners of iPods--would be likely to choose Microsoft's Zune player. 1725 teenage and adult US residents were asked whether they planned to buy an MP3 player in the next 12 months. Of those responding that they were likely to do so, 58% of those identifying themselves as existing iPod owners and 59% of those who owned other brands said they would be "somewhat likely" or "extremely likely" to choose a Microsoft Zune player over an iPod or another brand of MP3 player.

"Our conclusion," says principal analyst Steve Wilson, "is that iPod users don't display the same passionate loyalty to iPods that Macintosh users have historically shown for their Apple products." Only 15% of iPod owners said they were "not very likely" or "not at all likely" to choose Zune.

I believe this article is deliberately misleading. The methodology they used HORRIBLY flawed. Let's take it apart piece by piece, shall we?

• They interviewed 1725 teenagers and adults.
• Of that group of people, they threw out all of them who said they were not likely to buy an MP3 player in the next 12 months. If I were a loyal, satisfied ipod owner, I would be completely discounted from this survey. Furthermore, they give no indication of how many people actually made it to this point. It's entirely possible that out of the initial 1725, only 200 were looking to buy a new mp3 player. Out of the remaining 1525, 1000 could have no interest in MP3 players at all, and the remaining 500 could be raving lunatic apple fanatics, for all we know.
• Now, for the next step, they say 58% of the users they surveyed WHO ARE GOING TO BUY A NEW MP3 PLAYER IN THE NEXT YEAR currently own ipods. You see how sneaky this is? In the first step, they eliminated people who are happy with their current mp3 players, so this step generates this rather meaningless statistic.
• The next step is even more of a non-sequitur. They state that 59% of the people who own other brand mp3 players say they are at least "somewhat likely" to buy a zune.

So what's the REAL conclusion here? Let's rephrase the results of their study more accurately:

1) 58% of the people in the market for a new mp3 player own an ipod. This statistic is useless as a measure of brand loyalty because we get no information about how many people who own ipods are satisfied. 58% of ipod owners are looking for a new mp3 player would be an interesting statistic. 58% of people looking for new mp3 players are ipod owners isn't because of the issues of sample size and the lack of any data about satisfied customers.

2) 59% of the people in the market for a new mp3 player who bought something other than an ipod are at least "somewhat likely" to buy a zune. To simplify, if you bought an mp3 player and didn't pick the ipod last time and are buying a new one you're looking at offerings that aren't the ipod (i.e. the zune). No shit?

Anyways, I'm not at all impressed by this survey, the methodology seems weak and I don't think there's really any useful information here.

Re:shoddy methodology

[Aurisor]

I don't really see why you felt the need to flame me over my post. It would certainly be easier to respond to you if I didn't have to sift through all of the verbal abuse, but I'll try anyways.

People who are planning to buy a new mp3 player in the next year are not a representative sample of mac users or even the market in general. The expected lifetime of an ipod is a lot longer than a year, so you're removing a lot of customers who exhibit brand loyalty just because they don't see a need to replace their ipod over the next 12 months. The typical consumer does not have a functional 300-500$ mp3 player AND the desire to replace it within the next year.

Consider this hypothetical situation. Out of the 1725 users:

1000 do not own a mp3 player, nor do they have any plans to ever own one.
700 are ipod owners who are not buying new mp3 players BECAUSE THEY LOVE THEIR IPODS AND ARE LOYAL TO APPLE.
5 own other mp3 players and are happy with them.
8 are in the market for a mp3 player and are probably going to buy an ipod.
12 are in the market for a mp3 player and are probably going to buy a zune.

From this the study would conclude that 60% of users are "disloyal" to the ipod brand, which is clearly not representative.

Bottom line, if you're going to talk brand loyalty with respect to ipods, you need to consider not only the people who say "My ipod is so good I'm going to buy another" but ALSO the people who say "My ipod is so good that I don't need another mp3 player until this one breaks 4 years down the road." The study is conducted on a subset of their sample based on rules that do not produce a group of people that is representative of anything, and they don't even give us the numbers involved.

As I said before, the methodology is shoddy.

Here's a TOTALLY WILD IDEA for a study. Why don't you survey people who own mp3 players and ask them if they'd buy another mp3 player from the same manufacturer?

The Market will Speak

[Thumper_SVX]

Honestly, I own an iPod because it does exactly what I need. No more, no less. It's compact, it's resilient, it's lightweight and it doesn't weigh me down with overly complicated menu systems or functions that I'll never use. Radio? Please. There's nothing on the radio I want to hear. Wi-fi? Again, why? It's a security hole and I don't see any real need for it (especially the way the Zune implements it).

My iPod allows me to listen to encoded CD's so I don't have to cart my CD collection around with me. It also allows me to buy music on iTMS and play that back too (only bought a few albums, but that's all I need). What more do I need from my device? OK, so my calendar and contacts are there. Groovy, they're on my phone, too so it's sort of redundant functionality for me. I own an iPod because it has decent sound quality, the device itself is pretty slick, the interface is simple and easy to work with and generally it meets my needs. What more do I want?

I won't buy a Zune; not because it's Microsoft but because it doesn't give me any killer features that I need. Sure, conceptually the wireless music sharing is a nice idea, but cannot be implemented in a truly free way. The only way I can see it being useful for me is to be able to share limited-time sample tracks of small bands (often friends of mine) to get other friends interested in their music. But then again, I do that by email already, so it's not a killer feature there, either.

I will run my iPod until it won't run any more. Once that dies, I'll look at the market and if the iPod is still what meets my needs and requirements with minimal fuss at a reasonable price I'll probably replace it with another iPod. If something else comes along that meets my needs better or has killer features I decide I can't live without then I'll buy that instead. Sure, this confirms what the article says somewhat, but not for the reasons implied in the article (it implies that iPod owners will drop the iPod for the Zune, that's not true).

For reference, I'm also a Mac owner, a Linux user and a Windows admin for work. I don't particularly "keep the faith" of any manufacturer; I use what works for me.

Re:so?

[/ASCII]

I agree. Though I've never understood why a country should deserve loyalty either. A person sure. An ideal, yes.

But pinning loyalty to a specific country instead of to the ideals that country claims to uphold only means that when the country ends up in the hands of people who are less idealistic, your loyalty will be abused.