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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.'"
That Steve Jobs kept the proto-type for the iPod in his underpants for 3 weeks straight? I've heard rumors that he has a little polar neck sweater for his willy. It's like a neo-willy-warmer, so when he's drinking his frappa-chappa-chino and typing on his brand new G6 laptop, he can whip out the old boy, fap like there's no tomorrow and still blend in with the crowd.
iFap.
Task Mangler
"I don't really see why you felt the need to flame me over my post."
Because you flamed the article and you were entirely mistaken.
"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."
1) mac users aren't of concern, all users are.
2) anyone not buying a player soon doesn't matter. They are sticking with what they have.
3) the people surveyed were clearly described.
"...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."
100% of those are brand-loyal by definition, so including them would taint the results and they have no impact on the 12-month market by definition. 100% of those owning iPod competitors that aren't buying replacements are similarly "brand-loyal".
"The typical consumer does not have a functional 300-500$ mp3 player AND the desire to replace it within the next year."
Any facts to back that claim up?
"(bullshit made-up data)...From this the study would conclude that 60% of users are "disloyal" to the ipod brand, which is clearly not representative."
Wrong again. Not only have you not provided enough data regarding existing players for those in the market, you've stated the conclusion incorrectly. The survey is "of those who will buy in the next 12 months". Why is that so hard for you to grasp?
"Bottom line, if you're going to talk brand loyalty with respect to ipods..."
You sure talk like an expert for someone who has basic reading comprehension problems.
"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."
Wrong, it produces numbers representitive of the group that manufacturers are interested in, i.e. those who will buy product, and it provides numbers for those. No one cares about buyers who aren't buying.
"As I said before, the methodology is shoddy."
Yeah, well I didn't expect you to learn anything.
"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?"
Because I have no financial or personal interest in the result nor do I have any difficulty understanding what was presented. Those issues are all yours apparently.
Sounds like Apple has you locked in by virtue of dominant market share, the same thing you guys blast MS for.
BTW, Microsoft is indeed openning up the 3rd party market, so that iPod advantage won't be as big as you think.
Here are a couple examples:
Octavio - Zune speaker dock made by VAF
Altec Lansing's Zune speaker dock
A list of companies that have signed up to make Zune accessories is here:
http://www.zunescene.com/zuneaccessories/
Read more info at http://www.zuneguy.com/ the blog of the MS guy that's in charge of creating Zune's 3rd party market.
-- "I never gave these stories much credence." - HAL 9000
"The fact that they don't tell you how many responses that they threw out is a flaw in the reporting methodology."
/. article's error. The survey was specifically of those who were considering a purchase in the next 12 months. The conclusion was that brand loyalty wasn't a factor in their next purchase. RTFA.
A flaw in the reporting perhaps, but not a flaw in the methodology unless they ended up with insufficient samples.
"This says *nothing* about the brand-loyalty of the people who responded to the survey saying they prefer Ben & Jerry's. Why?"
Because your example is so poorly formed? It is in no way comparable to the actual survey.
"If you want a brand-loyalty survey..."
They didn't want a brand loyalty survey!!! That was the
"Given the numbers reported in the article, they could have surveyd 17xx people, and thrown out all but 50 of the responses because only 50 people they surveyed were in the market for a new DAP in the next 12 months. Probably not, but we don't know, because they don't tell us how many people were left after they culled the sample."
Is that your best Ann Coulter impression? For all we know, they're planning to divorce their husbands, too.
Is the claim that some iPod owners aren't brand-loyal reason enough to assume corruption? You seem to think so because you expect there to be complete data in a one paragraph summary and the lack of it is evidence of taint. Companies that are paid to do surveys know how to do them even if their results are intended to be misleading. Just because they haven't provided their credentials in the summary doesn't mean they're waging a smear campaign against Apple either.
STFU dickhead. That point had been well established already and any effort to follow the comments will show that I'm the one making that argument, not misunderstanding it.