Monday, 23 June 2008

Study: 54 % Don't Plan to Purchase iPhone

The iPhone is undoubtedly the most talked-about mobile device in the market and has raised customers’ expectations of other vendors.

According to a recent consumer behaviour report done by PriceGrabber.com, while only 4 % of survey respondents currently own an iPhone, 42 % are considering purchasing one.

The survey-- which was based on a survey of 3,066 online consumers and conducted from May 20 to June 5, 2008-- also revealed that of the remaining 54% who do not intend to purchase the iPhone, 41% say that the mobile device costs too much and another 22% prefer a network carrier other than AT&T.

Prior to Apple’s announcement that the new iPhone 3G will cost USD 199, Apple and Nokia, on average, had the highest-priced cell phones/devices, while Blackberry®, Motorola and Samsung provided prices on the low end. However, with Apple’s recent announcement of the lower-priced iPhone 3G, Apple may see online consumers changing their minds about purchasing an iPhone says PriceGrabber.com.

According to PriceGrabber.com, as Apple attempts to appeal to enterprise users and IT departments with the iPhone 3G’s Microsoft® Exchange ActiveSync capabilities, the company is becoming more of a competitor with long-standing corporate-friendly devices like Research In Motion’s Blackberry. Of the 4 % of respondents who currently own an iPhone, 40 % own two devices — one device for work and the iPhone for personal use. More than half of those respondents plan to get rid of their second device because of the Apple’s new synching capabilities.

Survey respondents also indicated that the MP3 player within the iPhone is one of their least favorite features. The majority of online consumers say that the fingertip navigation feature is the best feature of the iPhone, while 17 % chose the Web browsing connection and 16 percent enjoy the integrated applications.

In general, 46% of consumers indicated that the second most important cell phone feature behind a large color display screen is Bluetooth compatibility.