iOS, Android catching buyers' eyes while Blackberry suffers
New smartphone buyers have their eyes on iOS and Android devices this summer, with Blackberrys barely registering on their radar. That's according to the latest ChangeWave report with survey data of 4,163 mobile phone consumers—the majority of which are in the US. The trends show that smartphone buyers currently favor iOS devices a bit more than Android, but the two platforms are both holding strong against RIM in the consumer market.
According to ChangeWave, 46 percent of survey respondents who plan to buy a smartphone in the next 90 days said they plan to buy an iOS device—that's up two percentage points from the March 2011 survey. Similarly, 32 percent say they plan to buy an Android device, up one percentage point from March.
The two platforms were roughly at the same level of demand during the last quarter of 2010, but they have definitely split off since December. The explanation for this trend could lie in Flurry Antlystics' analysis from last week—the company said that new developer projects were focusing more heavily on iOS than Android during the first half of the year, which may be due to the introduction of the Verizon iPhone and iPad 2. New high-profile products like these help keep Apple at the forefront of consumers' minds. The fact that the rumor mill keeps focusing on a new iPhone this fall certainly helps, too.
What's sad are ChangeWave's numbers for RIM/Blackberry. Only four percent of new smartphone buyers said they planned to get a Blackberry device as of June 2011—down from five percent in March, and really down from 32 percent in December of 2008. This is RIM's "lowest level ever in a ChangeWave survey," and things certainly aren't looking great for RIM when it comes to marketing to consumers over enterprise users.
ChangeWave also surveyed consumers on how much of an effect Apple's iCloud announcement had on their plans to purchase an Apple product. Unsurprisingly, those who already own Apple products made up the largest group of those "more like...