Apple Inc. (AAPL) Will Top Google Inc (GOOG) By ’15: Survey

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has worked very hard to develop a strong brand that cultivates strong loyalty. Apple has developed a reputation for quality products, and that has developed over the long term into its own culture, where those who become Apple customers, remain Apple customers in all subsequent purchases.

And that loyalty, according to one study, suggests that while Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) may be running second in the smartphone wars to Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) and its Android mobile platform, those times they will be a-changin’ soon.

There is little indication whether this study takes into account the growth of the smartphone market over the next couple of years, but the research from Yankee Group looked into loyalty of smartphone brands among consumers and attempted to project a couple years into the future to determine how loyalty to a certain brand will change the smartphone market.

What the research found was in the current smartphone market, which is about half of the total U.S. mobile market, customer loyalty to the Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) iOS far outshone the Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android faithful, so that the study projected that by 2015, Apple iPhones will have a greater market share in the U.S. than Android.

The study asked questions of about 1,600 smartphone users over the past year, finding out which brand of smartphone they would consider buying next over the next six months looking forward.

The study revealed that more than 90 percent of current iPhone users said they intended to get a new Apple smartphone next, while just 76 percent of Android users said they’d stay with their current platform. And while 6 percent of Apple users said they’d switch to Android, nearly 20 percent of the Android defectors said they would go to Apple. Extrapolating those results gives Apple the nod in market share in less than two years.

What are your thoughts? Are you a current smartphone user, and how loyal are you to a brand? Would Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) iOS or Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android win you over for your next phone, or are you looking at another competing platform? Let us know your thinking in the comments section below.

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