Is Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s iPhone 5 The Most Anti-Social Phone Ever?

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) could very well be a victim of its own success when it comes to new models of its iDevices these days. For years, Apple was always on the cutting edge of technological evolutions, innovating in ways to remain just a step or two ahead of the competition, and for quite a while Apple had no equals. But ever since the introduction of the iPhone to the world in 2007, that innovation gap has narrowed to the point that sometimes it seems that Apple is now reactionary in its evolution and not innovating like yesteryear.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is a company that had developed a reputation not just for innovative products, but for products of high quality and premium pricing that made them the “cool” must-have product in tech. But now that the company is mass-producing updates to its devices and seemingly more interested in producing product for sales rather than product for its innovation and “wow” factor, there has been some talk that Apple is no longer cool, and in fact is not reaching its established high standard for quality and innovation anymore.

But it is those high standards that reveal themselves on social media, as We Are Social did a study recently that compared the types of comments that came across Twitter, blogs and other social networks about four recent flagship releases, and it found that the iPhone 5 by Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) received the most negative social-media comments, while the Galaxy S4 by Samsung received the least negativity.

does this mean the iPhone 5 is “the most hated phone,” as claimed by some of the headlines?

Let us look inside the numbers, shall we? According to the study, there were about 1.7 million conversations over the iPhone 5 launch, with 42 percent about the Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) brand. Among those conversations, its was reported that one in five comments were negative, and they seemed to over the Apple Maps feature, the Lightning connector and the scratchability of the shell coating as the most prominent complaints.

The number of conversations about the launch, though was nearly six times that of the No. 2 handset, the Z10 by Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) with 300,000 conversations surrounding its launch earlier this year. By the way, the Samsung Galaxy S4, had 140,000 conversations started around its launch, while the Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK) Lumia 920 had just 45,000 conversations.

With such disparate numbers, does it really tell us how much vitriol there is with Apple?

Looking at the conversations around the brand itself, the Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone 5 generated 42 percent of all conversations, while the Z10 and Lumia 920 each were part of 41 percent of conversations, and the Galaxy S4 was part of just 20 percent of conversations. While Apple had the most talked-about phone, it might stand to reason that it might have the most negative comments at 20 percent. But considering how many more conversations there were about the iPhone over every other major handset, it should be encouraging that the percentage wasn’t higher.

Among the 140,000 Galaxy S conversations, by the way (less than 1/10th of the iPhone 5 convos), about 11 percent of the comments were negative to make it the least complained-about handset among the four surveyed. But with 80 percent of comments  denoted as neutral or positive among 1.7 million conversations, does that really say anything about the iPhone being “hated”? We let you decide.

What do you think? Would investors like fund manager David Einhorn (see his full equity portfolio) be upset at 80-percent approval? Let us know in the comments section below.

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