A large research department that has completed a study on the the ongoing smartphone wars between Apple and Samsung and their respective popularity on social networks — and how language plays when consumers decide which mobile device to purchase.
The research compares Samsung Galaxy and Apple iPhones, and their use on social networks, with the clear advantage going to Samsung – but specifically among non-English speakers.
Conversely, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is popular among English speakers.
While the research was done by a large Middle East university, the results are global and broken down by continents. We believe this is a unique angle to this current topic, as it looks at which mobile device is more user-friendly for non-English consumers in key markets.
As the smartphone wars continue between Samsung and Apple, new research not only shows that Samsung is significantly outnumbering Apple in followers, but that language plays an important role when choosing between the two smartphones.
Smartphones have emerged as a primary means of social networking, while greatly enhancing connectivity. Among smartphone products on the market, Samsung’s Galaxy series and Apple’s iPhone have gained wide popularity and surpassed other products.
While there have been media reports that Samsung’s Galaxy smartphone is globally outselling Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s iPhone, the new research by Dr. Esam Alwagait, Dean of King Saud University’s Deanship of e-Transactions and Communications, and Basit Shahzad, a Deanship researcher, provides key insights into the reason for Samsung’s growth.
“According to our research, while Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is more popular in English-speaking countries, Samsung predominates elsewhere, particularly in Asia and Africa,” says KSU’s Dr. Esam Alwagait, who notes the research seems to suggest that Samsung’s smartphone may be viewed as being more user friendly for non-English speakers.
To compare the popularity of the Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (LON:BC94) (
The results were classified by languages, cities, countries, and continents. Data was drawn from Twitter accounts using the study-specific code, and the number of records received totaled 2,629,616 followers for Samsung and 1,380,497 for AppStore.
The researchers focused on social networks as they have proliferated exponentially in recent years, and become an integral part of people’s everyday communication. In addition, they are a great source for information sharing. Twitter (twitter.com) was selected for this study since it has more than 24 million unique visitors per month and 500 million tweets per day.
Some highlights of their findings include:
* Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (LON:BC94) smartphones are universally more popular.
* Android operating systems are more popular than Apple’s iOS.
* Apple followers are more likely to live in an English-speaking country than Samsung followers.
* English is the primary language of choice for both sets of followers, though Samsung is more popular where English is not the primary language.
* Considering the continental review, Samsung is significantly more popular in Asia, Africa, North and South America and Europe, while Apple is more popular in Australia.
* While Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (LON:BC94) is overwhelmingly more popular in Asian and African countries, it has a relatively small lead over Apple in Europe.
* Based on Klout scores – a measure of a user’s influence across his or her social network — Apple followers are more influential and more popular than Samsung followers. However, the sheer volume of Samsung followers suggests this could be a growing factor.
