Amid all the recall, re-recall, and discontinuation of the Galaxy Note 7, Samsung has been trying hard to retain most of those customers. The Korean company was offering cash, a Galaxy S7 or S7 Edge, and even an upgrade plan for the next year’s Galaxy S8. But a large number of Galaxy Note 7 have switched or are planning to switch to Apple’s iPhone 7 or 7 Plus.
Galaxy Note 7 fiasco costs Samsung some loyal customers
Research firm IDC conducted a small survey of 1082 consumers four days after Samsung discontinued the production and sales of Note 7. Of them, 507 participants were current Samsung smartphone owners, 347 were Samsung owners in the past, and 228 have never owned a Samsung device. IDC said that 24 participants were Galaxy Note 7 users.
Nearly half of the Note 7 owners said they would either return or have already returned their handsets for cash, and will switch/have already switched to the iPhone 7. Only 17% of the Note 7 users said they would opt for another Samsung device. Just 24 participants can’t reflect the general sentiment of hundreds of thousands of Note 7 buyers. Though the sample size is pretty small, it does indicate that the Korean company could lose some loyal customers due to the Note 7 fiasco.
Brand Samsung unlikely to be affected
Ramon T. Llamas, the research manager for Wearables and Mobile Phones, said in a statement that Samsung’s brand is unlikely to be affected. Most Samsung users are unaffected by the controversy, which is a positive sign for Samsung. To win back the trust of consumers, the company will have to explain to them the root cause of the problem and how it intends to fix it.
It’s been almost two months since the Korean company announced the first recall of the Galaxy Note 7, but it is yet to figure out the cause of explosions. Samsung has deployed most of its engineers to find out the possible causes of the Note 7 fire. Anthony Scarsella of IDC said Samsung will remain the smartphone market leader despite the Note 7 debacle. The company needs to focus all efforts on making an impressive Galaxy S8.
5-7 million Galaxy Note 7 customers to switch to the iPhone 7
The IDC report indicates that Apple will benefit from the Galaxy Note 7 disaster. But Apple CFO Luca Maestri said during the company’s latest quarterly earnings call that the Note 7 discontinuation wasn’t a factor right now because Apple was already selling everything that it was making. The Cupertino company said that demand for the iPhone 7 Plus was so high that the company cannot meet all the demand by the end of this year.
IDC’s survey corroborates with what KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicted a couple of weeks ago. Kuo said about 5-7 million Galaxy Note 7 customers would switch to the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. The switchers represent about half of the estimated 12 million Galaxy Note 7 orders through the year-end.
