TrendForce: Survey on the smartphone brands Chinese consumers are most likely to buy next time

AVANTI, a consumer research division of global market research organization TrendForce, conducted a survey on smartphone brand awareness in the Chinese consumer market in 2013. The results showed that Apple and Samsung still ranked first and second in brand impression, but Xiaomi was close behind, and Lenovo and Huawei were also on the list. In contrast, HTC and NOKIA's brand impressions fell quarter by quarter, and were handed over to Chinese local mobile phone brands.

As for another indicator that can predict future mobile phone sales trends, "the smartphone brand you would most like to buy next time," the iPhone has been declining, while Samsung has continued to attract consumers' attention with its hardware popularity. However, in the fourth quarter of 2013, the iPhone's China strategy seemed to work, regaining market favor and narrowing the gap with Samsung again.

It is worth noting that brand impression drives actual purchase tendency. Since the second half of 2012, Xiaomi has surpassed other competitors and become the third most popular mobile phone for consumers to buy next time. The top three smartphone brands in China have been roughly determined. However, due to supply chain problems in 2013, Xiaomi's mobile phone shipments were insufficient, resulting in its ranking among the top three brands in brand impression, but its actual shipments in China accounted for only 5%, ranking behind Huawei, Lenovo, Coolpad and ZTE. In 2014, Xiaomi must first solve the supply chain problem so that its brand power can play a practical role and help shipments.

The smartphone brand that Chinese consumers would most like to buy next time (Source: AVANTI; AVANTI Consumer Market Report survey was conducted from November 27 to December 2, 2013, with 3,000 samples collected from various regions in China (North China and South China accounted for 26.5% and 17.6% respectively), with a sample confidence of 95% and an error within plus or minus 1.8%)

In terms of brand loyalty, the top three are still iPhone, Samsung and Xiaomi, and there is a clear gap with the fourth-placed NOKIA. AVANTI data shows that consumers who use Coolpad phones are most likely to switch to Samsung phones, while Xiaomi is the most attractive to ZTE phone users; interestingly, Xiaomi does not deny that the iPhone is their reference, but the proportion of consumers who use Xiaomi phones switching to Samsung is higher than that of iPhone.

Overall, iPhone users have the highest loyalty, and the loyalty is rising quarter by quarter. In the fourth quarter of 2013, 53.4% ​​of iPhone users said they would not change their phone brand. The loyalty of Samsung phone users is not very stable, while Xiaomi's loyalty is declining quarter by quarter.

TrendForce said that looking at the three major indicators of brand impression, the phone most wanted to buy next time, and brand loyalty, iPhone, Samsung, and Xiaomi seem to have firmly established their dominance in the Chinese market. Xiaomi has successfully seized the opportunity when high-end mobile phones are saturated and the mid-range market is vacant, using the appearance of the iPhone to arouse discussion and create a so-called user-created operating system, giving full play to fan participation and user experience feedback, surpassing other competitors in brand impression and driving actual purchasing desire.

In 2014, it is expected that Xiaomi will continue to break the market trend and launch ultra-low-priced products, but brand loyalty remains to be seen whether low prices and brand loyalty can continue to be equated with the support of software innovation.