Survey claims 30 percent of Chinese 3G buyers want iPhone
updated 04:40 pm EDT, Tue March 29, 2011
Price represents largest obstacle
Apple could be poised to do extremely well in the Chinese phone industry, according to an AlphaWise/Morgan Stanley survey. 2,029 Chinese cellphone users were polled in February and March; of these, about 88 percent said their next phone would be a smartphone. Within the group planning to get a 3G phone, 30 percent said they were expecting to buy an iPhone.
Price is noted to be Apple's major obstacle. Without cost as an issue, the amount of future iPhone buyers in the survey jumped to 53 percent. The survey is in any case likely to be representative of just a small portion of Chinese society, since most people in the country are relatively poor. Affluence is clustered primarily around cities like Beijing and Shanghai.
Apple's main competition stems from Nokia. Although the company is negligible in the US smartphone market, a full 25 percent of the 3G group in the Chinese survey said they would be likely be buying a Nokia device next. Study respondents identified reception, service, reputation, cost and battery life as Nokia's primary advantages. At the same time, the iPhone's draws include social status, interface and Internet and media functions.
