When we generally think of fandom among electronics makers, the Cult of Mac is what has stood out over the past few years: Hordes of people blindly purchasing anything and everything that Apple puts out; their unquestioning faith that the only products truly worth buying are made by Cupertino is frightening. It's been the butt of jokes, Samsung commercials, and YouTube videos for some time now, but it's always been a serious force in the marketplace.
New information suggests that's changing, though.
According to Brand Keys' Customer Loyalty Engagement Index for 2013, both Android and Samsung now top Apple's brand when it comes to customer satisfaction and brand loyalty. While Samsung is often considered a powerful force in the electronics world, Android's success has often been tossed aside as a simple reflection of its price point. It's the cheapest option out there, detractors would say; people don't get it because they love it, they just get it because that's what they can afford. Clearly, there's something wrong with that analysis.
"It is an enormous switch-over," said Robert Passikoff, president of the New York-based Brand Keys, to Mobile Marketer. "The more personal aspects beyond just connectivity are becoming the important emotional engagement factors and that, generally speaking, brands that cannot do that are not going to be at the top of the list.
"Apple has been at the top of the list for a long time but has kind of stalled in terms of this sense of personal innovation and Samsung seems to have taken that on for themselves," he added.
Even more surprising is that Apple is no longer the top brand in tablets, either: That spot now belongs to Amazon. The Kindle Fire doesn't put up numbers anywhere near the iPad, which makes the results hard to believe. Passikoff pins the blame on the current perception that Apple has been more reactionary than innovative since Steve Jobs died.
"Apple was very reactive in terms of having to come out with a smaller version [of the iPad] because Amazon had one [a tablet]," said Passikoff. "People said 'Oh, the iPad is great, but it is the size of a magazine and I can't put it in my coat pocket.'"
Apple probably shouldn't worry too much just yet, especially since the iPad still makes up almost 80 percent of all tablet sales, but it seems clear that Apple's image has taken a hit in the last year or two. The company still rakes in money at a mind-boggling pace, but in order to reclaim its position as the king of cool products it's probably going to need bigger innovations than making all its products mini sized.
