A new report from Reuters takes to the streets (or, malls, rather) of the globe to find out what folks are actually purchasing from retail shops around the world, including Apple, Microsoft, and Samsung retail spaces in cities like Sydney, Seattle, Palo Alto, Shanghai, Bangalore, Singaporte, Paris, London, Mexico City, and Boston. They spoke to store employees and retail shoppers to find out, really, what’s selling and what’s not.
Guess what they found out? While Apple may be the darling of naysayers who like to crow about the stock slippage or the competition from Android and (sometimes) Windows Phones, Reuters found that the people they talked to and the stores they visited were far from anti-Apple, and, in fact, positively glowing about the Cupertino-based tech company’s products.
They report that Apple stores are “bustling” in contrast to Microsoft retail spaces in the US, where Windows 8 and Surface tablets seemed to be selling much more slowly than iPads and iOS devices. Samsung may be marketing aggressively across the globe, but Reuters only found Samsung as a top choice when speaking to folks in Singapore and Bangalore. Nokia is also relatively unseen across the sample sites, with Amazon’s Kindle relatively scarce in retail spaces and shopping bags, though that may more reflect Amazon’s push for online purchasing.
Customers choosing Apple are reported to cite iTunes music, video, and ease of use as a big reason for sticking with iOS Mac devices. “I just taught my Persian grandmother how to use her new iPhone. She’s 77 and speaks no English,” Soheil Arzang, a 27-year-old law student in Palo Alto, told Reuters. “With a Windows PC there are so many buttons, it’s confusing. I converted my parents officially to Apple iPhones, Macs and iPads.”
Another customer in Paris, 62-year-old Max Cevenne is quoted as looking at a Samsung device after his iPad was stolen. “But I may end up going back to the iPad since I already use other Apple products,” he said, “and it might be simpler.”
Across the English Channel at a John Lewis department store in London, Joanna Sargent cast her eye over Amazon’s Kindle Fire, but since she’s bought three iPad Minis for her sons, she said she would probably stay with what’s familiar.
“I looked at going for another tablet, but although they are cheaper, you have to re-buy everything,” said a London mother of three sons who was buying iPad minis for each. “We’d have to buy all the music again, and you have to take that into account.”
In a survey conducted for Reuters by Ipsos, 42 percent of the 1,330 people surveyed were thinking of getting an iPad or iPad mini, as opposed to 16 percent interested in the Kindle Fire or 14 percent interested in the Samsung Galaxy tablet. Only 4 percent of those surveyed wanted a Surface tablet. Poor Microsoft.
Source: Reuters
