Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone Losing Popularity In Western Europe – Analyst Views

As per a new report from Strategy Analytics, a research firm, Apple Inc.(NASDAQ:AAPL)’s iPhone is beginning to lose its attraction since existing customers in Western Europe vacillate over staying with the iconic brand.

For the first time since the launch of iPhone in the year 2007, the number of iPhone users saying that they definitely will or probably will buy their next phone from Apple has reduced in the United States and Western Europe, as per the study.

The market research company has reported that this year only 75% of iPhone owners in Western Europe say that they probably will buy their next phone from Apple, down from 88% in the year  2011 and 85 % in the year 2010.

Director at Strategy Analytics’ user experience practice, Paul Brown wrote in his blog post that there is no doubt that Apple is continuing its success in preserving present user base while attracting new customers. However, downbeat press prompted by a perceived lack of recent novelty by Apple has led to some growth in the amount of previously highly faithful customers, who are now reconsidering whether or not they will buy a new iPhone as their next phone.

It was the decision of Apple to change the size of the screen of iPhone 5 from 3.5 inches to 4.0 inches. Previous Strategy Analytics research points out that existing smartphone owners want something even bigger, with 4.3 inches the most favoured size in the company’s 2011 size preference research, while early conditional results from an upgrade to this research indicate that 4.5 inches may be the most preferred size for respondents reviewed over the last few months.

This could give an opening to the like of Nokia and Samsung Electronics that have trended toward larger screen sizes in the recent years for their top-notch smartphones.