Apple leads the smartphone market in brand retention

New research data compiled by Morgan Stanley Research reveals that when it comes to brand retention in the smartphone industry, Apple remains the top dog. On average, Morgan Stanley found that 90% of iPhone owners remain loyal to Apple as compared to 77% for Samsung and 58% for Nokia. The following chart exemplifies why analysts who put all of their eggs in the marketshare basket often make laughable predictions about Apple’s prospects in the smartphone market. While marketshare data tells us how the smartphone market looks today, brand retention is an important metric in assessing what marketshare data may look like in the future.

Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty says Apple’s upcoming smartwatch will experience a “halo effect” as a result of the soaring popularity of the iPhone, in the same way the iPod helped drive the success of Mac computers in the early 2000s. And it’s easy to see why: Among iPhone owners, Apple’s smartphone is more popular than ever. Thanks to the latest data provided by Morgan Stanley Research, which was charted for us byStatista, Apple has won the battle of “brand retention” when it comes to smartphones, with 90% of iPhone owners sticking with Apple as of March 2014. Samsung, Motorola, and HTC have also gained more loyal fans since 2011, but Apple remains the “loyalty” leader in this particular race.