Korean Subscribers More Brand-Loyal to Handsets Than Networks

­South Korea's smartphone users not only change their mobile operator without any reluctance but also have changed the perceived images of them, reports a survey from Marketing Insight. They rather to choose a mobile operator, which provides a smartphone they want, than choosing a handset from a mobile operator they are already connected with, even show a tendency to like them. This tendency was found not only among the smartphone users but among the purchase intenders of smartphone. At the center of this change there were the iPhone admirers.


More than half of smartphone purchasers (53.5%) during the past 6 months had changed their mobile operator for their desired smartphone. Almost two-thirds of smartphone users in KT (64.3%) had switched in from competing operators but SKT has 39% of its smartphone users new to the operator. This shows that KT has been drawing subscribers from competing operators with the Apple iPhone and Nokia's XpressMusic phone.

The consumers, who switched mobile operator when they bought smartphone, answered that they didn't hesitate to switch (58.1%).Also about half of the purchase intenders of smartphone in next 6 months (48.8%) had answered that they wouldn't hesitate to change mobile operator. This shows the widely spread trend in which brand loyalty to the mobile network operators is weakening.

Smartphone usage also has affected the images of mobile operators.

This tendency appeared dominant especially in the cases of iPhone users. Three out of five iPhone users (60.1%) answered that they 'became favorable' to KT while 2 out of 5 iPhone users (39.3%) answered that they 'became unfavorable' to SKT. This obviously shows that iPhone users are leading the opinion for favorable-to-KT unfavorable-to -SKT sentiment.

iPhone users have reasons for not only praising iPhone but also switching their attitude toward mobile operators. Their attitude behavior of use for smartphone are largely different than those of other smartphone users. They visit Apple's App store more frequently ('visit everyday' 56.4% vs. 10.4%) than other smartphone users, download application from there (96.6% vs. 30.9%). They downloaded more free applications ('more than 31' 62.5% vs. 9.6%), show higher rate of owning paid applications (71.0% vs. 35.7%). They spend more time on wireless internet ('more than 1 hour' 47.5% vs. 16.0%), spend less time on PC in their house after purchasing the smartphone (52.9% vs. 26.1%).

For that matter, Jin-Kook Kim, President of Marketing Insight, said "iPhone is changing everything from 'smartphone purchase use behavior' 'ion stard on mobile operator' to 'everyday life'. That's because it had satisfied the suppressed desire through unimaginable ways at a certain moment. For right now, there is no formidable counterpart for iPhone because it is too strong. But the real strong one is the consumers who had been neglected ignored. It is necessary to remind that iPhone is just a tool to demonstrate the power of consumer a message of warning."