Ypulse Research: Will The iPhone Be Popular In China?

Allison Luong, Managing Director of Pearl Research, one of our new Ypulse Research partners, has written another guest post summarizing some of the highlights from their report The Phoenix Generation: China Youth Project - iPhone Purchase Intent. It feels pretty timely given all of the buzz over the new iPhone coming in July. Remember, you can now purchase this report on our new Research channel. If your company produces research and you're interested in selling it on our channel, please get in touch with Charles Pelton.

Will The iPhone Be Popular In China?

One of the things I love about my job at Pearl Research is the study of how products are accepted by different cultures and markets. In one of our latest syndicated studies involving Chinese consumers, Pearl Research wanted to understand the potential for Apple's iPhone in China. In addition to consumer interviews, we conducted store checks to understand the product's availability and demand.

The iPhone has not been officially released in China, but can be found on store shelves through gray imports. China could be a significant market for Apple with its 565 million mobile phone users and trend-conscious consumers. In fact, at 565 million, China has the largest number of mobile phone users in the world.

Some of our findings include:

- In our interviews, females were more likely to cite "trendiness" and "design" as a key factor in wanting to purchase an iPhone while males cited "utility" as the chief reason.

- The high price tag of $500 or more was the most mentioned reason for disinterest in purchasing an iPhone along with Apple's inexperience in mobile phones. The iPhone's high profile has spawned Chinese copycats that duplicate the iPhone's features at a fraction of the price, retailing for $200 to $300. Pearl Research believes the popularity of these copycat phones could cut into market share for the official iPhone.

- A key selling point for the iPhone is the ease through which users can intuitively surf the Internet on a touch-screen. This selling point of mobile Internet has less resonance in China. Through interviews with consumers, we found that most users do not use the mobile Internet extensively due to carriers' high costs for these services.

- Approximately 88% of iPod owners expressed interest in the iPhone. The iPod has created a consumer segment in China familiar with Apple products. Appealing to users beyond this core group of users remains a challenge for Apple, if it decides to release the iPhone in China.

Overall, Apple's iPhone already has piqued the interest of users in China with its unique design. However, Apple faces stiff competition from experienced mobile companies such as Nokia and Motorola, which are respected brands in China. The iPhone's high price point also narrows down its potential market to wealthy Chinese urbanites.

Note from Anastasia: We are also selling The Phoenix Generation: China Youth Project - Search Engine Preferences. Among the findings of "Baidu vs. Google" is that a strong entertainment search function is one of the key factors for the Chinese search engine Baidu's popularity over Google. More than 60% of the survey respondents listed music downloads as their main reason to go online.

You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.