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information: APPLE MACINTOSH AGAIN LEADS PC
INDUSTRY IN BRAND LOYALTY LA JOLLA, Calif., June 18, 1996 - The Apple Macintosh led the PC industry in repurchase loyalty again in 1995, as it did in 1994, according to Computer Intelligence (CI). Following Apple were Dell, Hewlett Packard, Acer and Gateway 2000, ranking second through fifth. IBM, Compaq, AST Research, Packard Bell, and NEC completed the list of top ten brands, in that order. The findings emerged from CI's recently released 1996 Consumer Technology Index (CTI), the largest and most comprehensive survey of personal computer usage in the United States. The repurchase rates measure what percentage of each brand's users who purchased a PC in 1995 purchased the same brand of PC they had previously owned. According to the CTI results, about seven in eight of Apple Macintosh users who purchased a PC in 1995 purchased another Macintosh (see table below).
Source: CI Consumer Technology Index 1996 Said David Tremblay, CI's Senior Industry Analyst for PCs, "In spite of the highly publicized troubles Apple suffered in late 1995, Macintosh users remained the most loyal users of all PC brands, with repurchase rates in 1995 nearly identical to what we measured for 1994." Not surprisingly, the CTI survey found that respondents who purchased PCs for personal use generally showed lower brand loyalty than individuals who work on employer-provided PCs. The differences are attributable mainly to price sensitivities among home PC users, who are using their own funds rather than company funds, and to the fact that home users do not need to go through the purchase approval cycles present in many corporations. Relative strengths of the top five brands varied among the market segments. For Dell, Hewlett Packard and Acer, repurchase loyalty in the workplace segment was more than twice as high as in the home segment. For Gateway 2000 and Apple Macintosh, the measures were nearly equal, although the workplace repurchase rate was higher. Dell's emphasis has been the workplace market, so it is not surprising that its repurchase loyalty is higher there. Although Hewlett Packard and Acer made strong moves into the home segment in 1995, those PCs are still fairly new, and their users have not yet reached the start of an upgrade cycle, where repurchase loyalty would be tested. Apple's results for the two segments are the most nearly equal of all the major PC manufacturers, with repurchase rates ranging from 81 percent in the home segment to a stellar 91 percent in the workplace. Tremblay asserted, "Macintosh users' loyalty is a key to Apple's future. Our research shows that Apple has done very poorly in enticing other brands' users to cross over to Macintosh. Their business relies on sales to new users and on repurchases by existing Macintosh users. As the industry matures and penetration rates rise, more and more users will already have PCs, and finding new users will prove increasingly difficult. "Sales to existing Macintosh users provide a revenue base to support the company while Apple develops new products in new sectors of the industry that can provide for its future growth," he concluded. CI's Consumer Technology Index study is the largest, most comprehensive research effort focusing on personal computer usage in the United States. An initial screening of 50,000 individuals identified PC users in home, workplace and self-employed markets. Final survey results are based on a detailed 12-page written questionnaire on the types and brands of equipment used in the three markets, which was mailed to 17,500 U.S. PC users. The survey also gathers extensive demographic information from respondents and ascertains their future PC purchase plans. Computer Intelligence, a Ziff-Davis Publishing Company, is the leading source of fact-based information for the computer and communications industries. CI's extensive research capabilities provide a wide variety of products and services that help computer and communications companies sell and market more effectively. All of the company's products and services are based on proprietary information databases built and maintained by CI specialists. Headquartered in La Jolla, Computer Intelligence has offices in Cambridge, Mass.; Farmington, Conn.; Mountain View, Calif.; and Europe. Samples of CI's extensive market data and research results, timely commentary from industry authorities and previews of upcoming technology events are available on the company's site on the World Wide Web, http://www.ci.zd.com. ### |
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