Half of Samsung Galaxy Note 7 Users Shifted to iPhone After Recall: Survey

Samsung has asked all of its Galaxy Note 7 buyers to get their handsets replaced. To end the bad phase, Samsung is offering cash, a Galaxy S7/Galaxy S7 Edge, or even an upgrade programme for next year to placate customers. A small survey done by IDC sheds light on what Samsung Galaxy Note 7 users are inclined to opt for, after returning their recalled unit back to the company.

Market research firm IDC surveyed 1,082 US consumers through an online survey soon after Samsung killed the Galaxy Note 7. The survey had around 24 Galaxy Note 7 users, and half of these users claimed that they would return or have already returned their phones for cash, and will buy/or have already bought an Apple iPhone unit instead. However, 17 percent of these users said that they would opt for another Samsung device.

These figures are not monumental, and what 24 users think cannot really account for the general sentiment of the lakhs of Note 7 buyers. However, it does point to how Samsung may lose few loyalists because of this controversy.

Of all the 1,082 consumers surveyed, 507 are Samsung smartphone owners, 347 users were Samsung owners in the past, 228 owners never owned a Samsung smartphone, and 24 were current Note 7 users. The research firm also found out that even though the Galaxy Note 7 recall cost the company billions of dollars, it didn't impact their overall brand as much. A majority of respondents said it would not impact future decisions to buy other, non-smartphone Samsung products such as televisions and appliances.

Even though many blamed Samsung for poor recall process, the consumers found the company's response to be largely positive. Interestingly, the report also claims that 13 percent of the data pool hadn't even heard of the recall at all.

For now, Samsung is scrambling to find the reason for this debacle and all of the engineers' focus and energy has been shifted to find the cause of these explosions. In South Korea, 527 smartphone buyers are demanding Samsung to pay each plaintiff about KRW 500,000 ($440 or roughly Rs. 29,400) for time and effort lost when the phones were first recalled and then later scrapped altogether.