Survey says Apple no longer inspires passion or trust in its consumer base

[Cal Jeffrey]

There is no denying that since the death of Steve Jobs, Apple has not been the same. They may still command a large share of the tech industry but there is just something about the company in general that is not the same. Jobs brought a level of passion and trust to the brand that Tim Cook has simply not managed to cultivate.

It seems that the public, in general, has felt a lack of passion and trust. A survey conducted by The Verge in partnership with Reticle Research was released today showing how people view the “big five technology companies” – Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft (oddly enough, Twitter was also included in the results). The survey showed that when it came to trust and passion, Apple did not fare as well as its fan base might expect.

As a matter of trust, Apple did rather poorly. Amazon was found to be the most trustworthy which could help it win customers for its new “Key” in-home delivery service. Apple ended up on the lower end of the scale, just ahead of Facebook and Twitter, which were fifth and sixth, respectively.

It is interesting that Google, a company that makes its bread and butter by selling the public's browsing information to advertisers, was higher than Apple in terms of trust. What is it that the company is doing that gets it a lower ranking than Google on this factor? This question is one that Cupertino should probably consider at the next board meeting.

What is even more concerning is how respondents reacted to the question of how much they would care "if the company and its products disappeared tomorrow."

The survey query intended to gauge consumers' level of "passion" for the brands. Surprisingly, Apple came in dead last in this category. Only 40 percent of those surveyed said that they would care "very much" if Apple and its products all vanished overnight; 20 percent said they "wouldn’t care at all."

“Despite its track record on consumer privacy, record-breaking revenue and market valuation, and reputation for premium hardware and top-tier design, Apple appears to have been eclipsed by companies that are becoming more deeply embedded in the fabric of everyday life,” concluded The Verge.

So is Apple in trouble? Probably not. The numbers it turns in each quarter do not indicate any trouble in paradise. However, that does not mean that metrics like these should be ignored.

As an Apple user, I cannot say that my trust has waned for the brand, but I can say that there has been a noticeable dip in the passion behind the product since the days of Jobs. It can be felt in Apple events and it can be seen in the years of reiterative and unimaginative products since his death.

Graphics courtesy The Verge

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/71627-survey-apple-no-longer-inspires-passion-or-trust.html

 

[pencea]

"There is no denying that since the death of Steve Jobs, Apple has not been the same. "

The first sentence sums it up perfectly.

 

[oldikes]

Lol at the thought that people trust google, amazon, or MS more than apple

 

[wiyosaya]

As I see it, the reality is that even with Jobs, there would be absolutely no guarantee that crApple would be better off today than they are right now. After all, Jobs famously said, "You're holding it wrong" before crApple admitted that the antenna fiasco was their design flaw. A visionary leader, IMO, owns his mistakes instead of trying to blame those mistakes on his customers.

To me, it seems that there are many people lost in materialism.

 

[psycros]

Apple is easily the the most trustworthy company on this list other than maybe your bank..if its a GOOD bank. You can always trust Apple to do more to protect user privacy, to always maximize profits even when it hurts their customers and to always offer silly excuses when they mess up. However, I am glad to see that people understand just how dirty Facebook truly is. Its a little disturbing that Microsoft would be missed almost as little as Google, though. I guess that's what they get for trying to become GoogleApple.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

I wouldn't put any stock in those figures. All these companies are pretty much the same and there's not much to choose between any of them. Power and money is the ONLY thing that counts. It's just like going to the polls and voting. You know whatever dirtbag politician you're voting for is dirty and rotten to the core, you just have to pick who you think is the lesser of the evils and cast your vote. Not that your ballot counts anyway, those go straight to the incinerator just as soon as they've been collected, the final results were decided long before the polling stations even opened by the real clandestine powers behind the scenes pulling the all strings.

 

[Ascaris]

The survey responses seem to indicate that the only possible responses range from "Oh no!" (would care very much) to "So what?" (Would not care at all). There's a whole other side to the spectrum, though; from "So what?" to "Hooray! Good riddance to bad rubbish!"

As such, the response "care very much" could include fans of a given company as well as its most vocal detractors. People who strongly want a company to disappear "care very much," after all.

 

[dirtyferret]

Lol at the thought that people trust google, amazon, or MS more than apple

I think most people trust all the companies equally, about the same as an unsupervised dog with an dog treat.

 

[Uncle Al]

Apple has by and large lost their edge a long time ago. Instead of being a pro-customer based company they are now simply a pro-profit company, putting the screws to their loyal base. One of these days the customers are going to wake up to this fact and Apple will take a terrible tumble. If you doubt that, look what happened to Lotus and a few other "giants" that could never fail .... now just a paragraph is the history of the computer .....

Going back a but further. When the company was first started and Woz had big say in how things operated, Apple owners were loyal followers. So loyal that when a product was announced, the advanced orders frequently outnumbered the first year sales. His belief that the product would be EASILY accessible to the end user was the driving spirit of the company, they made the Apple, ][ and ][e easily accessible with a lid you could open; something the IBM, McIntosh and most computers after that missed entirely. Jobs was a good Marketer but he was no product creator. He drove his people to invent which is a great attribute but suggestions that he "created" the Lisa or the Macintosh are simply untrue no matter how they try to spin it. The man deserves his credit for being a genius at running the company, but the majority of their great "innovations" came from Xerox Parc long ago. If anyone deserves the credit for so much of what we have today, it is most certainly Xerox .....

 

[Skjorn]

The only Apple product I ever really liked were the old ipods that only held like 8GB of music I think. Kinda square with a scroll wheel and screen. But now I just use my android phone. Much easier.

I only recommend Apple products to the tech illiterate and old people.

 

[davislane1]

"There is no denying that since the death of Steve Jobs, Apple has not been the same. "

The first sentence sums it up perfectly.

He said the moment the company did a pen it would be the end.

He wasn't wrong.

 

[Cal Jeffrey]

"There is no denying that since the death of Steve Jobs, Apple has not been the same. "

The first sentence sums it up perfectly.

Yep. That's why I put it first.

 

[Squid Surprise]

"There is no denying that since the death of Steve Jobs, Apple has not been the same. "

The first sentence sums it up perfectly.

He said the moment the company did a pen it would be the end.

He wasn't wrong.

Yeah... Apple is doing so terribly now... bankruptcy is clearly around the corner...

 

[davislane1]

Yeah... Apple is doing so terribly now... bankruptcy is clearly around the corner...

Size and longevity are not the same thing. Money and brand identity aren't either.

 

[Squid Surprise]

Yeah... Apple is doing so terribly now... bankruptcy is clearly around the corner...

Size and longevity are not the same thing. Money and brand identity aren't either.

Yes.... and CLEARLY, Apple is at the "end" as you've just stated... They've been around about 40 years, never been more profitable.... clearly, their company is on the ropes...

Yes, I know there are a lot of Apple haters on here... but it's pretty obvious that Apple is NOT dying... they are not "at the end".... they are raking in money hand over fist... If this is how "the end" is - I wish I was at the end as well...

Surveys like this might show they aren't trusted - this survey is a bit suspect in my eyes - but they are still one of the most popular brands out there - millions flock to buy whatever (and I literally mean WHATEVER) they choose to sell... If Apple decided to sell "tech underwear", I bet millions would flock to buy it tomorrow...

 

[commanderasus]

 

[amstech]

Apple is easily the the most trustworthy company on this list other than maybe your bank..

Lol, you just keep on believing that.

Apple and Microsoft outright state they share your data with other companies, without explicitly asking permission. Google’s site states that they also share your data with other companies, but only if you consent to the sharing. In the case of all these companies, personal data refers to your name, email address, home address, credit card number, location history, demographic data, your contacts, and more. Microsoft names some of the partners they share with (Yahoo, Newegg and more), but they state some of their partners aren’t listed. Apple does not list the partners they share data with.

https://decentralize.today/apple-vs...company-handles-your-data-better-a7022bd452b1

 

[Polycount]

Interesting figures.

I'd probably tend to agree with chart #2 regarding how disappointed I'd be if the companies disappeared. Top 3 essential companies for me on that chart are definitely Amazon, Google and Microsoft. These are companies whose services/products I use on a daily basis, so their disappearance would have the largest impact on my life - though that doesn't mean I trust them. I don't use Facebook nor do I own any Apple products, so their disappearance wouldn't change anything about my life.

 

[techdaz]

* Apple needs to release an iphone mini. They released a watch the size of a quarter and its been selling well, the iphone mini should attract a new market that is tired of the same looking iphones. They need to solve marketing problems with what end users require as a niche for products they release. The iphone mini cannot be FLAT on the back, it needs to slide into any pocket by droping it in, it needs to be shock and water proof, or at least can be dropped without breaking the screen, it needs to have a touch screen answer call mode, it needs to have a Dark screen mode, it needs to have a loud phase array driver, it needs to have facetime, it needs to be built so its compact but very robust, as an example to an ideal iphone mini design would be a Shrunk down version of the first ipad, with the curved back and solid heavy feel. Basically a mini ipad version of the original. It would be worth the introductory price of $2,000. Its seems apple no longer has a market waiting to purchase its next iphone release, so what not a bettert way to introduce the iphone mini, its more plausible than an iphone watch!

 

[lazer]

One day, a long while back, my kids and I and their friends were sitting around and we began to compare our phones. Some had iPhones, some had Samsung and some had misc others.

We saw that the android phones were just as good in terms of basic chores, better in apps, cheaper in price. Even those who had iPhones agreed to it. My son (some time later) eventually bought a Samsung but did not like it since he was used to apple so he returned it and got another iPhone, but no one else who switched had problems.

 

[wiyosaya]

Apple has by and large lost their edge a long time ago. Instead of being a pro-customer based company they are now simply a pro-profit company, putting the screws to their loyal base. One of these days the customers are going to wake up to this fact and Apple will take a terrible tumble. If you doubt that, look what happened to Lotus and a few other "giants" that could never fail .... now just a paragraph is the history of the computer .....

Going back a but further. When the company was first started and Woz had big say in how things operated, Apple owners were loyal followers. So loyal that when a product was announced, the advanced orders frequently outnumbered the first year sales. His belief that the product would be EASILY accessible to the end user was the driving spirit of the company, they made the Apple, ][ and ][e easily accessible with a lid you could open; something the IBM, McIntosh and most computers after that missed entirely. Jobs was a good Marketer but he was no product creator. He drove his people to invent which is a great attribute but suggestions that he "created" the Lisa or the Macintosh are simply untrue no matter how they try to spin it. The man deserves his credit for being a genius at running the company, but the majority of their great "innovations" came from Xerox Parc long ago. If anyone deserves the credit for so much of what we have today, it is most certainly Xerox .....

Got that right. For a really interesting movie that was made while Jobs was a humble person (I.e., he had been kicked out of crApple for a time) this, IMO, is an excellent documentary if you get a chance to see it - no made up crap, Jobs literally says in this move that he did exactly what you said he did - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2104994/?ref_=nm_knf_t1

Edit - fixed link: Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview