According to Buzz Marketing Group, Apple’s days as the top mobile brand for the “cool crowd” are numbered as the Samsung Galaxy and Microsoft Surface are gradually winning over the younger generation.
It states that while Apple has dropped points or remained flat in opinion polls, Microsoft and Samsung have spent millions of dollars on advertising campaigns that paint the image that the iPhone is for old people (parents and late adopters), sending the message hat teens should move onto the “next big thing.”
Tina Wells of the youth marketing agency Buzz Marketing Group told Forbes.com that teens are telling them “Apple is done”.
Wells went on to say: “Apple has done a great job of embracing Gen X and older [Millennials], but I don’t think they are connecting with Millennial kids. [They’re] all about Surface tablets/laptops and Galaxy.”
Insites-Consulting’s Joeri Van den Bergh also supported the notion that Apple has stuck to a well-tested formula, which isn’t exciting people the way it used to. He said: “There was quite some negative buzz about the iPhone 5 and the lack of a real incremental innovation, except for the screen size and weight, when compared to the 4S. So this has an effect on the originality component of coolness.”
However, the marketing executives interviewed by Forbes went on to say that with a bit of innovation they could win over young people again.
Wells said: “Everything moves in cycles and you can’t rest on your past glory. You’ve got to evolve to maintain relevance. Apple just needs to focus on innovation and teens will come back.”