Consumer Confusion Over 4G Found in Study; 34% of iPhone Users Think They Have 4G

[czerdrill]

LOL @ this story!!!!

And people actually think Locked Bootloaders matter to the bottom line!?!?! People don't even know if they have 4g!

haha +1. Specs are about as irrelevant to smartphone shoppers as what I ate for breakfast this morning.

Speaking of +1.... Do you have Google+ yet?//// Hijack over\\\\

I would imagine that some of the iPhone people think they have 4g because the last iPhone before the 4 was the iPhone "3g"s.

yep I do, need an invite?

 

[UNC]

haha +1. Specs are about as irrelevant to smartphone shoppers as what I ate for breakfast this morning.

Speaking of +1.... Do you have Google+ yet?//// Hijack over\\\\

I would imagine that some of the iPhone people think they have 4g because the last iPhone before the 4 was the iPhone "3g"s.

yep I do, need an invite?

Nope! got it already!

Now back to this hilarity! BB users saying they have 4g? They are barely even "smart" phones!!!!

 

[FlipCpt45]

it still disgusts me how many people have no idea what they are buying, but they want it because it looks expensive or someone told them it was great.

Yep, my mom wanted to buy a smartphone.. even though she doesn't use her current dumb phone.. nor brings it with her and she barely knows how to use it when she does.

 

[bplewis24]

Everyone saying that "they only asked 3G users and therefore the Android Stats are wrong as well" are misunderstanding the survey. The question was do you plan to upgrade to a 4G device soon? And one of the options was, "I already have a 4G device"... so they were saying no i dont, because im already there. 34% of the ppl that have an iPhone answered this. 29% of android users answered this. And 24% of RIM owners answered this.

Now this means of all iPhone users polled, 34% think they have 4G, and of that 34%, 100% are wrong/misinformed. It means of all RIM users polled, 24% of them think they have 4G, and of that 24%, 100% of them are wrong. It means that of all the Android users polled, 29% of them think they have 4G. But not all of them are wrong... are some of them wrong? Probably. And going off of how many users overall are wrong (58% possibly skewed without knowing the full data set), probably about half of the users on Android that say they are already on 4G, aren't. So the real number of Android users on 4G is probably between 10% and 15%.

Yeah, the guy who wrote that "Mashable" article explaining the study was misinformed or interpreted the information incorrectly. If you go directly to the Retrivo site (who conducted the study) they say this:

At least some Android owners could be answering correctly as Android 4G phones like the HTC Evo 4G or Samsung Infuse 4G have been available for some time.

Confusion and Skepticism May Impede 4G Adoption | Retrevo

 

[tcayton49]

Of course iPhone users think they have 4g. And they will until Steve Jobs starts telling them that smartphones don't need 4g

 

[Droidarola]

I believe the i*hone statistic. I work at verizon and 5 out of 8 people that come in asking about the phone itself think it is 4G and I tell them straight up, no apple just brainwashes people saying its the i*hone 4G, the 4G in that name only means 4th generation, they are tricking you....now over here this droid right here is in fact 4G truely.....:icon_ banana:

 

[OneTenderRebel]

Hey whatever makes apple users look bad, isn't that the theory around these parts???

In completely unrelated news, you guys remember that video game lemmings when everyone just hated on living for no reason other than boredom and inferiority complex's. Yeah that was a great game.

 

[kodiak799]

I don't think it's coincidence that Apple chose to continue with the numbering to confuse people about the phones being 4G, rather than name everything something like the "IPhone Dream" or "IPhone Ultimate".

I also wouldn't expect dissimilar results if you pulled Android owners if they have 4G or even know what it is. I thought the speeds would be a lot bigger selling point, but when you realize the average user only consumes some 500megs of data a month, the majority don't need superfast internet on their phone.

Now, VZW plan with unlimited tether for $30 could be a huge selling point as that offers a faster and extremely competitive alternative to home broadband...but of course that's only to grandfather users at this point.

 

[czerdrill]

Everyone saying that "they only asked 3G users and therefore the Android Stats are wrong as well" are misunderstanding the survey. The question was do you plan to upgrade to a 4G device soon? And one of the options was, "I already have a 4G device"... so they were saying no i dont, because im already there. 34% of the ppl that have an iPhone answered this. 29% of android users answered this. And 24% of RIM owners answered this.

Now this means of all iPhone users polled, 34% think they have 4G, and of that 34%, 100% are wrong/misinformed. It means of all RIM users polled, 24% of them think they have 4G, and of that 24%, 100% of them are wrong. It means that of all the Android users polled, 29% of them think they have 4G. But not all of them are wrong... are some of them wrong? Probably. And going off of how many users overall are wrong (58% possibly skewed without knowing the full data set), probably about half of the users on Android that say they are already on 4G, aren't. So the real number of Android users on 4G is probably between 10% and 15%.

Yeah, the guy who wrote that "Mashable" article explaining the study was misinformed or interpreted the information incorrectly. If you go directly to the Retrivo site (who conducted the study) they say this:

At least some Android owners could be answering correctly as Android 4G phones like the HTC Evo 4G or Samsung Infuse 4G have been available for some time.

Confusion and Skepticism May Impede 4G Adoption | Retrevo

If this is the case, I think its a skewed study. Doesn't really make sense to ask people who actually do have 4G, and then compare them to people who have no chance of having 4G. I think we'd see the results would be pretty similar if you asked people who definitely didn't have 4G android phones or you wait until iPhone gets a 4G iteration and youd find android users are no smarter then any other group.

There's no evidence to suggest that android users are smarter then iOS or RIM users and I'll never understand why people continue to say that they are. The average smartphone user (including members of this very forum) have no idea what any of these specs mean, nor do they care.

 

[czerdrill]

I believe the i*hone statistic. I work at verizon and 5 out of 8 people that come in asking about the phone itself think it is 4G and I tell them straight up, no apple just brainwashes people saying its the i*hone 4G, the 4G in that name only means 4th generation, they are tricking you....now over here this droid right here is in fact 4G truely.....:icon_ banana:

You won't have that problem when iPhone actually does get 4G.

 

[nlinecomputers]

Of course iPhone users think they have 4g. And they will until Steve Jobs starts telling them that smartphones don't need 4g

Most users really DON'T need 4g. I know lots of smart phone users and most don't use 10% of the phones capabilities. Power users are rare. I would call myself a power user and I don't have a 4g phone and don't really want one. I prefer the longer battery life.

 

[Detonation]

People need to stop turning this into an anti-apple story. The point of it is that the average "dumb" consumer doesn't really know what 4g is, no matter what OS of phone they buy.

I feel like I have to say this too often on these forums. We are a community of tech savvy users but the majority of people don't care about specs, boot loaders, OS updates (or in this case, 4g knowledge). They just want a fancy phone that works. And if they're not going to the store to just automatically buy an iphone, then they're going to buy whatever the rep pushes on them the most.

 

[jroc]

In Sprint's case, isnt there an extra charge for 4G? I would hope ppl know what they are being charged for when they get phone bills...

 

[the kid escobar]

Sprint charges an extra 10 bucks a month for their 4g WiMAX data.

In regards to the confusion with the iPhone, I don't think it is only a customer ignorance deal. I work for Verizon as a salesman. When ordering accessories for the iPhone, some of the 3rd party faceplates and such, are labeled for the iphone 4G which is ridiculous if you ask me. I can't tell you how many times people come in, and after showing them the smartphones, they ask if the iphone is 4g


Sent from my HTC ThunderBolt using Tapatalk

 

[nlinecomputers]

Sprint charges an extra 10 bucks a month for their 4g WiMAX data.

In regards to the confusion with the iPhone, I don't think it is only a customer ignorance deal. I work for Verizon as a salesman. When ordering accessories for the iPhone, some of the 3rd party faceplates and such, are labeled for the iphone 4G which is ridiculous if you ask me. I can't tell you how many times people come in, and after showing them the smartphones, they ask if the iphone is 4g


Sent from my HTC ThunderBolt using Tapatalk

Yes they ask if it is 4g but do they understand what they ask for or they just asking for the latest hot technobabble term. Most people buy smart phone in part for the same reason they buy cars. To look stylish.