Shiny iPhone Survey Results: Part 4: iPhone's let downs
Yesterday, I looked in more depth at what our survey respondents rated as the iPhone's best features.
Today it's the turn of the things that could be set to let the iPhone down, taking some of the gloss off its shiny finish.
As borne out by some other surveys, the biggest problem most respondents noted was the expense. 41.8% put "too expensive" as their number 1 peeve, and, when weighting the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place votes, it ran away with the most votes (729).
With that whopping vote, it's unsurprising that the remaining negatives were fairly evenly spread. Poor battery life got 15.5% of the first place vote, and 485 overall votes, followed by the lack of a physical keyboard (11.6% in 1st place, 268 votes overall).
Being tied to a single mobile network didn't go down too well either, with 9.3% of the vote, and 320 votes overall.
Risk of screen damage had 173 weighted votes overall, but with the price being such a factor, the remaining possible problems — camera spec, not business oriented, and the delay — barely registered on the scale.
Interestingly, the lack of 3G support came down in fifth overall place, with 136 votes. Whether that means people really aren't bothered about it, don't think they'll use it, or thought that the other issues were even more important, isn't clear. I was anticipating the lack of 3G support, in the UK that is now used to the technology, to be a much bigger issue than it turned out to be.
The results were much the same for men and women, though a larger proportion of women (nearly half) found the cost prohibitive, compared with 38% of men.
The cost issue was so polarising, that it made little discernible difference between age groups, those who owned more expensive Apple computer equipment, or iPod owners.
Price is definitely a major barrier to the iPhone's adoption, to the extent that certain features that might be flagged up if missing from other phones (camera, 3G, etc.) register only fleetingly.
All that said, charging over the odds for products is something Apple does well, and people pay for the privilege of owning the product.
The battery life issue is something that won't really be known until people are using it in the real world.
UK's biggest iPhone survey: iPhone looks great, it's expensive, 7.6% want one
Shiny iPhone Survey Results: Part 1: Who's getting an iPhone?
Shiny iPhone Survey Results: Part 2: The price is right
Shiny iPhone Survey Results: Part 3: iPhone's best features
Shiny iPhone Survey Results: Part 5: Network issues
Survey Results: Part 6: The Rivals
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