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One in five Brits 'regret' buying an iPhone

Summary: First the iPad, now the iPhone: Around one in five Brits are rejecting the iPhone, after battery flaws and the hope that a next-generation iPhone 5 would be in stock by now.

Zack Whittaker

By for London Calling |

What is wrong with us Brits?

At first, nearly a quarter of all surveyed Brits said that they regretted buying an iPad, either because they either received one as a gift or simply "didn't have the time" to pick it up and have a play. Now there's even more crushing news for Apple.

According to research carried out by a mobile phone retailer, out of nearly 1,700 polled British adults, it suggests that only a sizeable chunk are in fact happy with their iPhone purchase.

Though it seems a significant minority, 22 percent of British iPhone users said they regret buying the smartphone, which equates to roughly one in five.

(Source: Flickr, CC)

As CNET UK report, not all of those surveyed will have even owned an iPhone, so the pool size is probably smaller. But considering the current state of the smartphone economy in the UK at the moment, it still represents a significant portion.

One in four smartphones in the UK is an Android-running smartphone, while Apple's iPhone only holds a one in five equivalent marketshare. BlackBerry -- though unlikely after the recent outages and dwindling U.S. marketshare -- recently hit the 8 million-subscriber mark in the UK, accounting for 22.5 percent; a near five percent share increase ahead of Apple's.

Though it is hard to even begin to quantify that the UK is a nation of iPhone naysayers, a series of faults with the iPhone has caused widespread misery for many.

Not just limited to an ongoing, potentially unfixable battery flaw, many had hoped that the next-generation iPhone 5 would be out in September. Many therefore are still holding out for the model next year, skipping the iPhone 4S altogether.

Related:

Topics: iPad, Hardware, iPhone, Laptops, Mobility, Tablets

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20 comments
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  • The Emperor's new Clothes?

    Being influenced by marketing is one thing.

    However, the iPhone is overpriced and overrated.

    #iFail
    Tim Acheson
    Reply Vote

    • RE: One in five Brits 'regret' buying an iPhone

      @Tim Acheson Give it a rest. You wouldn't know "overpriced" if it bit you on your cheap ass.
      His_Shadow
      Reply Vote

    • RE: One in five Brits 'regret' buying an iPhone

      @Tim Acheson - The UK is clearly beyond the JRDF (Jobs Reality Distortion Field).

      And now that he has passed, one wonders if the CRDF (Cook Reality Distortion Field) will continue to power the company's success to the same degree.

      I don't believe it will.
      bitcrazed
      Reply Vote

    • RE: One in five Brits 'regret' buying an iPhone

      @Tim Acheson

      Yep, who would have thought endless flicking through grids of dead icons would ever get old? As Mary Jo remarked, the iPhone's UI is Apple's XP ;-)
      tonymcs@...
      Reply Vote

  • RE: One in five Brits 'regret' buying an iPhone

    See, also here the 80/20 rule applies.
    80% of the blackberry users regrets buying their product :-)
    RvENL
    Reply Vote

    • RE: One in five Brits 'regret' buying an iPhone

      @RvENL [i]80% of the blackberry users regrets buying their product[/i]

      I'd like to read that study... link please?

      As an owner of 4 different BlackBerrys, I have never regretted the purchase. I do intend to buy something else during the next upgrade cycle, but I did not regret my purchases.
      Badgered
      Reply Vote

      • RE: One in five Brits 'regret' buying an iPhone

        @Badgered
        Just an Apple troll. Until recently RIM had the highest loyalty.
        kirovs@...
        Reply Vote

    • RE: One in five Brits 'regret' buying an iPhone

      @RvENL

      That's funny because ZDNet has an 80/20 rule as well, 80% of readers regret reading your comments.
      Doctor Demento
      Reply Vote

  • Wheres's the data

    I do hope we're not going to find out later today that this was reported by C|Net (and copied by ZDNet) as an Apple-only phenomenon when the actual poll showed that buyer's remorse was common for all phones... as it is for all cars, all appliances, all houses, etc.

    It stretches credulity that no Blackberry owners are unhappy after Blackberry just had a huge email outage, that all Samsung owners are happy as clams, etc.

    It also doesn't sound possible that a company that sells iPhones is out telling people that many of their customers are unhappy for buying.
    Robert Hahn
    Reply Vote

  • RE: One in five Brits 'regret' buying an iPhone

    Does anyone have a link to the poll? I tried to find it with no avail. Did they contact their own customers? What were the questions?

    Also, the disappointment that the "iPhone 5" wasn't released is pretty absurd. I'm disappointed that they didn't release the "iPhone Albatross". It's a name. It's one thing to be disappointed in the feature set, but the name?
    Rich Miles
    Reply Vote

    • RE: One in five Brits 'regret' buying an iPhone

      @Rich Miles It's also a terrible time to be a car enthusiast, as every spring the auto manufacturers fail to release the police Spinner from "Blade Runner".
      His_Shadow
      Reply Vote

  • RE: One in five Brits 'regret' buying an iPhone

    Who cares? To each their own. If you don't want one, don't buy one; but if you do, don't whine about regretting the decision.
    jbach67
    Reply Vote

  • RE: One in five Brits 'regret' buying an iPhone

    A recent pole suggests that 1 in 5 readers of ZDNet blogs have...regrets.
    CowLauncher
    Reply Vote

  • Statistics are such fun!

    After all, for so much regret there seems to be much rejoicing as well. Given the massive customer satisfaction ratings for Apple wares. Clearly, producing statistics, doing sampling etc is going strong, regardless of reality or even a passing reference to it. I suggest, that when the revolution comes that along with the lawyers, the statisticians should be "first up against the wall."
    ego.sum.stig
    Reply Vote

  • Constantly amazed about how easily journalists are suckered by pollsâ?¦

    Let's see now. A mobile phone reseller which makes its money by stimulating dissatisfaction among consumers with what they already have has commissioned a survey??? which reveals that??? some consumers are dissatisfied.
    If you ask any group of people "do you have any regrets about???" anything, you will come up with a proportion that say "yes!". If they had asked the question: "what regrets do you have about purchases you made in the last three years", would 23% have said they regretted purchasing the iPhone? Very doubtful. It's extremely easy to stimulate a "yes" response when you tell people what they should be feeling regretful about. It's much more difficult to demonstrate a pattern when you ask the open question.
    MartinMTurner
    Reply Vote

  • I love these surveys

    Doesn't anybody even question the accuracy or methods of a cell phone survey by a company that sells cell phones? It kind of reminds me of the broken iPhone glass surveys where they imbedded a survey "have you had issues with your iPhones glass?" into an article titled something like "Broken iPhone glass" and (wow!) found an epidemic of people having glass issues. So a company that, sells cell phones, polls visitors about their satisfaction with their current phone because well "DUH!" if they were completely satisfied why would they be visiting a cell phone vendors web site. Now maybe the data isn't that bad, how are we to know?

    I think I will visit my local college football stadium on game day and poll the attendees about whether they like football or not. Of course I will not actually report how I got the data I will just do a press release "x% of Americans love football enough to go to a game".

    But putting that aside, and not to get really picky Zack, but you are reporting second/third hand news with no link to the original data, just like the iPad article. I am not accusing you of making this up but unless someone can point to the actual data that included the actual results and, more importantly, survey methods then this survey could actually be 100% worthless.
    oncall
    Reply Vote

  • Those that regret buying an iPhone 4S should return it.

    It's probably still new enough to get a full refund. The new Nokias are much nicer in both build quality and the WP is a much nicer ux. Plus Nokia free WiFi is very sweet!
    Johnny Vegas
    Reply Vote

    • WP7 is a dead platform

      @Johnny Vegas
      from 2% going down to 1%
      Is well known MS is unable to compete in markets driven by quality. Only they succeed where they were able to establish an early lock-in.
      theo_durcan
      Reply Vote

  • RE: One in five Brits 'regret' buying an iPhone

    "What is wrong with us Brits?"

    Failure to worship the Almighty Apple is not actually 'wrong'......
    Doctor Demento
    Reply Vote

  • RE: One in five Brits 'regret' buying an iPhone

    people need to be happy they got an iphone i mean apple is going to have a hard time keeping up with the 5 million activations a day it is getting
    BubbaFet
    Reply Vote
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