A common trend that mobile operators are seeing in their subscribers today is the level of migration from one handset to another. With mobile operators being able to offer popular devices at competitive and reduced prices upon the renewal or signing of new contracts, the question arises as to whether device-subscriber compatibility plays a role in SmartPhone adoption.

With the recent launch of the Samsung Galaxy S III and the constant buzz about the release date of the new iPhone5, communication service providers (CSPs) are extremely aware of the devices that their subscribers are in the market for. Since SevenFlow enables mobile operators to see their subscribers’ migration from one SmartPhone to another, trends for OS popularity can be detected that can draw several conclusions regarding the factors that play a role in OS adoption.

A SevenFlow customer recently noticed that for the month of July, BlackBerry, Apple and Android were the top 3 leaders in both abandoned and adopted handsets. For these 3 platforms, Apple OS was the least abandoned SmartPhone, while Android was noted as having the highest adoption rate. It came as no surprise that Blackberry, whose reputation has been declining on numerous fronts for the past year, was in the least favorable position of the 3 handsets, having the highest abandon rate and lowest adoption rate.

With SmartPhone migration KPIs being measured upon SmartPhone upgrade (same user leaves a SmartPhone for another SmartPhone), mobile operators gain insight into the factors that influence the migration from one SmartPhone to another. For this same month, among all SmartPhone device upgrades, Blackberry abandon to Apple adoption topped the manufacturer migration list with 11% of the top migrations and had Apple winning shares over Samsung with more users swapping from Samsung to Apple devices (5.5%) than from Apple to Samsung (3.9%).

With the inflation of available SmartPhone devices that offer subscribers a wide range of applications and functionality, the question arises as to how the marketing mix of handsets affects the corresponding adoption rate. Is it the reputation of the product itself? The price and/or promotion that impacts adoption? Or device availability at the time of signage?

What do you think? Share your thoughts below in our comments section.