Working around restrictions / According to the 2022 State of Mobile report by Data.ai, $320,000 was spent every minute in 2021 across the iOS, Google Play and third party app stores – making the app downloads market a $170bn industry. This is why the biggest smartphone manufacturers want users locked into their ecosystems and spending money exclusively on their platforms.
The strength of the iTest app is how it works around Apple’s ‘walled garden’ ecosystem. This means that Samsung was able to target the people it needed to (Apple users) on their own devices.
If you’d like to see more examples of brand’s working around restrictions, check out our collection here.
Try before you buy / Samsung’s iTest targets Apple users when they are searching online about phone switching or visiting a phone store. Research from Google and Ipsos shows that 53% of shoppers ‘always’ do research before they make purchases to ensure they’re making the best possible choice.
In its Spikes awards entry, Samsung claims that people often say not knowing how to use the Android operating system makes them apprehensive to switch. The Samsung iTest web app provides curious users a risk-free way of testing out Samsung’s interface and features from their existing handset. The other benefit of the iTest is that it allows users to explore at their leisure without any pressure. As the brand says in its Spikes entry ‘We also knew that trying it in a store when there’s a salesperson hovering over your shoulder isn’t a good way to be convinced.’
Cheeky challenger / Although Android is the lead operating system globally, Apple and Samsung often vie for the top position in the global smartphone market. In Q4 of 2021, for example, according to Counterpoint Research, Apple was the top smartphone vendor, although Samsung shipped more units globally across the entire year. But, despite the realities of how their business compares to each, the tone of this initiative positions Samsung as the challenger brand, even if it might not always be in reality. As Samsung openly admitted, it was designed to be fun and ‘just a little cheeky’ by going after Apple’s customers in Apple’s own ecosystem. As Adam Morgan of eatbigfish and Malcolm Devoy of PHD EMEA wrote in a 2019 article for Contagious magazine, ‘the challenger approach has become a mindset that even the largest companies find themselves required to adopt’. By taking an unconventional, disruptive and fun approach, Samsung isn’t just showcasing the functionality of its operating system but also trying to gain favour with its personality.
