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Hitwise Intelligence - Sandra Hanchard - Asia Pacific

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IPhone Australian Launch - Features & Apps driving Consumer Interest

June 12, 2008

When it comes to mobile phones I am a luddite - being the recipient of hand-me-downs for the past few years. But with the announcement of a launch date for the iPhone in Australia, I'm tempted to acquire one for myself.

Robin writes about the iPhone hype in the UK market, and consumer interest in Australia is no different. Hitwise measured over 5,000 search variations on 'iphone' by Australian Internet users prior to the official announcement including, 'iphone australia', '3g iphone', and 'iphone review' (4 weeks ending 7/6/08). Searches for '3g iphone' ramped up mid-April this year, and increased by 67% comparing weeks ending 31/5/08 and 7/6/08.

Given that much of the news related to the iPhone has been based on a rumoured launch date, I thought it would be interesting to do a break-down of the search queries to see what has been driving consumer interest. I created some search term portfolios and compared search volume for queries related to the release date, reviews and news, carriers and features and apps.

This chart highlights that it's really the features and third-party applications of the iPhone that have been a large component of consumer search; examples of terms include, 'iphone applications', 'iphone games' and 'iphone specs'. While the term, 'iphone price' ranked at #20 amongst search variations, I expect these types of queries will increase now that we have an official launch date.

For marketers, this type of analysis can be used in a product launch strategy to help quantify what consumers are likely to research. In the electronics space, communications and messaging around product specs is crucial in meeting consumer interest.

Now that Vodafone and Optus have been named as official distributors, it'll be interesting to see in the coming weeks if and how website traffic is re-distributed from News & Media websites (which attracted 11.49% of search traffic from 'iphone') to Telecommunications and Retail websites.

Tweet Posted by Sandra Hanchard at 11:49 AM | (1) | (0)
In Categories iPhone

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