New Delhi, October, 2020.

In techARC’s Smartphone Brand Quality Index report, industry’s first end-to-end measure of smartphone brand quality released today, it was revealed that the brands having community driven approach score high on holistic quality that has a direct bearing on repurchases and recommendations to friends and family.

Sharing key findings of the report, Faisal Kawoosa, Founder & Chief Analyst, techARC said, “The active engagement of brands with its consumers through community driven approach has democratised technology as users are co-creating the products as well as processes of the brands which helps in holistically improving the quality of product as well as the engagement.”

“As these brands are increasingly adopting user driven innovation, the gap between experience and expectations is narrowing leading to overall quality,” added Faisal.

Table 1 - Top 10 Smartphone Quality Brands

There is a strong positive co-relation between the Brand Quality Score and the likeliness of them being recommended to friends and family as well as being considered for repurchases.  The top 5 brands as per Brand Quality Index also top the recommendation / repurchase score in that order. 

Realme, which ranks top on Brand Quality Index at 69.7 points is also the No.1 in the recommendation / repurchase score at 87.4.

Besides Realme and OnePlus, other three brands which made it to the top 5 holistic quality brands include Apple, Samsung, and Xiaomi.  In terms of product quality index, Apple leads the brands followed by Samsung and Realme, while with regards to engagement quality index, Realme, Xiaomi and OnePlus are the top three brands as per users.

Table 2 - Smartphone Quality Index Leaderboard

The Smartphone Quality Index Leader board given above shows the top 3 brands by Overall Brand Quality, Product Quality and Engagement Quality indexes, respectively.  Realme tops the Overall Brand Quality Index with a score of 69.7 as well as leads Engagement Quality Index with a score of 84.6.  iPhone maker Apple leads the Product Quality Index at 61.2 points.  OnePlus and Apple share 2^nd rank in the Overall Brand Quality followed by Samsung which stands 3^rd at 67.4 points.  There is a tie between Samsung and Realme on Product Quality score at 59.7 points each.  OnePlus follows closely at 58.9 points.  OnePlus also ranks 3^rd on the Engagement Quality Index, while Xiaomi earned 2^nd rank on the index.

Smartphone users do not consider the product quality alone while deciding about the brand they want to invest in.Brand’s quality is derived from a combination of both product quality and engagement quality.  Smartphones are rather seen as a long-termrelationship going beyond the purchase of product, which is why users also consider the engagement with the brand equally important.

Product Quality: The quality of the product constructs important elements of the holistic brand quality.  Users evaluate each major feature like camera, display, battery, processor, memory as well as the accessories including chargers while making their opinion about the quality of the smartphone. Quality is also impacted by look and feel, design, built quality and the software enhancements that make the overall experience smooth for a user. 

Engagement Quality: While the quality of the product is the core, engagement offered by the brand also has a bearing on the overall quality assessment.  Users have very strong expectations with regards to every touch point with the brand spreading across pre-sales, sales and post-sales functions.  Accuracy, completeness and up to mark information about the product, pricing and availability of products define the quality during pre-sales engagement.  Similarly, the conduct of actual sales, availability of the exact model and variant, options to make payment, ambience of store (in case of offline), invoicing, packaging and delivery are other key factors defining the sales engagement.  In the post sales function, which spans longest among these, regular relevant updates about software, OS and security, seeking feedback and working / implementing them, repair service and after sale experience are some cornerstones determining quality in this segment of customer journey

Interesting Insights

Some of the key findings of the research assessing performance of major brands on specific parameters as well as sub-parameters include: -

§  Users of Realme and OnePlus have got their Smartphones least repaired.  60.1% of Realme users have never got their smartphone repaired since purchase closely followed by OnePlus at 59.3%.  The reasons for repairs also included user faults like breaking of display, etc.

§  Realme users find the brand leading in the service quality with 86% of the users believing the repair and service policy and process are transparent and genuine.

§  Apple and OnePlus compete very closely for the best sales experience quality with 86.7% and 86.5% of their users finding the quality of sales process extremely good.