Poll of the Week: Which smartphone brands do you trust?

Which of these smartphone brands do you trust the most?

The first question we asked you was about the brands you really trusted. And to my surprise, the results showed great variations across various NextPit domains. I did expect this to happen, though, primarily because the different domains of NextPit target different audiences and the market dynamics change a lot between countries, and so does brand perceptions. One thing that remained consistent was the fact that most of our readers spanning different domains trust Samsung a lot. 

In fact, on most of or domains, Samsung came out as the most trusted brand. The only exception was Brazil, where people seem to place a lot more trust in Lenovo owned Motorola. 

Our English speakers have unflinching faith in Samsung, with 31% voting for it. Google came in second with 15% of the votes, and Apple was a close third runner up with 14% of the votes. Chinese smartphone brands did not fare particularly well here.

In Germany, Apple is neck and neck with Samsung, with the former garnering 21% votes and the latter getting 24%. Things were more one-sided in France, where a whopping 45% of the votes went to Samsung compared to just 29% for Apple. The French also showered a lot of love for Sony (32%), Google (18%), and Nokia (15%). In fact, our French readers were also a lot more receptive to Chinese brands, including Xiaomi (19%)  Huawei (17%).

Are you wary of buying Chinese smartphones?

The next question we posed was concerning China and the smartphone brands that have emerged from the country.

Except for Brazil, all other domains voted unanimously and believe that we have not yet reached a stage where we can trust Chinese brands.

In Brazil, the opinion was, well, divided, with 45% believing Chinese smartphone brands are untrustworthy while an almost equal number (44%) believe Chinese smartphones are just fine.

Privacy: Is it just your responsibility?

In the last question of the poll, we asked you who has more responsibility for safeguarding data. The results here, too, were mixed.

While an overwhelming 67% of our French readers thought the user has more responsibility to safeguard their own data, the results were a bit more divided in Germany, with 50% opining that it is the user who has the responsibility as opposed to companies (48%).

However, our English and Portuguese readers were pretty convinced that the onus of data privacy predominantly is the responsibility of companies.

Conclusion

From the poll, it was clear that brand perception is a huge factor when it comes to general trustworthiness. Intrinsically, the more popular a brand is, the greater is the tendency to be considered trustworthy. The one outlier to this rule was Brazil, where the readers seem to have a special affinity towards Motorola in spite of the fact that Samsung has a greater market share.

The poll also showed that while most of our readers continue to be sceptical of Chinese brands, they are gradually opening up to them. This is a trend that is likely to continue for the foreseeable future as people will gradually tend to disassociate Chinese companies from the ‘oppressive’ Chinese government. 

Lastly, I was also able to make out how differently consumers from different locations across the world think when it comes to data privacy. While the Europeans seem to place a lot of value on personal responsibility as far as data privacy goes, our readers from Brazil, the USA and India want large corporations to be more responsible for the same. In fact, they also want companies to be more transparent in this regard and also expect them to educate their customers about the same.

Thank you, again, to all of you for participating in this survey. As always, do not hesitate to give me feedback on the analysis of the results or suggest other subjects that could be the subject of a survey in the coming weeks!

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Original Article

With its meteoric rise as (perhaps) the most used gadget ever discovered by humans, the modern smartphone has become an indispensable part of our lives. While its contribution to humanity can never be underrated, there are several harmful, less-pleasant aspects of the cellphone that have crept up their head(s) recently.

Today, in NextPit’s weekly poll, we want to know from you, our reader, why you bought the phone you bought. Did you buy it out of your sheer trust for the brand? If yes, which brands do you trust the most? How trustworthy are Chinese smartphones? 

More importantly, do brands even matter anymore? The point being this; even if you own a smartphone from a ‘trusted’ brand, your data is for all to see when you install an app, browse the web, purchase something online, or even play something innocuous as a game. This is irrespective of whether the phone manufacturer itself is tracking your data. This was lucidly pointed out by Fabi in his recent article, which is a must-read.

But more than that, we also want to get from you an overview of how you see this entire debate around privacy that seems to be all the buzzword these days.

Also read:

• Apps for the privacy paranoid, and how to protect your personal data
• Would you give up your privacy for a cheaper smartphone?

Without further delay, let’s get down to the questions.

Which smartphone brand do you trust?

It is always great to have choice. And as of 2021, you have the luxury of choosing between multiple smartphone brands. Some have been in the industry for decades, while others are relatively new players that have managed to carve a nice for themselves within a very short timespan. 

But which of these brands do you trust the most? (Goodbye, LG!)

The reason for your trust may not just be privacy-centric. Perhaps you like their after-sales service or their commitment and adherence to regular software updates.

Let us know!

Are you wary of buying Chinese smartphones?

There is no denying that the smartphone world is currently seeing an invasion of Chinese made phones. While smartphone brands from China have had a dubious record as far as data privacy is concerned, most Tier-1 manufacturers, including the likes of Oppo, Xiaomi, and even Huawei, have claimed that they take the data and privacy of their users very seriously. 

But has all the PR efforts paid off? Are Chinese brands still seen as “less trustworthy’ than their European/Japanese/Taiwanese/American competitors?

Vote away and let us know!

Privacy: Is it just your responsibility?

With Apple spearheading efforts to make its end users, people like you and me aware of the kind of data that ad tech firms and data brokers have access to, do you think going forward, we will see a change in the way this massive $227 billion industry is kept in check?

Or do you think the onus entirely lies with us, end-user? After all, sharing our data is something that we do by choice - even though we might have been too busy reading the fine print of the terms and conditions page when we scroll past the setup screen.

We know that data privacy is a wide topic that has many aspects and dimensions.  And given the fact that even governments have been blamed for snooping on their own citizens for “security concerns”, this is a debate that is likely to continue for the next few decades. 

Don’t forget to check back the results of this poll on Monday. And in the meantime, do let us know what you think of this topic in the comments section below!