Most consumers online greeted Apple's announcement of its two new phones (iPhone 5S and 5C) and its new iOS (iOS 7) positively, according to a recent analysis by NetBase.
In the 10 days leading up to unveiling of the new products, consumer sentiment on the Web was 65% positive for Apple. After the event, sentiment was 64% positive—a slight dip but still solidly approving.
The following graphic shows the change in sentiment for Apple from September 1 to September 10 at 12 PM PST (immediately after the announcement of the new products).
Below, additional data from NetBase's analysis.
Before the Announcement
According to the analysis, there were almost 3 million mentions about Apple's new products on microblogs, blogs, and social networks in the 10 days leading up to the event (September 1 - 10).
Overall sentiment ahead of the announcement was 65% positive and 35% negative.
This early sentiment, based on speculation and leaked previews, varied by product:
- iPhone 5S: 70% positive vs. 30% negative.
- iPhone 5C: 64% positive vs. 36% negative.
- iOS 7: 62% positive vs. 38% negative.
During/After the Announcement
In the hours during and immediately after the announcement of the new products (10 AM - 12 PM PST on September 10) there were about 600,000 additional mentions of Apple online.
The iPhone 5S was discussed most positively (71% positive) compared with the iPhone 5C (63% positive) and iOS 7 (63% positive).
Comments about the products included:
Positive:
- iPhone 5S: Look, fast, battery, better than the 5, camera.
- iPhone 5C: Inexpensive, beautiful and bright colors, Android free.
- iOS 7: Free, best on 5S, popular operating system.
Negative:
- iPhone 5S: Expensive, weird, slow.
- iPhone 5C: Not cheap, tacky colors.
- iOS 7: Rip off of Nokia Lumia, don’t care.
About the research: The NetBase analysis was based on mentions of Apple online in the days leading up to the announcement of its new products through the end of the unveiling event (September 1 - 10, 2013). About half of the mentions were from US consumers, with the rest coming from a mix of other countries.
