Priscila MendozaIndividual Project Proposal

DMGT 747Fall 2013

Prof. Miller

Background

In September 18, 2013 Apple launched iOS7, the latest operating system for the company’s mobile devices. With a complete new aesthetics and functionalities the new version on the operating system represented a big change in the iOS interface. Even before the official release there has been a huge buzz around the new iOS version, this situation is not new, since iPod’s release in 2001 there has been a historical interest on every new move that the Cupertino company makes. Nevertheless since Steve Job’s death in 2011 Apple’s performance has been on the public scrutiny and a lot of voices have raised uncertainties on Apple’s ability to keep up with the innovation path traced over the last years1 . Along with this internal situation, software and hardware competitors have been gaining market share in the mobile segment2.

Objective

The purpose of this study is to understand the state of the public opinion on iOS7 through Social Network Analysis, and how that emotional responses relate to the brand. The study consists of two phases described as follows:

Phase 1

1. General Google Search2. Google Trends Search3. Condor Blog and Web search.

Phase 2

1. Twitter: Sentiment Viz and Topsy2. Customer Reviews (two sources)3. Sentiment Analysis on the collected reviews

PHASE 1

From general Google Search I could see the huge interest present in the operating system, since for the simple query of iOS7, there are 17,400,000 answers. Google trend search shows the interest over time and its geographic locations.This tool helped me to understand that the “topic” was hot during release and after a period of about two weeks it cooled down.

For the related searches it is interesting to see searches like “jailbreak ios7” and “ios 7 battery”. These queries show the work around and concerns of some users.

Through Condor’s Web and blog collector I was able to identify the different sites that were talking about iOS7, these results allowed me to recognize some of the key players and also to see the interconnectedness levels between them.

From this search (retrieved on Sep. 29) we can see that there is not much interconnection between the websites and the blogs.

Technologytechcrunch.comthenextweb.comgigaom.comreviews.cnet.comtechmeme.comIdownloadblog.comreadwrite.comarstechnica.comzdnet.comengadget.comhowto.cnet.comnshipster.com

Apple Exclusive9to5mac.comiphonehacks.comimore.commacstories.netmacrumors.commacworld.com

Publicationstheverge.commashable.comslate.comforbes.comlifehacker.combuzzfeed.com

Newshuffingtonpost.comBlogherald.comcnn.comtechland.time.commoney.cnn.comusatoday.comnydailynews.comarticles.latimes.comabcnews.go.comhealthland.time.comfoxnews.comnews.yahoo.comwired.comnbcnews.com

Individualsmattgenmmell.com

Consultingwww.nngroup.com

MiscellaneousDigitaltrends.comWikipedia.comPlus.googlechrome.google.comreddit.com

This search was useful for identifying the sites (key players) and the categories that are talking about iOS7:One site that called my attention was the healthland.time.com by looking at the site I could identify a specific complaint about users getting dizzy because of the new animations included in the interface.

PHASE 2

4. Twitter: Sentiment Viz and Topsy5. Customer Reviews (two sources)6. Review’s Sentiment Analysis

In the first graph we can see that the twitts are located in the section that be-longs to pleasure so we can say that the general sentiment is positive, althougn in the next graph we can observe how this sentiment value decreases over time.

+_

* One important disclaimer on Sentiment Viz and all the semantic tools in general is these tools are not capable of notice sarcasm.

In this second phase I took a look to the buzz generated in twitter. For this objec-tive I used two tools (Sentiment Viz and Topsy) to collect diverse results.

For the topics that are related to iOS7 we could see the following concerns: privacy, owning you data, and dealing with the system’s bugs.

One interesting finding was the apparently random connection with the topic on Spice Latte. This is a Starbuck’s seasonal drink that is released at the be-ginning of September and that overlaped with the release of iOS7. This correlation is fascinating be-cause it tell us more about the costumer segment that is talking about iOS7 and establishes a brand to brand connection. From twitter analysis we could identify the main top-ics and complains such as battery life and the new feature on blocking numbers.

Reviews

I also collected reviews form two sites Tech-Radar and CNET. To analyze these I used Lexalythics.com from this analysis tool I found out that the entities with relative bad sentiment were Siri, the graphical appearance and the battery life. Apple is a polarized entity swinging from positive to negative sentiment. The features of Control center and future integrations of Siri in cars were the most positive entities. Steve Jobs is still a very important part of the conversation.

Siri

iPhone5

Appearance

Apple

Upgrading

Battery Life

Steve Jobs

Productive Market

Control Center

Mercedes Benz

Sentiment value from the Reviews

Conclusions

The release of iOS7 has been a very polarized innovation for Apple users and at some points by looking to emotions ex-pressed through social media we could think that it has been a negative experience for apple users, however according to Interbrand’s ranking Apple is the world’s top brand with a constant growing over the past five years3.So how does this radical release have affected the brand value?The answer to that question is tricky because if we look to the impressive 74.8% rate of adoption of iOS7 by November 14, 2003 we don’t see a direct connection between the general complaints and the actions, so, is it a natural reaction of humans to complain about something new? or is it just the tipping point in the reputation of the most valuable brand in the world?

We’ll see what happens next…

1 http://qz.com/123388/hartmut-esslinger-says-apple-no-longer-innovative-helped-steve-jobs-design-the-mac/2 http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS24442013z3 http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57605207-37/apple-bumps-coca-cola-to-become-worlds-top-brand/