Having some brand experience at market leaders, aided recognition over 50% is a nice mark to hit with only a small amount of advertising, and happens regularly when consumers think a brand “should” be in a category, but isn’t.

Agreed that proof is always in the execution and I’m not a fan of AT&T’s infrastructure v. Verizon’s from a technical performance standpoint.

I had seen the NY Times article as well.

“The fact that a new entrant can command brand recognition leadership pre-launch is pretty amazing”

I agree with this, but I think we will be able to check if this statement is really true (and if the research numbers are as well) once we get some initial sales figures.

An interesting addition to Compete’s survey would be to see results of a conjoint analysis to understand the value each feature/element adds, including the Apple brand. Asking a person about each component of a product individually completely misses the fact that bundles of features, and benefits that come from them, are all put in perspective with price, branding, interoperability, etc.

Notably, the NY Times noted a survey saying 64% of cell phone users had brand recognition of the iPhone, and that 14% of that audience were “highly interested in buying an iPhone”. The fact that a new entrant can command brand recognition leadership pre-launch is pretty amazing stuff that has a ton to do with the brand, IMHO.