Worse, for Apple, the reaction against the brand is coming from its own fan base. Following the verdict, a significant proportion of comments on the Apple Facebook page, were strong reactions against Apple’s use of the patent laws for what was seen as trivial innovation.
That is one of the conclusions drawn by researchers at Media Measurement Ltd, a London based social media analysis company who undertook an initial review of social media commentary on the verdict for me. Their most serious conclusion is that the patent trial alienated members of Apple’s core fan base, those advocates and defenders who have provided Apple with staunch support down the years.
The graph below shows a breakdown of the types of comments about the trial made on the Apple Facebook page. They are mostly negative about Apple's actions and motives.
It is perhaps also significant that shortly after the case, rumors began to spread that Apple’s CEO was holding secret talks with Google’s about their patent conflict. Chances are Apple had already begun to add up the cost to its reputation.
Media Measurement analyzed social media data between the 3rd and 30th August to do an initial probe of the case and its fallout. Here’s what they found:
In the week beginning 24th August, over 700,000 discussions or shares of the trial and its protagonists were distributed on the web, the vast majority of them on Twitter but with a significant number (58,000) also in public Facebook posts.
The proportion of negative posts attributed to Apple and Samsung was about the same, each incurred about 62% negative sentiment. Now that might be partly attributable to the analysis software’s lack of sensitivity to the core discussion but Media Measurement used Radian 6, a commonly used sentiment analysis tool.
What it means is that Apple picked up just as much negative sentiment as Samsung did.
Media Measurement went further and explored the results with human analysis.
Sentiment against the verdict was broadly distributed across a number of issues – the patent system, Apple itself, anti-corporate culture, anti-choice, anti-Android and anti-Apple. Sentiment in favor of the verdict was very narrowly focused – it was pro-Apple.
But the big loss for Apple was on its own Facebook page, according to Media Measurement.
“Prior to the verdict, posts on Apple’s Facebook page covered a range of topics, including technical queries, questions about the release of products, complaints about price and product performance, and general messages of support and praise. In the week following the Apple/Samsung verdict, 40% of the posts specifically referred to the trial.
Following the trial, there was a large increase in negative posts on the Apple Facebook page. Despite the vitriol in some of the posts criticizing Apple for its patent action against Samsung, few defended the brand.” The graph below shows the percentages of negative, positive and neutral sentiment, among those who commented on the trial on the Apple Facebook page, according to Media Measurement Ltd. Note the substantial increase in negative sentiment towards Apple, post the verdict (the red area).
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