Samsung Faces a Loyalty Challenge in a Growing Smartphone Market
Smartphones have become essential tools for communication, financial transactions, entertainment, and social interaction. As competition intensifies, companies increasingly need to retain existing customers rather than rely solely on acquiring new ones. Customer loyalty can help reduce customer acquisition costs and support business performance over time.
The research was motivated by an unusual development in Indonesia's smartphone market. According to data cited from the International Data Corporation, smartphone shipments in Indonesia reached 10 million units during the first half of 2024, representing 27.4 percent year-on-year growth. At the same time, Samsung experienced negative growth of 8.2 percent among the country's five leading smartphone brands, while its market share declined from 24.0 percent in 2023 to 17.3 percent in the first quarter of 2024.
This contrast between market expansion and Samsung's declining share raised an important business question: what factors influence whether existing Samsung users remain loyal to the brand?
Researchers Survey 90 Samsung Users in Bandung
Irman and Nurtjahjadi used a quantitative explanatory research design. The research focused on Samsung smartphone users living in Bandung City who were at least 18 years old and had used Samsung smartphones for a minimum of three years.
The three-year requirement was designed to ensure that respondents had substantial experience with the product and had passed at least one smartphone replacement cycle. A total of 90 respondents were selected using purposive sampling. Data were collected through an electronic questionnaire distributed through social media.
The questionnaire measured three main factors: product quality, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty. Product quality was evaluated through attributes including resistance to damage, battery endurance, data privacy protection, sound quality, and display quality. Customer satisfaction and loyalty were each measured using three indicators.
The researchers then analyzed the data using simple and multiple linear regression and the Sobel test to determine whether customer satisfaction helped explain the relationship between product quality and loyalty.
Product Quality Has a Direct Effect on Loyalty
The findings show a consistent relationship among the three variables.
- Product quality significantly increases customer satisfaction.
- Product quality significantly increases customer loyalty.
- Customer satisfaction significantly increases customer loyalty.
- Customer satisfaction partially mediates the relationship between product quality and customer loyalty.
The mediation effect is particularly important. The researchers found that roughly one-third of the total effect of product quality on loyalty is transmitted through customer satisfaction, while the remaining effect operates directly through product quality itself.
In practical terms, customers may become more loyal because they are satisfied with their smartphone experience. However, satisfaction alone is not enough. The actual quality of the device remains the stronger route toward loyalty.
The researchers therefore emphasize improvements in tangible product performance. Battery endurance and resistance to damage receive particular attention because these characteristics directly affect everyday smartphone use.
Satisfaction Helps Turn Product Experience Into Loyalty
The study also provides a useful explanation for why customer satisfaction matters.
Smartphone users interact with their devices every day and often keep them for several years. Positive experiences can therefore accumulate over time. Satisfaction can gradually strengthen a customer's willingness to continue using the same brand when it is time to purchase another device.
As Irman and Nurtjahjadi's findings indicate, customer satisfaction functions as a bridge between product quality and customer loyalty, but it does not replace the importance of product quality itself.
This distinction is relevant for smartphone manufacturers. Marketing campaigns designed to improve customer perceptions may have limited impact if customers continue to experience weaknesses in the actual product.
Implications for Smartphone Companies
The findings suggest that smartphone manufacturers should prioritize measurable improvements in product performance alongside customer-experience programs.
For Samsung, the results are particularly relevant given the market-share decline that motivated the research. Improving battery life, durability, display performance, sound quality, privacy protection, and other core product attributes could strengthen loyalty through both direct and satisfaction-related pathways.
The research also indicates that companies should not treat customer satisfaction as merely a marketing metric. Satisfaction can contribute to long-term loyalty when customers repeatedly experience reliable product performance.
However, the authors caution against interpreting the results too broadly. The research covers only 90 Samsung users in one city, uses purposive sampling, and relies on cross-sectional data. The researchers also report that two of the three constructs had reliability coefficients below the conventional 0.70 threshold. Future research could compare several smartphone brands, use larger samples, and follow consumers longitudinally through actual replacement decisions.
About the Authors
Argya Permanaputera Irman is affiliated with the Department of Management, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Jenderal Achmad Yani, and served as the corresponding author of the study. Edi Nurtjahjadi is also affiliated with the same department and university. The article identifies their academic field as management, with this research specifically addressing product quality, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty in the smartphone market.
Source
Article Title: Product Quality and Customer Loyalty: The Mediating Role of Customer Satisfaction among Samsung Smartphone Users in Bandung City
Journal: International Journal of Sustainable Applied Sciences (IJSAS)
Publication Year: 2026
Volume: 4, No. 8, pp. 825–834
DOI: 10.59890/ijsas.v4i8.37
URL: http://ijsasjournal.my.id/index.php/ijsas
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