According to the Kantar study:
63% of consumers who bought a device in [Q1 2014] were recommended a Samsung device, more than double the rate of recommendation for Apple, and almost 10 times more than Nokia... 59% of buyers who were recommended a Samsung phone went ahead and bought one while the rest opted for other vendors in the Android ecosystem... only 6% of consumers who were recommended Samsung walked out of the store with an iPhone.
Of course, the raw numbers don't really speak to the important why of it all. It has been a longstanding practice for manufacturers to offer small rewards to carrier employees for pushing their devices, but there is also incentive for carriers to not push Apple devices specifically. Apple already commands very high subsidies, and more Apple sales means more power for Apple, and possibly even higher subsidies, which are bad for carriers. Although, the same thing could be said about Samsung and its subsidies, so this is definitely a phenomenon that needs more investigating.
