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Between the Lines

Larry Dignan, Andrew Nusca and Rachel King

Apple tops smartphone competitors in customer satisfaction

By | September 9, 2011, 1:35pm PDT

Summary: Apple continues to dominate in the smartphone market, especially thanks to customer satisfaction according to a new report.

Apple has yet another piece of news to be happy about. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company has once again garnered the top spot among smartphone manufacturers in when it comes to customer satisfaction, according to the latest survey from J.D. Power and Associates.

This is Apple’s sixth consecutive win in the J.D. Power and Associates survey.

The 2011 U.S. Wireless Smartphone Customer Satisfaction Study—Volume 2 comprises responses from 6,898 smartphone owners fielded between January and June 2011.

Key factors for measuring smartphone satisfaction were performance, ease of operation, features and physical design.

Based on a 1,000-point scale, Apple scored 838, while HTC came in a close second with a score of 801. The divide was even closer between Samsung and Motorola, which scored 777 and 775 respectively.

However, Samsung still did quite well for itself in the feature phone category by claiming the top spot with a score of 718. LG, Sanyo, and Sony Ericsson all came in behind by incredibly close numbers at 717, 716 and 709 respectively.

Strikingly, the survey found that customers who own 4G-capable devices are happy with them for the most part. Maybe the rapid speed and performance really does outweigh poor battery life concerns?

That would appear to be the case as satisfaction among customers using 4G-capable phones averaged 819, compared with 786 among customers using 3G phones.

Another survey from London-based brand valuation consultancy firm Brand Finance named Apple as the second most valuable brand on the planet after its value rose by 33 percent — overtaking Microsoft for the first time.

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Topics

Rachel King is a staff writer for ZDNet based in San Francisco.

Disclosure

Rachel King

Rachel King has no business relationships, affiliations, investments, or other potential conflicts of interest relating to the content posted in this blog.

Biography

Rachel King

Rachel King is a staff writer for CBS Interactive in San Francisco. Before serving as a contributing editor at ZDNet in New York City for two years, she previously worked for The Business Insider, FastCompany.com, CNN's San Francisco bureau and the U.S. Department of State. Rachel has also written for MainStreet.com, Irish America Magazine and the New York Daily News, among others. Rachel has a B.A. in Mass Communications and History from the University of California, Berkeley and a M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University, where she served as art director for the student magazine, Plated.

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RE: Apple tops smartphone competitors in customer satisfaction
Rick_Kl 13th Sep
@Pete "athynz??? Athens: JD Power cannot be highly regarded, because they did not choose the same phone Peter likes. Personally I do not put a lot of stock in anything other than this. Does the device do what I want it to do? If the answer is yes, buy the product. If the answer is no, then do not buy it.
There fixed your headline for you. Get off your knees iPhone users!
@Johnny Vegas
What a hater!
@Johnny Vegas
I've had a couple iPhones, including an iPhone 4 right now. I've had only a handful of dropped calls, and I only recall 1 that was when I wasn't driving between cities and was too far from a tower and it said No Service for a few minutes. I still would like to know who all these dropped call people are... the only ones I hear complain about iPhones dropping calls are the people that don't own them.... and a few people that live in south california.
@Johnny Vegas
The iphone doesn't have a perfect score so we don't have enough details from the survey to statistically determine that all (or any) iphone users who were getting dropped calls still were content. What it most likely does show is that very few iphone users had this issue thus the issue was very much overblown by MS fans.
@Johnny Vegas That's it, everyone else is wrong and you're right.

Feel clever now?
@Johnny Vegas

That's right. Millions of iPhone 4 users are wrong, but YOU are right. How comforting.
@Johnny Vegas: ... no problems with the devices. So figure out yourself what does it mean.
@Johnny Vegas Off your meds again? Looks that way to the rest of the world. Oh, and you are so, like boringly useless, or maybe it's just uselessly boring, or both? Whatever. Keep whining about things of which you obviously know nothing at all.
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Imagine evene polling...
johnmckay 12th Sep
@Johnny Vegas

Why bother... the poll is meaningless. Nobody ever bought a bad car; they just know folk that did. And no self respecting zealot ever has anythig but praise for being locked into Apple. Nobody asked me mind you, or I would have mentioned the 1 day battery life of my iphone 4, the pain of wiping my ipad if I attach to my work pc etc.

The only folk that believe these surveys are the folk that take the time to fill them in. Everyone else knows they are worthless, egotistical rubbish.
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RE: Apple tops smartphone competitors in customer satisfaction
LoverockDavidson_-24231404894599612871915491754222 9th Sep
A phone that drops calls and had antenna issues tops the customer satisfaction ratings. That's setting the bar low.
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it's a poll of thousands of actual users...
Davewrite Updated - 9th Sep
@LoverockDavidson_

so all this proves is not the bar is low but that antennagate was exaggerated hype generated by android loving biased tech reporters and short sellers of apple stock. Actual USERS love the phone.

the return rate of iPhone 4 at 1.6% (at the PEAK of the antennagate hype) vs rumored 30% of some androids reinforces my argument that antennagate was FUD.
@Davewrite wasn't the guy that screwed up the antenna fired? It must've been important enough that they kicked him out over the issue.
@LoverockDavidson_ Ask yourself, did it actually have antenna issues? Or was it just that finding a spot on the phone where attenuation happens noticeably was really easy because it had a line on it? (ALL antenna will have the same issue)
@Jeremy-UK
"(ALL antenna will have the same issue)"

We see that Steve Jobs can convince atleast one person of this
@brad1000 The Motorola phone I had at the time the story broke was more likely to drop a call if you held the lower section. The Nokia I had before that would more often drop calls if you held near the top left...

Antenna attenuation is a physical characteristic, and is unavoidable. There are things you can do to minimise it, but it is unavoidable. If you have a phone with a metal case and a plastic section try covering the plastic section with your hand... See?
@LoverockDavidson_
I can't believe I actually agree with you after your many linux comments.
I think it got the top spot because of Apple's T&Cs
page 18 para. 12 sect. 8
If you participate in a poll regarding your new purchase you cannot make derogatory remarks or select a score less than 97%. despite how poorly it may perform.
Failing to do so will result in the confiscation of your phone without compensation.
@stubright You see dead people too?
@stubright I hope that is not in Apple?s T&Cs, because Microsoft would sue them for copying Microsoft?s property.
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Won't sue
rhonin 11th Sep
@Rick_Kl
Not to worry.
MS set their bar at 95%.... wonder why?

grin
@LoverockDavidson_ Maybe everyone else has different priorities than you. I almost never use voice anyway, being severely hearing impaired, and texting is my primary means of communication with most of my family.
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No competition
facebook@... 9th Sep
No Android phone is compelling enough to evoke such brand loyalty. I have had Samsungs, HTC, and Sony smart phones on Sprint and Tmobile. None of them impressed me. It is less of a function of the device itself as a failing of the software and the OEM add-ons.

Now, let's see what happens when Mango ships with a solid carrier and hardware.
@facebook@...
There already are ways to get Mango on your device if you really wanted. Now, let's see what happens when ICS ships with a solid carrier and hardware.
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I would like to see
davebarnes 9th Sep
a flame war between
Johnny Vegas and LoverockDavidson_
@davebarnes
What would the topic be? Which one of them loves Ballmer more?
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@anono ... Lovey has stuck his neck out claiming that NO tablet not even a Windows tablet can be a long term success. Where I think Johnny boy that everything touched by MS is gold and so there for shall the Windows Tablet be.

Pagan jim
@anono

Who will get the better rate?
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Wait!!!!
rhonin 11th Sep
@anono
I need to runout and get another case .......... of popcorn!

wink
No kidding. They don't have to be so obvious about it. I mean, except for you, the left column of this thread is a veritable Who's Who of Microsoft Munchkins. Don't they bother to read ahead to see whether other Munchkins are already active in the thread?
I see the snarky "Apple zombie" replies have started.

If choosing and enjoying a device that simply does what it is advertised to do without drama and without Google searches for "how-to" articles, then I guess I am an Apple zombie.

The reported customer sat results are no surprise to me. In the two instances (in my entire lifetime) of needing Apple support, I was pleasantly surprised by the efficiency and expertise of the service. If someone named Peggy works for Apple support, she is a she and does not work out of an east European shack.

In short, though I have owned (and own) other vendors devices, none has been as reliable, functional and honest (in the sense of doing what the side of the box says it does) as Apple products. Steve Jobs may be arrogant but, to borrow a cliche, it ain't bragging if you do it.
@codougd You are correct, sir. That, however, does not matter to the whiners, haters, screechers, bleaters, and mouth-frothers who post here regularly, decrying everything Apple, or everything not-owned-by-them. The will persist in their great sound and fury, with the usual results.
Consider the source, JD Powers isn't all that highly regarded.

I am not saying the phone isn't highly rated, I am sure it is, it is a decent phone but it isn't the best phone on the market.
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How does one determine the best?
James Quinn Updated - 9th Sep
@Peter Perry... Tech specs, OS, design, materials, ecosystem? The list goes on and on. Personly when it comes to an organization that puts it ALL together best Apple is right there:). Of course that is a personal choice on my part.

Pagan jim
@James Quinn

Tech Specs - the phone was behind When it launched.

OS - it is still behind in Features.

Design - is very nice and very original and others have done well.

Materials - My Droid X2 and the Thunderbolt have just as good material qualities.

Ecosystem - Google offers everything but Music at the moment but Amazon fills that need for Android so the ecosystem is everybit as complete.

Reality, the iPhone is a decent phone but the only place it is #1 appears to be video recording.
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@James Quinn ... As is the norm for you:). It's never about anyone thing. It's about everything in the right balance. As for music well you mentioned it your self you have to go elsewhere for it. None stop shopping... It's a gas. What about number of apps? Of all the many Andriid Phones you only found two? Seriously?? Things are even worse than I thought.

Pagan jim
0 Votes
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Android has no eco-system.
Bruizer 10th Sep
@Petter Perry

It is simply atrocious. From any media (getting media on and off an Android device is laughable especially the most common, music), to 3rd party adapters to 3rd party accessories, Android's eco-system is simply pathetic.

The Android OS, while rich on "features" is very very poor on polish. It is still laggy with the fastest hardware. It makes very poor use of memory resources and has a sub-standard and poorly thought out and implemented multi-tasking model.
@Peter Perry

People that actually care about the system with both the software and hardware, the iPhone 3G S beats the best Android phone on the market hands down.

Trouble with Android is decent hardware crippled by very poor software design at the OS level.
@Peter Perry

I'd like to know more about how JD Powers "isn't all that highly regarded." Can you give us more info about that?
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Apple I Pad's
Greg Lancaster 10th Sep
If Apple gave me an I Pad, I'd send it back postage due....
0 Votes
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Clever.... NOT!
James Quinn 10th Sep
@Greg Lancaster ... Just saying:)

Pagan jim
@Greg Lancaster I don't think you have any worries there, Zippy.
@Greg Lancaster Why?
@Greg Lancaster

Send it to me: I'll pay the postage.
My iPod touch drops less call than Android. Android fans don't come back with something stupid like, you can't make "fon" calls with a iPod.
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How droll
ego.sum.stig@... 10th Sep
Some of the typcial usual suspects choking on their doritos because the world plus mangy dog likes the iPhone. It'd be more surprising to see summer occur in Murmansk.
Never mind what a survey of 7,000 people selected at random says, my iPhone electrocuted my dog, set fire to my house, jumped in the car and drove it into a tree. To be safe, everyone should buy and install Microsoft Windows.
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Yeah you won't have any problems with your car
James Quinn Updated - 10th Sep
@Robert Hahn... crashing:). Just crashing! In all seriousness that post of yours was funny! Thanks!

Pagan jim
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Yeah you won't have any probles
James Quinn 10th Sep
@Robert Hahn
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I don't believe you
SonofaSailor 10th Sep
@Robert Hahn

... that your iPhone did all those things.

Because it doesn't have real multi-tasking.
This isn't surprising. Apple are hell bent on making sure Samsung and HTC have no smartphone business.
@Pete "athynz??? Athens: JD Power cannot be highly regarded, because they did not choose the same phone Peter likes. Personally I do not put a lot of stock in anything other than this. Does the device do what I want it to do? If the answer is yes, buy the product. If the answer is no, then do not buy it.

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