Apple tops smartphone competitors in customer satisfaction
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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