Service & Reliability Survey 2010: Smartphones

How do you rate your smartphone vendor's technical support?
The survey returned more than 10 responses on technical support for four smartphone vendors: RIM, Nokia, Apple and HTC. For RIM and Apple the modal tech support category is 'good', while Nokia and HTC's responses cluster around 'average'. For Apple and HTC, the left-hand tail extends into 'poor' and 'abysmal' territory.

Other vendors surveyed: Sony Ericsson, Samsung, Palm, HP, Motorola, Toshiba, Acer/E-TEN, Airo, LG

How do you rate the reliability of your smartphones?
Our respondents' evaluation of smartphone reliability should be relatively encouraging for vendors. The distributions for RIM, Nokia and HTC all have 'good' as the modal category, while most of the Apple customers in our survey rate their iPhones' reliability highly:

Phones have a very limited lifespan — sometimes just past the warranty period

Other vendors surveyed: Sony Ericsson, Samsung, Palm, HP, Motorola, Toshiba, Acer/E-TEN, Airo, LG

How likely are you to repurchase smartphones from your current vendor?
If you're satisfied with a vendor's service and reliability record, you're likely to reward the company with further custom. For RIM and Apple the picture looks pretty healthy. Even so, the tail of 'possibly', 'unlikely' and 'no chance' responses show that some respondents have issues. Nokia and HTC's customers seem more ambivalent about their repurchase intentions:

When prices adjust we will change to iPhones exclusively

Other vendors surveyed: Sony Ericsson, Samsung, Palm, HP, Motorola, Toshiba, Acer/E-TEN, Airo, LG