Apple, Samsung battle spills over into PCs, tablets on customer satisfaction, says ACSI

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Tablet customer satisfaction is outpacing laptops as remote work and education take root and Apple and Samsung lead, according to the latest American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI).

ACSI's ratings are reported on a scale of 0 to 100. ACSI said:

Customer satisfaction with personal computers—including desktops, laptops, and tablets—is steady at 78 (100-point scale) following a 1.3% uptick one year ago.

But consumers tend to be happier with cell phones with a rating of 80. Desktop PC users represented only 20% of survey respondents, but had a satisfaction rating of 80, a tally that is higher than laptop users at 77.

Tablets sit in the middle of customer satisfaction with 78 with Apple and Samsung leading the pack. Apple and Samsung also led in laptops with Lenovo, Dell, HP and Acer lagging.

On the software front, Microsoft's ACSI was stable at 77 after a 3% drop a year ago. Smaller software vendors--think Adobe, Norton and Intuit's TurboTax--scored 76.

Here's the overall view over 5 years and by vendor.

The blend of PC, tablets and laptops in the ACSI rankings introduces vendors into the mix that typically aren't in PC and laptop space. Amazon doesn't make PCs but has ticked down in ACSI due to tablets.

Here's a look at the computing device market and rating by feature.

And here's the breakdown by device.