Apple's iPad ranks highest in overall consumer satisfaction for tablets, says JD Power
American consumers have ranked Apple's iPad ahead of every other tablet for a third time, according to J.D. Power's 2014 U.S. Tablet Satisfaction Study, as overall satisfaction declines thanks to new low-cost entrants.
The iPad scored five out of a possible five on J.D. Power's Power Circle ratings, the only tablet to do so. Samsung, Asus, and Amazon followed with 3 circles each while Acer brought up the rear with just two circles.
Consumers are increasingly price sensitive when choosing a tablet, weighing cost more heavily than features or brand reputation. Cheaper tablets have not only driven down the average tablet selling price -- which dropped from $390 in 2012 to $337 in 2014 -- but also overall consumer satisfaction, which dipped to 835 points last year from 853 points in 2012. Satisfaction is scored on a 1,000 point scale.
"Since the inaugural U.S. Tablet Satisfaction Study in 2012, a number of new tablet OEMs have entered the U.S. marketplace, differentiating themselves to satisfy a growing interest in owning a tablet," J.D. Power telecommunications services director Kirk Parsons said in a release. "Price has significantly impacted the marketplace. The average purchase price continues to drop and consumer expectations of tablet performance and features are different than they were for past products. Subsequently, overall satisfaction has declined, especially with ease of operation, as navigation features and functions have changed."
J.D. Power created a mild controversy last fall when the firm ranked Samsung's tablets ahead of the iPad solely on the basis of cost, despite Apple's clear wins in performance, ease of use, physical design and features. The iPad lost the cost battle again in this most recent report, but came out on top overall.
The iPad scored five out of a possible five on J.D. Power's Power Circle ratings, the only tablet to do so. Samsung, Asus, and Amazon followed with 3 circles each while Acer brought up the rear with just two circles.
Consumers are increasingly price sensitive when choosing a tablet, weighing cost more heavily than features or brand reputation. Cheaper tablets have not only driven down the average tablet selling price -- which dropped from $390 in 2012 to $337 in 2014 -- but also overall consumer satisfaction, which dipped to 835 points last year from 853 points in 2012. Satisfaction is scored on a 1,000 point scale.
"Since the inaugural U.S. Tablet Satisfaction Study in 2012, a number of new tablet OEMs have entered the U.S. marketplace, differentiating themselves to satisfy a growing interest in owning a tablet," J.D. Power telecommunications services director Kirk Parsons said in a release. "Price has significantly impacted the marketplace. The average purchase price continues to drop and consumer expectations of tablet performance and features are different than they were for past products. Subsequently, overall satisfaction has declined, especially with ease of operation, as navigation features and functions have changed."
J.D. Power created a mild controversy last fall when the firm ranked Samsung's tablets ahead of the iPad solely on the basis of cost, despite Apple's clear wins in performance, ease of use, physical design and features. The iPad lost the cost battle again in this most recent report, but came out on top overall.
Comments
(edit: never mind...)
All we need now is for Apple to admit you can't get away without a file system of some sort. I heard Marco Arment talk about this recently. I'm thinking a good solution would be to have an app called Files created by Apple which contains all your files and have apps that plug into that system simply display an alias of the documents from Files they are capable of working with.
That would give business users a powerful way to view all of their documents and edit them in any app on their iPad, jumping back and fourth between apps. That'd be powerful and it would keep iOS clean and pretty simple.
And AirDrop from Redwood to iOS 8 wouldn't hurt either. I'm getting fed up using PhotoSync.
Redwood? Yep. That's my guess, and one of my favourite places I've yet to visit in the world.
I'm sorry, but what a stupid graphic.
All we need now is for Apple to admit you can't get away without a file system of some sort. I heard Marco Arment talk about this recently. I'm thinking a good solution would be to have an app called Files created by Apple which contains all your files and have apps that plug into that system simply display an alias of the documents from Files they are capable of working with.
Marco's a smart guy, but he doesn't seem to be able to put away his developer hat on this subject. He seems to be in the 'iPad is doomed' (or at least has peaked) crowd for some reason.
90% of people don't need direct access to the file system. I know that for people who live and breathe computers, that makes them 'morons'. Sorry, but they're the ones who pay the bills.
For the other 10%, I'm sure that there will be an iPad Pro down the road that fits that niche need, but for Apple to design for that 10% and lose the 90 would be just plain nuts.
I'm a power user by any definition of the word. Musician and programmer who can make the damned OS sing any way I want it to, from the GUI or the command line.
And yet I now use my Mac once or twice a month, do my programming on my Wintel poc at work, and do my music and everything else on my iPad.
Granted, its because I enjoy the challenge of working around the limitations, but I'm not so blindered as to think that this is the end of the line in iOS development.
I'm all in on the iPad.
All that seems to have happened is that J D Power looked stupid last year, realized their mistake, and fixed it.
Nothing to see here.....
They adopt, adapt, and tweak, but they are seldom true innovators.
Their auto industries followed suit. [....no punning intended...]
I agree that we're not going to be shocked by Apple being number one but I don't think JD Power made a mistake, per say. I think they ran their numbers and those were the results. No miscalculation or skullduggery at play.
Touch ID, a sapphire glass display and improved speakers and iPad Air would be close to the perfect product. As it is I think it's possibly the best product ever made.
All we need now is for Apple to admit you can't get away without a file system of some sort. I heard Marco Arment talk about this recently. I'm thinking a good solution would be to have an app called Files created by Apple which contains all your files and have apps that plug into that system simply display an alias of the documents from Files they are capable of working with.
That would give business users a powerful way to view all of their documents and edit them in any app on their iPad, jumping back and fourth between apps. That'd be powerful and it would keep iOS clean and pretty simple.
And AirDrop from Redwood to iOS 8 wouldn't hurt either. I'm getting fed up using PhotoSync.
Redwood? Yep. That's my guess, and one of my favourite places I've yet to visit in the world.
Actually that is the reason for doc in the cloud, they do not need to be resident on the device, yes I know what happen when it not connect to the internet. Like some app already on the ipad they store things locally until you connect and synce things back up again. I remember people complaining about doing away with the floppy drive then the CD drive and so on. The funny thing I had not use a floppy as a way to move or store files since the 90's I was already using the network and file servers and wireless long before other were I could not see an reason way back why you need physical media to store your files and move them around.
My only issue about cloud storage is you now place your stuff where others could possibly get hold of it. But I do no think you need a file system if you document are stored on a server some place you can access at any time.
There is an old saying which is pigs do not know pigs smell so they have no problem making everyone else deal with their smell. This is what happens in consumer electronic industry you go a bunch of pigs making it all smell bad and drag the entire market down. Yeah Apple maybe able to do well, but as more and more people buy the garbage and realize it smells bad they will not bother to come back again. All the pigs in the market make it hard for the rose to be enjoyed.
I know so many people who have such problems with Android--but have never tried an iPhone and quite rightly feel that ANY smartphone is awesome compared to when we had none. So they say they LOVE their phone despite the frequent problems with malware, battery drain, and lack of the apps I love that they can't have.
It's exactly like people who used to love their always-crashing PC laptop because it's better than the one before... and have never tried a Mac.
It falsely makes one think the experience is nearly as good as Mac/iOS.
Surprised by these number. Seems only Amazon tablets seem to get a lot of praise.
Of course, the cheaper the tablet, the worse it is.
Many tablets just freeze.
There are two kinds of tablets. Those for productivity/near/sometimes laptop replacement (iPad) and tablets for consumption, excluding the Windows Slate.
The vast majority of tablets are probably the 7" variety used for consumption.
Still, surprised by the numbers based on observed reviews.
All the little birdies go "Cheap, cheap, cheap." Most global consumers are all pecking around for low-cost Android tablets. Most consumers don't care if a tablet is made out of plastic. They're only looking to save a bunch of bucks. So many people consider the cost of an iPad as outrageously high and the price gap of the iPad is considered much larger than the performance and feature gap of the iPad. It looks as though Apple is going to force the Android manufacturers into fingerprint recognition whether they like it or not. That's a smart move on Apple's part because only Samsung might be able to keep pace and the other Android tablet makers will be left out for the most part. Apple needs to make sure that Touch ID is a must have feature for business tablet users. Still, all that matters to the media is how the iPad is losing market share to all Android tablets and how Apple has lost its tablet edge. Hearing this gets so many people filled with glee that Apple is a dying company.
And this is why sales will contract as there is no need to upgrade year after year. Except perhaps if it fold/bends.
It depends on what functionality comes out, and what's important to an individual. I don't need to wait until it folds or bends, but will upgrade when the iPad includes fingerprint scanner - the convenience is worth it to me, but can understand it may not for everyone .
When you include Apple's increasing distribution, it's not a forgone conclusion contraction will happen soon.
I agree that we're not going to be shocked by Apple being number one but I don't think JD Power made a mistake, per say. I think they ran their numbers and those were the results. No miscalculation or skullduggery at play.
Really? No miscalculation or skulduggery? Apple bested Samsung last year with 5 stars on four out of five attributes: performance, ease of use, tablet features, and physical design, but got two stars for 'cost' (compared to Samsung's four stars on that metric).
Considering that 'satisfaction' is a highly subjective measure, the four in which Apple was the best are each subjective measures (with 'cost' being the only objective number in the construction of an overall performance ranking), how exactly did Samsung win that race? Especially when they provide absolutely no information on weightings of the various attributes?
Nah, it was a stupid ranking by any measure. And they realized it.
I'm not saying what they measure or much weight they give to each category is reasonable, but I see no evidence to suggest that JD Power made a calculation error, were being paid by Samsung, or had it in for Apple. Not thinking their testing methods are reasonable is something else entirely.