Apple's iPhone, Samsung phones nearly equal in J.D. Power satisfaction survey
While Apple and the iPhone ranked first in a survey of U.S. customer satisfaction with smartphones, the company's chief rival -- Samsung -- came second by only the slimmest of margins, according to a J.D. Power report published on Thursday.
Apple's average score was 840 out of 1,000, while Samsung managed 839, the report indicated. Apple also achieved the highest figures in performance and features, two of the five categories used to gauge satisfaction. The others were "ease of operation," battery life, and physical design.
J.D. Power's results were based on data from 7,994 people polled between October and December who had their current smartphone for less than a year, and were customers with AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, Verizon, or U.S. Cellular. The survey also limited its scope to five phone brands, namely Apple, Samsung, Motorola, HTC, and LG.
Apple's satisfaction score rose 6 points versus last year's survey, but the top gainers were actually Motorola with 15, and HTC with 12.
Another unusual highlight was the claim that iPhone owners were slightly more likely to have smarthome accessories than Android users. This included a ratio of 13 to 11 percent for thermostats, 9 to 8 percent for appliances, and 7 to 6 percent for smartspeakers like the Amazon Echo or Google Home.
The timing of the survey likely played an important role in its results. Polling began shortly after the release of the iPhone 7, and in the immediate aftermath of Samsung's Galaxy Note 7 being recalled and discontinued. Penetration of either device would have been relatively low, and indeed most Note 7 owners presumably got refunds or a free replacement like the Galaxy S7 Edge.
Apple's average score was 840 out of 1,000, while Samsung managed 839, the report indicated. Apple also achieved the highest figures in performance and features, two of the five categories used to gauge satisfaction. The others were "ease of operation," battery life, and physical design.
J.D. Power's results were based on data from 7,994 people polled between October and December who had their current smartphone for less than a year, and were customers with AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, Verizon, or U.S. Cellular. The survey also limited its scope to five phone brands, namely Apple, Samsung, Motorola, HTC, and LG.
Apple's satisfaction score rose 6 points versus last year's survey, but the top gainers were actually Motorola with 15, and HTC with 12.
Another unusual highlight was the claim that iPhone owners were slightly more likely to have smarthome accessories than Android users. This included a ratio of 13 to 11 percent for thermostats, 9 to 8 percent for appliances, and 7 to 6 percent for smartspeakers like the Amazon Echo or Google Home.
The timing of the survey likely played an important role in its results. Polling began shortly after the release of the iPhone 7, and in the immediate aftermath of Samsung's Galaxy Note 7 being recalled and discontinued. Penetration of either device would have been relatively low, and indeed most Note 7 owners presumably got refunds or a free replacement like the Galaxy S7 Edge.
Comments
But even then, who cares? The masses tend to buy garbage and I really don't care if some idiot is satisfied with their Samsung phone or not. It's like asking McDonald's customers if they're satisfied. By virtue of the fact that they're eating there, most would probably say that they are. It's meaningless.
The differences between phones, which is really the difference between operating systems, are issues like security - things which are not obvious to most end users.
Just goes to show the buy public could care less about quality, cheap over rides all else. This is also like Consumer reports and how they measure quality and reliability, it base on the surveys they send out, and most people only return them if they had a bad experience with a particular product and the questions they are do not always catch the real problems. I personal experiences have been people tend to complain the most when they do not get what they want, go in to get your car fix once and get the run around means the car is crap, but take you car in 100 times and each time they treat you well and give you a loaner and the car is great. There surveys mean nothing these days. it is all in who you ask and what questions you ask them.
As for security updates (and don't even try to claim that Android has none) are a fantasy for most models.
The only thing those cheap Androids are good for is as burners or as a cheap phone to use while in the USA having left the iDevice at home to avoid snooping by the DHS.
Oh, and others of us won't buy anything with a Samsung brand on the outside. We may well have been burnt by their total lack of customer care and the old saying, 'once bitten, twice shy' applies.
Phones are no longer 'slow', photos and videos look good to most people, battery life is almost considered normal if it doesn't get you through a full day of moderate use and the physical design is almost always good enough.
The system itself is far more likely to irritate users if it starts playing up rather than the features of the phone itself.
Settings that change by themselves etc
What I would not expect.. is someone who paid $600 for their Galaxy S7 to be as satisfied.. as someone who paid $600 for their iPhone7. If I'm going to pay $50,000 for a brand new luxury car.. then I dont care how features and gimmicks the KIA has.. it is simply not in the same league. And it definitely does not have the same status, customer service, resale value and overall user experience.
BTT:
The only customer satisfaction survey that's relevant is that with your wallet.