iPhone manufacturer Apple ranks highest in overall customer satisfaction among business wireless smartphone users, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2008 Business Wireless Smartphone Customer Satisfaction StudySM released today.
The study, now in its second year, measures business customer satisfaction with wireless smartphones—defined as mobile phones offering advanced capabilities and personal computer-like functionality—such as a BlackBerry or Treo. Overall satisfaction is measured across five key factors. In order of importance, they are: ease of operation (27%); operating system (24%); physical design (21%); handset features (18%); and battery aspects (10%).
Apple ranks highest in overall smartphone customer satisfaction with a score of 778 on a 1,000-point scale, performing particularly well in the ease of operation, physical design and handset feature factors. BlackBerry manufacturer RIM (703) and Samsung (701) follow Apple in the rankings.
“With the introduction of the iPhone in 2007, Apple has clearly differentiated itself from the competition in areas that are most important to business smartphone users,” said Kirk Parsons, senior director of wireless services for J.D. Power and Associates, in the press release. “By making basic applications and features easy to use and providing functionality in a thin, lightweight device, Apple has performed well in exceeding customer expectations.”
The study finds that one-fourth of users report experiencing at least one software-related issue or problem with their current smartphone device. The software-related issues reported most often include the need to reboot the phone, application malfunction/freeze and issues related to touch screen malfunction. Among those owners who have experienced a software problem, 44 percent report having to reboot their device at least once on a weekly basis during the past 12 months, while 34 percent report experiencing either an application malfunction or application freeze at least once per week.
“Given that smartphones are actual mini-computers, it’s not unexpected that users experience software-related issues,” said Parsons. “However, with the increasing number of features and applications that can be used on these devices, both the devices and software platforms will need to be more reliable if market penetration of smartphones is to increase over time. It’s critical for manufacturers to offer a complete package of functionality that is easy to use and has minimal operation malfunctions.”
The study also finds the following key smartphone business wireless usage patterns:
• Sixty-nine percent of business smartphone users own a hands-free headset, and 74 percent of those owners use a wireless headset device. Motorola owners report a higher incidence of using wireless headsets (86%), while only 60 percent of Apple iPhone owners report using a wireless headset device.
• Among smartphone users, 37 percent would like GPS (global positioning system) capabilities on their device, 25 percent would like Wi-Fi capabilities, 23 percent want touch screen and 15 percent would like to have voice recognition command for automatic dialing.
• The average reported purchase price of a smartphone device is $216, compared with an average reported purchase price of $261 in 2007. Apple owners report the highest average purchase price at $337, while Motorola owners report the lowest device pricing at $169.
• The top five reasons given for choosing a smartphone brand are: Internet capability (45%), ability to use e-mail account (41%), overall design/style (39%), Bluetooth capabilities (37%) and keyboard style (e.g., QWERTY) (37%).
• Thirty-four percent of smartphone owners say they download third-party software. Popular software downloads among business users include games (49%), business applications such as Microsoft Word and Excel (43%) and travel-related programs (36%).
The 2008 Business Wireless Smartphone Customer Satisfaction Study is based on responses from 1,388 business wireless customers who currently own a smartphone device. The study was fielded between August and September 2008.
Visit JDPower.com to view customer satisfaction ratings for wireless service and carrier performance, call quality, customer care, retail sales and mobile phone handsets.
Source: J.D. Power and Associates
Don’t mess with J.D. Power or else he and his Associates are going to come break your kneecaps.
business users want to download games. that’s funny.
Where I work, they tried giving me a Blackberry, a Samsung thing and I turned them down to buy and pay for my own iPhone and it’s service.
It works well with my Macs and they nor I have any complaints.
A few people have gotten their own iPhone and now our CTO is getting one plus an iMac for his desk!
JD Power matters. Surprising me a few times, but both my previous tech firms rated them highly and cared about their results.
“Motorola owners report a higher incidence of using wireless headsets (86%)”
That’s because no body wants to be seeing with a motorola phone…
Anybody remember all of the oath taking, on this very site, by people claiming that the iPhone would never get a foothold in enterprise?
None of the tech publications’ reviews of the iPhone will have as much impact on the CIO/CTO decision as will this JD Power & Assoc. thing. It is remarkable how much clout these guys and their reports have with the corporate world.
The road will probably be somewhat long, but it’s a straight road for the iPhone.
Apple shareholders should be satisfied.
The key statistic which is missing is:
How many of these customers have experience with other
platforms? Most Windows users who have never tried a Mac,
‘love’ Windows, but haven’t made an informed decision.
Have the Blackberry users made an informed decision?
I feel the iPhone would be way higher in satisfaction numbers if this were a truly comparative analysis.
This will have a positive effect on Wall Street analysts’ evaluations of the stock.
@ Mr Peabody, I do!
RIMM and Steve Ballmer were still demanding that people need real keys. Isn’t that the same argument that was used with Microsoft DOS before Microsoft was forced to used a mouse and a visual GUI like Apple’s Mac was already using?
Forced to repeat history again.