Apple’s iPhone tops smartphone reliability ratings by wide margin

“If you are phone-shopping and wonder about the reliability of various brands, you are in luck. FixYa, a volunteer technical assistance Web site, has analyzed more than 720,000 support requests to come up with complaint-per-phone ratios, which the company said represent reliability,” Roy Furchgott reports for The New York Times.

“The study also showed what owners generally liked — and did not like — about their phones,” Furchgott reports. “The short answer is that iPhones were found to be by far the most reliable, almost three times more reliable than the second-place Samsung phones. Third was Nokia, followed by Motorola.”

FixYa smartphone head-to-head reliability score

Furchgott reports, “What iPhone owners liked was the simplicity — it was easy to guess how to use the phone’s main features. That was followed by the reliability of features like phone, data and text functions. And finally they liked the vast number of apps in the iTunes store.”

Read more in the full article here.

Related articles:
Apple iPhones 3 times more reliable than Samsung phones – February 23, 2013
Apple dominates smartphone OS satisfaction survey – January 18, 2013
J.D. Power: Apple ranks highest in smartphone customer satisfaction for 8th consecutive time – September 6, 2012
J.D. Power: Apple iPad ranks highest in tablet customer satisfaction – September 13, 2012

16 Comments

    1. I think Apple could make a few changes to iOS to make it better that certainly wouldn’t ‘confuse’ users. One of my biggest gripes is app organization: Why can’t we put them where we want on the screen? Why not have subfolders? How about a list view?

      1. “One of my biggest gripes is app organization: Why can’t we put them where we want on the screen? Why not have subfolders?”

        You can put your apps anywhere on screen you want to, and on any of the pages, and iOS does allow for subfolders to organize apps in. As for the list put it in apples suggestion page for iOS .

      2. iOS has a wonderful search feature and with the tapping of a few keys, anything can be found instantly. Siri also will open most any app you want and it doesn’t require subfolders. There is a new paradigm and it doesn’t use the old hierarchical systems. Get used to it and move forward.

    2. Apple has been urged to change iOS completely because it’s not up to Android’s standards in terms of customization and you can’t easily run two or three major apps at a time. I hear the tech-heads are calling for some overlapping app windows so they can easily cut and paste from one app to another.

      They’d like it to function more like OSX with a half-dozen live windows, so they can watch a movie while making a telephone call, while altering a spreadsheet. Stuff like that to show how impressive it is to high-tech users. You know, something like a desktop OS on a smartphone. Everyone has said that iOS has fallen behind Jelly Bean by at last two years because most consumers are just begging for full multitasking capabilities on a smartphone.

      It’s been rumored the Galaxy S IV can do all these things for half the cost and in half the time of an iPhone 5 thanks to some new 8-core Tegra 4 processor. Wow! Apple really is doomed.

      /s

  1. except hardcore apple fans

    because Apple will not use PR or Marketing to push these facts.
    Apple PR will hardly say a word. they will not run ads (like they don’t run ads against Windows 8 aka Vista Part 2).

    Apple’s marketing budget is tiny fraction of Samsungs (go see the charts at Asymco.com).

    Possibly tim Cook will mumble a few words in the next conference he attends (where Steve Jobs would have been hyped up in excitement) — reporters will nod off, be texting their girlfriends — nothing will be reported in the general press — and the stock will tank more (as it has tanked the last 5 or 6 times cook has spoken).

    I have heard old folks describe their hemmorid operations with more excitement than cook with apple successes or products.

    New mac mini no ads, no imac ads for years. samsung whack apple in super bowl ads makes fun of apple and its customers no response. Google sends evangelists worldwide to smack talk apple (they give canned speeches on how apple is resorting to lawsuits as they can’t innovate anymore) and apple has no response (Even Guy Kawasaki apple evangelist has joined Google. )

    Meanwhile my local paper (as the vast majority of the papers of the world) start off apple articles with B.S (now facts because apple has not corrected them) like “the fading tech company which is quickly losing innovation to Samsung etc. … “.

    Doubtlessly Google and Samsung will ‘build reality’ by touting how much more realiable android phones are since apple won’t push the true facts (just like how they are pushing they are ‘winning’ the mobile war google hardly making any money at all in android).

    I’m taking B.S? Well.. Google’s stock price is at its 52 week high and appl is at its 52 week low. P.E of apple is around 10, Goog is around 20 (these are great indications of PERCEPTIONS of the companies)

    No i’m NOT anti apple: I’m a shareholder who believes apple has great wonderful products, I’m just sad that apple doesn’t seem very interested in pushing them…

    1. Interesting post. But you did it as an anonymous coward. That doesn’t attract fan. Also my response to the DesPErATioN PANiC crap about Apple is: It has NOTHING to do with Apple. It has EVERYTHING to do with fools and manipulators.

      Meanwhile: I’d ALSO love to have Apple point out these accolades. I cannot comprehend why they don’t.

      One GREAT thing Apple has in its favor is it’s LACK of Marketing-As-Management self-destructive nonsense. However, if that means the marketing MAVENS are not being encouraged to do that great thing they do, then OOPS, get with the program Apple! Seriously! 😕

      1. @DC

        as you’ve mentioned before you dont own apple stock so many things beating down on apple and appl won’t affect you.

        but as a shareholder I’ll exercise my right to groan and moan to get apple (perhaps) to up its PR.

        Apple has got crazy great stuff, the stock tanking is due to (yes) the hedge fund manipulators as you mentioned but i think also due to the lack of PR. Perception has everything to do with stock price.

        (I admire cook in many ways: he’s a good supply chain guy — until recently re: imac — and the currentSVPs get along with him — Ive sticking around is a big plus.)

        I do not want the stock to tank — because I’ll lose money — but also so that the big guys dont interfere. Remember what they did with Jobs phase 1 with sculley. Shareholders also removed the CEOs of Palm, Rim , Nokia, HP, Acer etc. Shareholders started agitating when stock hit 50% or so down (at 100% down it won’t make a difference as company is dead) and aapl is down 40% already.

        Extreme worse case scenario: hedge fund dudes like einhorn might agitate to remove cook (to get the cash etc) and then Ive might leave…

        think about that.
        so it’s CHEAP for apple to TRY to up its PR (hire some dudes guys!

        (for example why apple doesn’t SCREAM OSX is GREAT especially vs Win 8 I have no idea. Mac marketshare 5%, iPhone share is at 30%. Msft sold 300 million Win 7 licenses in relatively short time, made tens of billions just from software. big market… )


        I was an Ad Pro. Art director in my twenties. Gave up the game in my thirties, moved to island resort where I now live full time. Just came back walking my dog by the water.

        1. I’m sorry, but an Apple shareholder you’re not allowed to gripe or complain after Tim Cook said for you to have patience. You should just sit back and watch your stock value dwindle to nothingness. You must believe Tim Cook saying they’ve dozens of products in the “pipeline” and you should take comfort in being told that. Remember, CEO’s never lie about anything. Think of how happy you should be now that you can buy more Apple stock at nearly half the price it was when it bought it seven months ago. You’re practically getting a bargain.

          Now, let’s have no more whining and crying. Just keep repeating to yourself that there are better days ahead when Apple reaches $1000 a share like it almost did last year. If you’d like I can even sign you up with Andy Zaky’s new hedge fund for a mere $10,000 membership fee. Our new motto is very original. “Ya gotta believe!”

          /s

          PS: Reliability is highly overrated. No one wants to keep a smartphone for more than six months because by then it’s nearly obsolete. Better to have the smartphone break long before the carrier contract expires because it will promote increased smartphone sales. That’s why cheap plastic is the preferred material to build smartphones out of. Samsung has already figured out what Apple completely missed and it caused their share price to collapse due to low sales.

        2. I tried to be objective about Apple’s PR. But I’m no marketing type. I’m in awe of marketing mavens. I would like Apple to have a marketing maven performing some classy PR for Apple. However, as I tried to point out, when you have productivity oriented personalities running a company, which is very much the case with Apple and I LIKE IT, there is a tendency for the relational personalities to feel under foot. That can be OK if they are marketing moron types, but is terrible if they are marketing maven types. The big fat key is to not put marketing people into leadership positions as they are the worst of all leaders, all shmooze and not sufficient productivity.

          Agree on perception (or perspective) is everything.

          The worst thing that could come out of this stock manipulation bullshit is screwing over Apple’s EXCELLENT management, ending up with the absolutely LOUSY style of management going on in the majority of the rest of the biznizz community. I suggest FIGHTING that tooth and nail! Apple continues to be THE BEST in the business because they are so incredibly brilliant at management. IGNORE the ‘Apple Bears’ because they have nothing but TERRIBLY stupid ideas to hand Apple. They literally would destroy Apple for the sake of their stupidity. That would be the worst of all outcomes right now. Apple is doing EVERYTHING RIGHT, except as you say this schmoozing PR stuff, at which they are innately not skilled. Steve Jobs was EXCEPTIONAL in his ability to cross over between productivity and relationships, which is why he was a legendary leader.

          Anyway, ‘cleverly…’, if Apple can get some great, positive, customer delight and benefit oriented PR people on the scene to BURY the competition with facts and accolades, I’d LOVE IT! Brilliant marketing can be a company’s golden goose. (Just don’t let the goose run the show).

  2. I agree with nobody will know about this. I was going to say, well 14 people now know…. Apple PR is so silly. No teeth. They barely Prop themselves let alone compare and contrast. Why not explain the benefits of the entire ecosystem? How it supposedly pieces together. On top of the reliability of a device. It’s also bad that the carriers rarely prop Apple vs Samsung or some of the other crap out there. Maybe it’s not crap. I’d never know from apple.

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