Customer satisfaction with cell phones is up for a second straight year, rising 2.6% to a new all-time high ACSI score of 78. Steady growth in the use of smartphones, which have much higher levels of customer satisfaction, helps drive the overall industry gain. However, as data usage increases, costs to access overloaded networks are high, leaving customer satisfaction with wireless service providers stagnant at an ACSI score of 72.
While Apple still sells nearly twice the number of smartphones in the United States as its nearest competitor, Samsung now comes out on top in one critical metric — customer satisfaction. Samsung surges 7% to an ACSI score of 81, beating Apple in overall customer satisfaction for the first time. Smartphones are becoming more dominant in Samsung’s cell phone product mix, pushing its satisfaction score higher. Apple declines for the second year in a row (-2% to 79), and the field is getting tighter, with Motorola Mobility and Nokia (now Microsoft) both at 77. BlackBerry has seen its market share nearly vanish, but satisfaction climbs to 74 (+7%) for those customers that remain.
“Samsung has gone from up-and-comer to top-of-the-heap on the strength of its smartphone portfolio,” says David VanAmburg, ACSI Director. “Apple’s magic isn’t gone, but the luster has dulled on its older models. Each iteration improves on the last, but Apple’s year-long product refresh cycle is an eternity when a new Android phone seems to be released every week.”
Among wireless phone providers, Verizon Wireless separates from the pack after climbing 3% to 75. T-Mobile (69), Sprint (68) and AT&T Mobility (68) are tightly grouped behind. As smartphone adoption continues to grow, network demands increase along with costs to the consumer, each contributing to stagnant customer satisfaction.
“Consumers once used their cell phones primarily for talking, whereas now smartphones are becoming lifestyle accessories that we just can’t live without,” says Fornell. “But these powerful devices rely on networks that are still playing catch-up with consumer demand.”
Source: American Customer Satisfaction Index
MacDailyNews Take: It’s easy to claim satisfaction with a knockoff when you don’t know what you’re missing. People with low expectations and a lack of experience are generally more easily satisfied. Just read the reviews (see below).
Jimmy Podunk: Wow, this here wine tastes great! (The wine came from a box.) I’m extremely satisfied!
Globe-hopping sommelier: This wine is a bit flat. (The wine is a 95-point vintage.) I’m unsatisfied.People claim to be satisfied with Windows PCs, too, until they finally try their first Mac. Then they clearly see the folly of their ways.
Related articles:
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Apple’s 64-bit iPhone 5s is by far the fastest smartphone in the world – September 18, 2013
Ben Bajarin: Apple’s new iOS 7 will cause consumers to discover their iPhones all over again – September 18, 2013
John Gruber reviews Apple iPhone 5s: ‘This is what innovation, real innovation, looks like’ – September 18, 2013
AnandTech reviews iPhone 5s: Apple’s 64-bit A7 is seriously impressive – September 18, 2013
TechCrunch reviews Apple iPhone 5s: The best smartphone available – September 18, 2013
Apple’s new iPhone 5S likely to be in exceptionally short supply – September 18, 2013
USA Today’s Baig reviews Apple iPhone 5s: ‘Makes the best smartphone even better’ – September 18, 2013
Mossberg reviews Apple iPhone 5s: ‘The best smartphone on the market’ – September 18, 2013
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Samsung TV ad forced to cherry pick lines from lackluster Galaxy S5 reviews – May 8, 2014
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Just another paid for samdung advertisement.
This may be due to their 64-bit Android OS and chips? Oh, there is no 64-bit version of that piece of sh_t cell phone. When do we start seeing a PR group at Apple take this crap on. Question: What is the market share of the latest iOS devices vs the latest Android device? Are even half of the devices up to 2 versions back?
Come on Apple, get in the PR game. The Mac & PC adds were great and funny. That crap is 32-bit old school hacked virus infested and will never be upgraded to the new Android OS in 2 years. There market share is high because you can’t upgrade them and you by 1 get one FREE. We all know how well that worked for RIMM!
Sure Does
Interesting how SamDung has eternally tarnished their image.
Lies ,cunning behavior , bribing , false advertising, censoring bad reviews, suing people for bad reviews,
Blatantly copying , manipulating benchmarks . Etc..
This matters and is not good for apple. They need to inspire us again with something revolutionary.
It does not matter. As demonstrated by MDN in their Take above. The only thing that matters are the opinions of those who’ve used all of the options, as have most professional reviewers. See related articles.
Certainly not to be taken lightly, if iOS is so superior why is this not reflected and why has Apple satisfaction gone down while others are on the up. What is annoying customers about the experience? Considering Apple makes up market models one would expect them to excel in satisfaction compared to cheap knock offs and low quality phones, unless the cost itself is the bug bear. Apple needs to find out what is annoying their customers and do something about it if this is not a glitch.
– Apple had older iPhone models trying to run iOS 7.
– Apple has longer product cycles than slavish imitators.
– Those who’ve only used a Samsung knockoff think it’s pretty great because they don’t know any better.
– Apple’s largest display is only 4-inches against significantly larger devices.
Even with those caveats, Apple scores 79 to Samsung’s 81. The sky is not falling.
Just imagine how much further ahead of Samsung (I know how to spell!) that Apple would be if:
1) Apple cut out Samsung as a primary supplier
2) Apple had released a ~4.5″ display phone in 2012 or 2013
3) Apple had a crisp transition to iOS7 where 32-bit hardware didn’t have to struggle to manage the overweight 64-bit OS
4) iOS7 wasn’t so ugly to many users
5) Apple spent a little more time explaining what makes iOS fundamentally better, with proper documentation and meaningful marketing.
Apple is better, but not by as much as the MDN crowd seems to think. It works both ways, you know. Many MDN commenters seem proud of their ignorance so they don’t know that the competition offers. Apple DOES need to improve its iPhone hardware options, its battery life, its software GUI, its software quality, its bloated iTunes, its documentation, its pace of product roll-out, and definitely its advertising. If Apple doesn’t maintain a clear superiority in all these areas, then people will indeed try out Android or Firefox or whatever exciting new alternative comes along. Don’t think that Apple is invincible just because Jobs’ iTunes store gave Cook a huge lead over the competition. Cook hasn’t moved the ball much since he took office.
Mike, you’re right on the money. Blame this on Cook and iOS 7, which gets a 1 star rating from a LOT of people. The handy flip up Menu Panel does not make up for the dreadful hideous Hello Kitty color scheme, tiny illegible fonts and all-round crappy low rent experience that Jony foisted on us.
Also blame the sub par Maps app as well as the one-minute-brilliant-the next-minute-useless Siri (which I have nicknamed Sorry…) that uses freaking Bing for searches because of Apple’s war on Google.
ACSI is highly respected and only blind fanboys would dismiss this news as anything but a harbinger of things to come.
Steve should have left a man in charge.
One star this if you agree.
“The only thing that matters are the opinions of those who’ve used all of the options”
___
To address exactly this point, when work offered me a choice of phone last week I got an Android. This way I get to use it and understand its pros and cons without spending my own money (don’t worry, it’s not a Samsung).
I continue using my iPhone 5 as my personal phone.
Exactly!
Several of the places with which I work absolutely will not interface with an iPhone for various reasons. I suspect many, many other people are the same. They have to have access to two or more devices and often carry two concurrently. Thus I’d expect that more iPhone users have hands on experience with non iPhones than non iPhone users have experience with iPhones.
It is the same as back in the dark days. Windows users (sufferers?) would claim that Mac users are so stuck on Macs and thought so highly of Macs simply because they didn’t know Windows. The reality was the opposite. During those days the vast majority of Mac users had to use Windows machines at work or in other places than where they could use their personal machines. Mac users had significantly greater cross platform knowledge than Windows users (who typically had ONLY used Windows or DOS). Mac users CHOSE to use Macs because of that cross platform knowledge.
The same can be said of a larger fraction of iPhone users than of non iPhone users. If all you can afford is a cheap knock off (or a buy-one-get-one-free deal) and your business is pinching pennies and supplying you with a cheap Android phone, then all you know is the non iPhone alternative.
If all you can see are the shadows on the wall cast from the real item, when you see technicolor shadows you think they are amazing!
Do you want a medal or trophy or something? Pat on the back?
This was obviously due to the Samsung S5’s new fingerprint scanner, which brings a whole new level of security to smartphones.
/s
Tired. of. ping. pong.
Ya RIGHT!!! people (some friends) seem to be so embarrassed when holding their half baked samsung phone in hand will say almost anything but admit they made a terrible mistake buying it.
The correct headline is:
“ACSI, a Samsung subsidiary: Samsung edges Apple in new smartphone customer satisfaction study”
Well, yes. I think following the money is probably appropriate here.
The blindness of fanboyism is amazing.
ACSI is a privately held company.
Blame Cook for putting Jony on a task he was not suited for, not ACSI.
These results are gleaned from regular normal people, young and old, rich and poor, black and white.
If iOS 8 is as hideous and unintuitive to use as 7 is, expect the satisfaction gap to increase. Have you seen anyone over 50 trying to read the little icons? On a larger screen it would be no problem.
Cook has to go.
“a privately held company” … there ya go, so more susceptible to exactly the kind of paid influence that has blighted IDG, Gartner and Strategy Analytics. Crying wolf (ie, the mindless fanboi accusation) is foolish when you look at the facts here… I mean, Samsung achieving any kind of customer satisfaction? Have you ever tried to get any kind of satisfaction from Samsung over a warranty issue with their third rate products? Good luck with that.
you never tried Samsung phone or iPhone and compared them.
Samsung is sellling so many because of the price not because of satisfaction. I bought two Samsung phones because I dont have budget but again they are better than their competitors because they copy iPhone very closely.
But I agree Samsung is good in hardware (but no where near to Apple)
The fact that customer satisfaction is dropping for Apple is very worrisome. Customer satisfaction is one of Apple stalwart strengths that most Apple loyalists (like myself) used as support in how well built their products are. Unfortunately for Apple (and me as an AAPL investor) Samsung and Google are much more capable copiers than Microsoft ever was.
MDN’s take is exactly right. “Customer satisfaction” has to take into account who is expressing satisfaction, to be usefully meaningful. If you are Tiffany, it’s simply not relevant that WalMart customers are “very satisfied” with their shopping experience.
Nobody is going to give up their iPhone, because Samsung has gained a couple of points.
No, it’s wrong, because studies have shown that “experts” can’t tell the difference between expensive wine and cheap wine. (I haven’t read it yet, but reviews of the new book by the Freakanomics guys have mentioned this is covered in the book.)
This index has nothing to do with overall customer satisfaction, but more to do with how satisfied someone was based off what they thought they were getting; actual weighted against perception.
This will obviously have a negative affect on any product that is perceived to be high quality by a majority of the people. And have an adverse affect on companies where users have low expectations.
Really? That’s something that should have got a mention in the article.
The only time methodology is EVER mentioned in an article is when the company offers up nice tables and charts.
ACSI offers a little blurb on the site that shows their software determines customer satisfaction ratings by evaluating perceived quality and expectations against their level of satisfaction after they’ve used the product.
So if I have high expectations of an Apple device, and it doesn’t quite meet what I thought it would, then that will drop the overall index rating. And conversely, if I don’t have any real expectations of a certain device but after using it determine that it does more than I thought, then we have a situation where the satisfaction index is raised (on that one metric).
Vote early, vote often.
I call bull shvt
Huh? Whats a ACSI?
Pleasing stupid people is easy.
1) I’m willing to bet that the way they calculate this score is highly suspect and, upon further investigation, will prove that this is unreliable.
2) MDN, come on! You constantly crow about how Apple is top bananas in these types of surveys and studies, but when one comes up with undesired results, you trash the whole idea of a customer satisfaction study. Hypocritical in the extreme.
3) At the end of the day, this means nothing. It’s just like the, what was it, JD Power ratings or whatever from last year where Apple fell below the competition. And then, this year, Apple’s in the lead again. It doesn’t really matter right now if one or a handful of these things don’t go entirely Apple’s way.
This is not completely without significance, regardless of all its faults. For years, this particular metrics had showed Apple comfortably dominating on top, and this year it slipped below Samsung. Regardless of who is doing the metrics and what exactly they reflect (which can be scrutinised and questioned), one this is rather certain, and it is the troubled trend.
There are two main reasons for this: iOS 7 (and all the negative publicity that was drummed up by Samsung about it), and lack of large screen model (and all the negative publicity drummed up about it). The point is, while there were a few people who were unhappy about these two issues, media (mobilised by Samsung PR wing) developed a massive echo chamber over this, which affected the perception for many who were happy with their devices before this.
There is one important metric that still doesn’t change: loyalty. The percentage of Apple customers leaving the platform for Android is very low (around 5%), and still significantly lower than those leaving Android for iOS. That seems to be a satisfaciton metric that has a bit more reliability than some arbitrary (and subjective) satisfaction survey.
How were the rating criteria weighted? How much weighting was given to “purchase price”…ie. “cheapness”.
Wait a minute, just the other month Apple was on top. Who’s telling the truth?
While not insignificant, there are many reasons this isn’t a big problem for Apple:
As others mentioned: iPhones have longer gaps between releases, the transition to iOS 7 was kinda rough for many (especially on older iPhones), and many wish iPhones came with larger screen.
iOS 7 is now much more robust after several incremental updates, and big screen iPhones are (almost certainly) around the corner – so two of these most significant customer satisfaction problems are already or about to be fixed. Samsung has no similar tricks up its sleeve – in the near future, it seems like Samsung is just going rest their laurels and have to wait to copy Apple’s next innovations before they can add anything that will improve customer satisfaction. Apple has ample room to keep improving while Samsung has already caught up as far as they can for the time being.
One other thing I’ll point out – this 2013 survey does not include the iPhone 5S or Samsung Galaxy S5. A current customer satisfaction survey is likely to be much more favorable, as reviews of the iPhone 5S have been stellar while reviews for the Galaxy S5 have been relatively lackluster (not particularly bad, just not significantly better than its predecessor.)
That’s what happens when you replace a classy, refined-looking OS with one that looks like it was designed in pre-school. Classic case of fixing what WASN’T broken…
Let’s just say there are a lot of Android phone users who don’t know their butt from a hole in the ground.
The wine analogy is not bad, except its laced with elitism. How else are we supposed to measure satisfaction, but with very large numbers of people who (may have) used both platforms?
Oh, right, after giving their responses, all participants should be asked if they’ve ever used/owned an iPhone/Android phone, etc.
Then discount any results for which the participants haven’t used both platforms.
The trolls sure are out in numbers the last few days. Where were all you trolls for the three weeks after April 23rd? That whooping Apple earnings put on the android world sure shut you up.
This article isn’t reporting what ACSI has on their website.
Model Manufacturer ACSI Score
(0-100 Scale)
Galaxy Note II Samsung 85
iPhone 5C Apple 84
iPhone 5S Apple 83
Galaxy S 4 Samsung 82
Galaxy S III Samsung 82
Galaxy Note 3 Samsung 81
iPhone 4S Apple 81
iPhone 5 Apple 80
iPhone 4 Apple 77
Galaxy S II Samsung 72
The average fro Apple isn’t 79. I don’t know what they’re using for weighting factors for the older products. If there’s equal weighting for an iPhone 4 running iOS7 and the 5s or 5c, then it’s just data manipulated incorrectly. Also, I find it hard to believe that 20% of any smartphone OEM customers are unsatisfied, or for any product for that matter. Not sure what kind of questions are on their poll, but it must have leading questions that invoke negative answers. It just sounds hokie (or hokey) to me.
“People with low expectations and a lack of experience are generally more easily satisfied”
I would turn MDN’s comment back on themselves, the iPhone is nowhere near the best phone anymore, IOS is not the best operating system. Other manufactures are innovativing far faster than Apple, making better quality and designed units, with better performance and durability in real use. Phones coming out now not only are better, but some are costing a fraction of the iphone for a much better package.
MDN’s comment proves they do not look realistically at what is happening in the phone world and settling for an inferior product, instead of pushing Apple to get back to having the best phone in the market.
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