Overall customer satisfaction with wireless routers has risen considerably from 2015 due to improved ease of use and performance, according to the J.D. Power 2016 Wireless Router Satisfaction Report released today.
Apple ranks highest with a score of 876, followed by ASUS (860), D-Link (856) and TP-Link (854).
The report finds that overall satisfaction with wireless routers has increased by a full 24 points from 2015, and is now 847 (on a 1,000-point scale). While satisfaction has improved in all 10 factors, the largest increase is 30 points in ease of use (which includes the installation process). Another area related to ease of use with the product is restoration of service with minimal effort, in which overall satisfaction has increased 27 points from last year (to 854 from 827).
Product features related to the performance of wireless routers also have significantly improved. Reliability of service connection, range of Wi-Fi signal and download/upload speeds have generated increases in satisfaction of 24, 26 and 25 points, respectively.
“What’s critical to customers is the ability to easily establish a reliable online connection through their wireless router regardless of the type or number of wireless devices they are using, smartphone, laptop, smart TV or other wireless device,” said Kirk Parsons, senior director and telecom, media & technology practice leader at J.D. Power, in a statement. “Router manufacturers providing a product that’s intuitive to set up and operate and that functions with few connection interruptions are well positioned to increase satisfaction, customer loyalty and repurchase intention.”
Key Findings
• Overall satisfaction among customers who say they “definitely will” or “probably will” purchase the same wireless router brand they currently own is 241 points higher than among those who say they “definitely will not” or “probably will not” repurchase the same brand in the future (615 vs. 856, respectively).
• Fewer than two in 10 (16%) customers experience problems with their wireless router. The most frequently experienced problems reported include frequency of resetting the router (42%); slow internet speeds (38%); initially connecting to the internet (31%); limited Wi-Fi range (26%); installation process (31%); and slow upload/download speeds (21%).
• The percentage of customers who access the internet via a wireless router in their home varies by type of device. Most customers use a wireless router to connect their laptop (82%), followed by smartphone (80%); tablet (71%); desktop (55%); gaming console (53%); printer (50%); smart TV (47%); and streaming device/media player such as Chromecast or Roku (42%).
• Price is the primary reason for choosing a wireless router brand (45%), followed by range of signal strength (41%), brand reputation (37%) and ease of use (34%).
• The average price paid for a wireless router is $124—an increase of $16 from 2015.
The report, in its second year, measures overall satisfaction with wireless router manufacturers among customers who purchased a router during the 12-month period prior to responding to the survey. Satisfaction is measured across 10 factors (listed in order of importance): Wi-Fi range; reliability; speed of upload/download; restore connection easily; security capabilities; price; ease of use; variety of features; intuitive user interface; and customer service.
The 2016 Wireless Router Satisfaction Report is based on responses from 3,037 current owners of wireless routers who purchased their device during the 12-month period prior to report fielding in October 2016.
More information about the 2016 Wireless Router Satisfaction Report here.
Source: J.D. Power and Associates
MacDailyNews Take: Good thing Apple’s deep-sixing that shit.
SEE ALSO:
The best non-Apple Airport Wi-Fi routers for Mac users – November 21, 2016
It’s about time Apple killed the Airport hardware line – November 21, 2016
Apple abandons development of wireless routers – November 21, 2016
How I fixed my Wi-Fi by ditching crappy consumer-grade hardware – September 30, 2016
Mossberg: Eero makes Wi-Fi simpler and stronger – February 23, 2016
“If it don’t need fixed, break it”
lol…. so befitting!
Apple’s decisions lately are at best Preplexing.
if there is a substitute then let us know Apple …..
if there isnt then give us a hint of the grand scheme that justifies such inexplicable moves !
oberly obsessive secrecy is killing the buzz and substituting it with frustration .
misfiring at so many front Tim and Team .
Hahahahaha! Yes! I agree. They’re not perfect, they’re not the strongest, but they ARE the most easy to configure and maintain by FAR.
The question is: “Does Apple care?”
I wish they would. I hate to see this line disappear, especially the completely unique TimeCapsule. It has made laptop backup as foolproof as it can be and it’s disappearance will mean data loss for many who don’t get that drives fail.
Any more news on Apple’s wireless plan?
No they don’t care because it’s not as thin as a piece of paper and they physically weren’t able to do so. So who cares if this is actually a good product that our consumer base likes? No thin, no win!
yet they the took the AppleTV puck and just made it thicker.. (zero design effort)….. omitted key functionalty and called AppleTV 4…
And what does the worst CEO in the world do… quite naturally he discontinues it.
Sometimes I truly believe that Tim Cook not only hated Jobs, but he hates Apple as well. His acts are too strategic to be incompetence. It’s as though he’s willfully destroying Apple for some strange type of revenge against Jobs and everything he built.
History will show that Tim Cook was Jobs’ biggest mistake.
They are killing it because they want to force everyone to use iCloud in its place. The Desktop and Documents folder was a stepping point to get us used to it.
Naturally they wouldn’t be so dumb as to expect us to do this until there was 100% global 5G coverage so the next big thing from Apple that they have managed to keep a secret is their own satellite constellation which will provide this … because this is so clearly the only way that this vision they are unfolding can POSSIBLY work.
Reality is, Tim Cook doesn’t have a clue what to do next. He’s been imitating practically every move that Google has done for the last 6 years.
Because Apple has proven so competent in providing cloud services with 100% reliability and no downtime. Yes, this is sarcasm.
Seems the only vision that is running Apple lately is gluttony for money..
It seens they have forgotten the key philosophy Steve layed down… the Philosophy that elevated Apple to unprecedented heights:
Product and customer experience FIRST .
Money will follow. …..
That moto took them to the top…
But i guess like the Router… and ..Like BMWtwisty said at the top of this thread… ..”if it dont need to be Fixed , Break it. ….”
and F- the loyal concened customer ! right?
Apple dont put a gun on my head to force me to buy icloud subscription…
Make it good enough so ill do it voluntarily .. in the meanwhile listen to your customers needs and frustrations. Stop leaving gaping holes in your product line just to force customers in a convoluted dogmatic environment you are creating.
you present style is leaving a massive distaste in your loyal customers/ unpaid PR army’s mouth…
Choice over Dogma Apple !
https://m.youtube.com/watch?list=LL-nRcRoM6vxJ4sqj9Y0ZQZA&v=rQjN_bZEKNQ
Don’t forget the gigantic difference in restoration time between local backups and cloud backups, especially when you’re talking about the entire drive, and not just 5-10 gigabytes of documents.
Just renewed all 4 old Apple routers with new ones before they are out of stock. Hate to see this great product being discontinued for the wrong reasons. Please reconsider and start innovating again.
We have to remember that Jobs deep-sixed major products as well. That doesn’t make it right. But implying that things would have been different if Jobs were still around is argumentative at best.
An example of what drives me nuts and for which there is no excuse: iPhoto – Aperture – no Aperture – iPhoto – Photos …
They could have just stuck with iPhoto and made mods and improvements along the way. But some marketing schmuck (Phil please tell me that wasn’t you) said they needed to distance the new version from the old because the old version was perceived to be bad in some way. This is totally wrong! Stick with your branding! A Ford Mustang will always be a Ford Mustang. Likewise with the Chevy Corvette. You don’t mess with the brand name. You use it and enhance its cachet with continuous product improvements. But never throw it out. Apple has done this repeatedly over the years, with and without Jobs. And it’s just plain wrong!
Yes, MobileMe!?!?!!!! me.com?!?!?!!! I hate that mess.
Well, they’ve rebranded their cloud services numerous times. Yet the robustness is still lacking. What does that say?
😐
It would have been a natural step for Apple to make networking all its products faster and easier if Airport was continued and upgraded (let’s face it, 876/1000 is not nearly as good as it could be). Imagine 3 lines:
1) Airport Express – update to 802.11ac, design for mobile/ portable applications and network repeating/extension. Could have been done 2 years ago!!!!
2) Airport Extreme – make it even easier to manage and increase performance as other makers have. Range specifically. Add another ethernet jack and a USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 port.
3) Time Capsule – this is where Apple needs to rethink its priorities. Sticking a hard drive in a box with a wireless router is great, but it’s also constraining. So instead, make a new Time Capsule family that stacks underneath Airport Extremes, expandable as user needs evolve. Offer the biggest, quietest, most reliable, good old fashioned magnetic hard drives the world has ever seen. Offer T-C boxes in in a range of a few sizes, from 1 Terabyte to 10 terabytes or whatever. But instead of being a just a local RAID or hard-to-manage NAS, make it the best NAS ever with no local redundancy, instead provide free always-on, encrypted, realtime cloud backup. Don’t even call it iCloud, because iCloud is a bag of hurt. Don’t offer iCloud, offer no monthly fees and guaranteed encrypted privacy and security. The user would just buy the T-C, plug it into your A-Ext, and use the mounted drive like your own private server from anywhere in the world. No setup hassle, no backup headaches, no security games, and no playing hide and seek with files. Make it Mac and PC friendly and people will buy this thing faster than sliced bread.
Such a bold move would do several things: it’d show that Apple isn’t just a one trick pony. It will show that they know how to do more than sell iOS apps. It would allow people to have faster access to their data, and allow them to manage it as they wish. It would effectively undermine the prices for competing cloud services while renewing the profitability of a hardware lineup that Apple seems to have forgotten. Most of all, it reassures Mac users that they still are in charge of their data. Power users can always buy a Synology or other powerful NAS or RAID solution if they want, but home and small business users who want faster, easier ways to have a file server need a better remote backup than Apple currently offers, with explicit guarantee that ease of use does not mean compromised privacy and security.
Could you do that, Apple?
There you go, Apple.
I like how you think.
Thanks!
I recently replaced my 8 year old Airport Extreme with a Time Capsule when it finally died. I can probably count on one hand the number of times I had to reset my Airport. It just worked. Imagine that.
Disappointed that Apple appears to have discontinued another product simply because it wasn’t a high-profit item. They need to understand that Apple users like myself, stick with Apple because of the reliability of their products. A router or monitor just improves our brand loyalty!
Apple doesn’t have the best performing routers in terms of capacity, signal strength, etc. However, without a doubt, their routers are the easiest to configure and they are the most reliable that I’ve seen.
When I heard that Apple is discontinuing this product, I gave up hope waiting for a next generation 802.11ac wave 2 router from Apple, so I went with a higher end Netgear router. However, when family or friends with more simple needs asked for advice, I’ve set them up with an Apple Airport router and it has always worked out well.
I’ll just say that I’ll keep using my AirPort Extreme as long as I can. Zero issues with it in the past, and hopefully that will continue.
I’m entirely confused as to why Apple did this. I could see streamlining the product line to one SKU.
Owning Apple products is all about the ecosystem. The router is the heart of the ecosystem and everything else is dependant on it.
In 5+ years Apple product sales, I never had one customer complain about, or have complications setting up their Apple router and most of these customers came in because they were having issues with their non Apple router.
I’m baffled by this.
Apple cannot be bothered with little things like quality routers. It has more important things like watch bands to busy itself with.
Maybe it is time the shareholders start raising a little hell. Fuck the dividends, I want desktop Macs and routers for a start.
i want the dividents and i want Macs and Routers and IOS products that are truly Pro…. not just a slapped on with bogus Pro nomenclature.
Wireless is the future – Tim Cook’s mantra for a while now.
Ok Pipeline Timmy, how the fack are we going to use our wireless devices in our homes (without eating up our mobile data plans)? We need f*cking routers to follow your vision of everything wireless.
It’s about the ecosystem stupid! As quite a few people here have pointed out, Apple’s routers aren’t the fastest, they don’t have the longest range, but they’re super easy to configure and they’re downright dependable (I’ve never had to reset my 2006 Airport Extreme – that’s quality!!!). Those of us who have bought (some very expensively) into YOUR ecosystem are now scratching their (our) heads wondering WTF is happening to the greatest company on the Earth?
Answer – a very sick man recommended to the board that his successor be a freaking supply chain guy (who, apparently, forgets how to manage a supply chain every time a new or updated device launches) with forward vision that makes that of Mr. Magoo look 20/20.
There’s a commenter above saying he/she sometimes believes Cook is sinking Apple on purpose. While I won’t jump on that ship yet, it certainly is pretty curious how a supposedly smart CEO, running the best company the world’s ever seen can make SO FREAKING MANY mistakes, allow so many mishaps, abandon some of their best and most innovative products, and all in fairly rapid succession? Seriously, how the hell does that happen.
I bought a 27″ iMac 5k a little over a month ago. Part of why I bought now instead of waiting is/was because with the track record of Cook’s Apple no one can be sure what’s coming next won’t be a downgraded, hobbled and un-upgradable yawner: one that, in order to get more than 8 gigs of RAM you’ll have to pay Apple’s stupidly expensive price.
But I bet it’ll be thinner!
Cook’s way past outlived his usefulness, dude needs to be booted. Surely a company with Apple’s pedigree can find SOMEONE with a little vision (and the will to crack some skulls when those under him get complacent).
Not Pipeline Timmy, the nice guy…
sad thing is that:
whether it’s going to be updated or not depends…
not on tech etc
BUT IF IVE CAN USE IT TO IMPRESS HIS FASHIONISTA FRIENDS.
Those friends in the fashion understand ‘Watch Bands’ they won’t be impressed with ‘routers’. sorry.
Kiss it goodbye like a Tower Mac Pro.
(that’s why the Apple product Coffee Table Book has almost NO TEXT just photos. No explanation beyond the briefest description of what the products are or do. that’s because Fashionista friends don’t understand TECH but just like looking at ‘cut’ and ‘shape’. the book is useless for actual tech nerds ).
I bought my Airport Extreme in 2007. Hasn’t given me any trouble at all.
I’ve never felt as bad about Apple as I have lately. Even in the ’90s when they licensed the system to HP, etc., and all my friends were saying Apple was doomed. I still sensed that Apple was doing fine. And I think they still are as a phone company. I just need more than phones.
There’s a problem I have with the 2 AP Base Stations I have, a 2nd gen Base Station and a AP Extreme… I don’t need either one any more.
They are both setting in boxes and stored away.
The ISP provided wireless router/modems I have used for the past two years have worked with hardly a problem. And I’m talking about a different ISP in two states. The technicians who installed them got them up and running in no time. I’ve had to no nothing except input network passwords to get various iDevices online.
Yeah, AP stations are easy to configure, or I presume so since I haven’t had to configure anything else. But there’s something even easier… not having to configure anything.
Great, if your needs are that simple. Some of us need more. In our house, one router doesn’t cover both upstairs and downstairs. If we build again, we will have a wired network to improve performance.
Apple seems to forget that the middleoftheroad product is inadequate. Gotta serve a wider range of needs.