J.D. Power rejiggers numbers, Apple’s iPad regains customer satisfaction crown

12 years ago

Yesterday we reported how Apple’s iPad had regained #1 spot in tablet customer satisfaction after ceding it to, of all outfits, serial counterfeiter Samsung, during J.D. Power’s last survey (2013 – Volume 2) released in October 2013.

Why did this happen? As usual, it’s in the fine print.

J.D. Power’s survey results are based on experiences evaluated by 2,513 tablet owners who have owned their current device for less than one year and measures satisfaction across five categories, each of which are weighted by J.D. Power.

Here are the weights J.D. Power applied to each of their U.S. Tablet Satisfaction Studies.

J.D. Power U.S. Tablet Satisfaction Studies’ category weighting:

• 2012 Inaugural U.S. Tablet Satisfaction Study – Apple #1
– performance: 26%
– ease of operation: 22%
– styling and design: 19%
– features: 17%
– price: 16%

• 2013 – Volume 1 – #1 Apple
– performance: 26%
– ease of operation: 22%
– styling and design: 19%
– features: 17%
– cost: 16%

• 2013 – Volume 2 – #1 Samsung
– performance: 26%
– ease of operation: 22%
– styling and design: 19%
– features: 17%
– cost: 16%

• 2014 – Volume 1 – #1 Apple
– performance: 28% (+2 percentage points)
– ease of operation: 22% (unchanged)
– features: 22% (+5 percentage points)
– styling and design: 17% (-2 percentage points)
– cost: 11% (-5 percentage points)

We have questioned J.D. Power why they now consider “performance,”, “styling and design,” and “features” to be more important and why “cost” is less important to them than before, but have not received a response as of publication time. We will update this article with the company’s response when/if we receive one.