Posted on 11/19/2010 5:43:22 PM PST by Swordmaker
ChangeWave survey looks at reactions and impressions of new smart phone owners
An onslaught of new smart phones have hit the market recently as manufacturers battle one another to meet the sharply escalating demand for new features and leading-edge technologies.
To find out which manufacturers are currently winning and losing this battle, we asked 1,212 consumers who had purchased smart phones within the past six months to rate their new models. The ChangeWave survey was completed November 2, 2010.
First off, we looked at customer satisfaction with the new smart phones that respondents had purchased during the past six months.
The following chart shows the percentage who said they were Very Satisfied with the smart phone they’d purchased – broken out by manufacturer:
As we’ve consistently seen in our consumer smart phone demand surveys, the Apple iPhone continues to outperform the industry in terms of customer satisfaction – with better than three-in-four new iPhone owners (77%) reporting they’re Very Satisfied with their new model.
The surprise finding is Motorola’s exceptionally strong second place showing, with 71% of new Motorola smart phone owners saying they’re Very Satisfied with their purchase – 8-pts ahead of third place HTC (63%).
Lagging behind these three smart phone leaders we find the Very Satisfied ratings for Samsung (45%) and Research in Motion (44%). But it’s important to remember that both companies just recently released their newest models (e.g., the Samsung Galaxy S line and the RIM Torch) and they’re only partially reflected in the overall satisfaction ratings.
Here is a further breakdown of the satisfaction ratings for individual models from these smart phone manufacturers.
| Apple iPhone 4. The iPhone 4’s exceptionally high Very Satisfied rating (84% for 32GB; 78% for 16GB) confirms our earlier survey findings that despite the controversy surrounding its initial launch, the iPhone 4 has been extraordinarily well received by its owners. These iPhone 4 scores are even better than the ratings for the earlier generation iPhone 3GS models (81% for 32GB; 77% for 16GB) which were recorded in our May 2010 new smart phone owners survey. |  |
| Motorola Droid 2 and Droid X. The Droid 2 – Motorola’s latest release in its Android lineup of smart phones – also received an exceptionally high Very Satisfied rating (74%), as did the Droid X (71%) which was released one month earlier. Both models have exceeded the satisfaction rating for the original Droid (69%), recorded in our May 2010 ChangeWave survey. |  |
| HTC EVO 4G and Droid Incredible. A huge player in the Android smart phone market, HTC released its latest models last spring but they continue to outperform – with the EVO 4G registering a 76% Very Satisfied rating and the Droid Incredible 70%. Both remain among the top rated smart phones in the industry and well ahead of the rating for other HTC phones (45%). |  |
| Research in Motion (RIM) Torch. In an encouraging sign for RIM, their latest new model – the BlackBerry Torch – received a 64% Very Satisfied rating, significantly higher than the Bold (48%), Curve (40%) and other BlackBerry RIM models (37%). The high Very Satisfied rating for the Torch is a breakthrough for the Canadian smart phone manufacturer – who has lagged in customer satisfaction for the past two years of ChangeWave surveys – but it still ranks below the top-rated models of Apple, Motorola and HTC. |  |
Samsung Galaxy S. Better than half (55%) of the purchasers of Samsung Galaxy S smart phones report they’re Very Satisfied with their new models, compared with just 28% for all other Samsung models.
With the rumors and speculation continuing about the imminent release of a new Verizon iPhone, what impact would such a move have on the smart phone market?
We asked non-AT&T respondents whether they’d have still purchased their new smart phone if the iPhone had been available at their wireless service provider at the time of purchase. The results show the continuing threat the iPhone poses to the rest of the industry.
* Note that 20% reported they ‘Don’t Know’ which phone they would have purchased.
In short, an extraordinary one-in-three non-AT&T smart phone buyers (34%) say they’d have bought the iPhone instead if it had been available at their service provider.
A closer look at the results by specific manufacturer shows that new Motorola smart phone purchasers are likeliest to say they’d have bought the Apple iPhone (37%) if it had been available from their service provider.
The ChangeWave survey was completed November 2, 2010. Full report details include:
The complete ChangeWave report is available here.
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I believe Apple was so foolish in keeping their iPhone restricted to AT&T networks. Why restrict yourself in such a way? I know I would have bought one, but AT&T isn’t available in my area. I’m SURE I’m not the only one.
I suspect Apple’s suppliers were just able to meet demand of the ATT signups...
Foolish had NOTHING to do with it. Apple offered the iPhone to Verizon first but Verizon want the iPhone to be ala carted to death, wanting to charge for each and every "extra service" as they were already doing on their other phones, and refused to make the network changes necessary for things like visual voice mail to work... Cingular Wireless was willing to present the iPhone as a package and to make the changes... in exchange for a period of exclusivity in the US market. They were the ONLY carrier willing to do it. Cingular was bought by SBCGlobal... which then changed it's name to AT&T before the iPhone was released. The rest said "No Way." The "rest" in the USA were left waiting in the dust of the success of the iPhone... including Verizon and T-Mobile.
It has taken THREE years for an iPhone "wanna be" system, Android, to come close to offering on those other carriers what the iPhone has been offering. According to this, one-third of the Android and RIM purchasers would have preferred to have purchased an iPhone, if they could have. . . I bet it would have been higher, We shall see in January when the exclusivity to AT&T ends... and Verizon finally gets the iPhone.
Motorola Droid.... not so much. Can’t wait till iPhone comes to Verizon.
lol I'm one of those. I have a Blackberry. It was the best thing I could get around here at the time. I would LOVE to have an iPhone. The BB has been good for what I need it for though. I pretty much just use the phone for voice, an occasional email/browsing session, and a quick pic if I need it. I recently purchased an iPad, and it has almost replaced my netbook entirely.
Count me among the “woulda if I coulda”
I’d be lost without my BB.
I also bought the Otter protective cover for it when I upgraded last year. A cop recommended it.
That’s an assumption right there, that Verizon would get the iPhone once the exclusivity agreement ended. More likely T-Mobile will get the iPhone as their networks are compatible with current technology.
The original iPhone works on GSM wireless networks. AT&T and t-Mobile use GSM. This “new” Verizon iPhone will use CDMA which is not compatible with GSM. Sprint, Verizon and USCellular are CDMA networks.
ping smart phones
So the new iPhones will work on US Cellular networks? I might finally be able to get one then! US Cellular is my only option for cell service.
I’ve seen an iPhone in an Otterbox Defender that came back from two tours in Iraq. The plastic screen cover was worn to a dull haze by the sand, but the phone inside was fine.
It won’t protect against full immersion, but it’ll stand up to just about anything else. The downside is that it’s huge.
There are a few jailbroken iPhones on T Mobile already.
One important thing to note: International wireless is almost always GSM, so CDMA phones probably will not work when you are on vacation or business overseas, while GSM phones will.
Why not just have one wireless type that every carrier can use? It worked extremely well for computers using 802.11(Ethernet).
You must be too young to remember Arcnet and Token-Ring. You may not remember Betamax either.
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