Palm ranks last in satisfaction survey, no one surprised

We know it's probably going to be pretty hard to believe this, but according to a recent survey of mobile phone users, Palm ranks absolutely last in customer satisfaction. If you believe what the folks at ChangeWave Research have to say (and the 4,182 people they questioned), only 30-percent of Palm users reported being "very satisfied" with their device, while companies like Apple and RIM garnered 72-percent and 55-percent, respectively. Of course, considering current trends with the company, and the fact that it's just started paying out to users for repeated repairs on devices, this doesn't come as much shock. The report demonstrates that users are moving to smartphones at an alarming rate -- but with rankings like this, they're probably avoiding Palm devices. Guys, it might take a little more than Bono to fix this mess.

Update: Our friends at Palm contacted us with some supplemental information which they wanted to get across concerning this research and related studies. According to them, two separate, third-party firms (Satmetrix and Russell Research) conducted studies which came to the opposite conclusion of ChangeWave's work. In their words: "The Satmetrix survey found that 65-percent of respondents rated their overall satisfaction with Palm as an 8-10 out of 10. Also, the Russell Research study found that 56-percent of respondents were either "very satisfied" or "extremely satisfied" with their Palm smartphone device."

[Via Palm Infocenter]

[John @ Feb 13th 2008 9:47AM]

Apple iPhone is first! Yah!

[Gar @ Feb 13th 2008 10:16AM]

It's worth noting that Apple has one, count it ONE, product in the space. It's a top tier, premium product purchased largely by Apple fans.

RIM products are all largely top tier as well.

It is not until LG where we see a truely fair comparison. The rest of the companies have a number of products throughout all tiers and price points.

Just because most people who purchase a Rolls Royce love it, does not mean RR is the best car company. Thier cars are top tier, aimed at a specific market. The people who buy them are already going to love them. Throw that same RR on a rally race course and you'll quickly find some flaws. That's where other manufacturers come in with a wider portfolio, but it's impossible to please everyone at that point.

[nh @ Feb 13th 2008 10:30AM]

Well said Gar (and Noel further down).

This survey is as much about user expectations as it is with the quality of the product.

[John @ Feb 13th 2008 10:41AM]

Still, iPhone is the best. I have a BB for work and an iPhone for personal use.

[fred @ Feb 13th 2008 10:43AM]

Yes Apple should have a Barry Bonds sized * or not even be included.

But I assume if they weren't on this chart, we wouldn't even be seeing this posted here.

The Palm angle is just a cover, we aren't dumb, Engadget.

[mike @ Feb 13th 2008 10:45AM]

I can not believe LG is #3!

[Reid @ Feb 13th 2008 11:20AM]

Gar,

I think your problem is that you're assuming that complexity/expense=satisfaction. It's possible to design a very elegant, very simple product that performs a few functions very well.

Though I guess nothing is to stop a bare-bones Nokia user from saying they're dissatisfied because their free-with-contract phone won't surf the web like a BB.

[Truth hurts @ Feb 13th 2008 11:58AM]

Actually, LG has always been "number one" among other competitors in the consumer satisfaction/quality surveys by J.D. Power & Associates and Consumer Reports:

http://www.appliancemagazine.com/news.php?article=5231&zone=0&first=1

[Ireland @ Feb 13th 2008 12:09PM]

I hate when people can't just admit Apple is number 1 because they have the best product. If Apple are number 1 at anything it must be because of the fanboys, great me a friggin' break. They're number 1 simply because the iPhone kicks ass! Use one for a day and just try say otherwise.

[Darren @ Feb 13th 2008 1:23PM]

Most people would purchase a Rolls Royce if they could, and they would love it. People appreciate good design and good engineering.

[RockPaper @ Feb 13th 2008 1:29PM]

Most people can afford an iPhone. It's not a Rolls Royce, it just looks and performs like one. $399 isnt that much to spend on the iPhone.

The Rolls of phones is the The Diamond Crypto Smartphone or the GoldVish phone. Not the iPhone.

[nh @ Feb 13th 2008 2:21PM]

Ireland: Apple is No. 1 because the people who bought it think it's the best product.

Those people have already spent £900 (£239 + 18x£35) on their phone, so have already demonstrated their strong desire for it. They will likely value its pros and not be too bothered about its cons.

They are also extremely unlikely to admit, even to themselves, that there is anything wrong with it.

[Balls @ Feb 13th 2008 2:37PM]

It may be first, but what this doesn't take into account is the people who held off buying the iphone because it didnt meet their needs:

No 3G
Tied to AT&T
Overpriced.

It's like asking someone who bought britney spear's last cd what they think of britney spears.

I have a MBP, and I generally like it (it crashed when I tried to update to 10.5.2 fwiw), but I do think that there some apple's fans that have been brainwashed into believing that all things apple are made of win.

[tanporakuda @ Feb 14th 2008 12:23AM]

The results are common sense. The more expensive a product is, the more people are going to autoconvince themselves that they like it and/or the less people are going to recognize that they aren't satisfied with it.

[Al @ Feb 14th 2008 11:21PM]

Of course Apple's product is first. Apple could put out a device that came packed in dog doo, exploded randomly, sending jagged, poisoned shards around a 50' radius, had a five minute battery life and no discernible function and Apple fans would STILL praise it as a new technological paradigm, believe that Apple created dog doo, and buy every version.

[ncmach1 @ Feb 13th 2008 9:52AM]

Oh bull. Palm is probably the least amount sold. Naturally there is way more iphones on the streets so they would get the most votes.

[Oli @ Feb 13th 2008 10:00AM]

You do realise that this means 30% of Palm owners? It has nothing to do with units sold... The graph is still a bit misleading because it only shows how much percent are *very* satisfied with their device. It does not mean the rest absolutely hete their device. The remaining 70% could still be, erm, "somewhat" satisfied.

I think the graph is intentionally "crippled" to be more shocking.

[SHoe @ Mar 26th 2008 12:26AM]

Do you know what percentage means?

[Passarinhuu @ Feb 13th 2008 10:02AM]

Nokia sells way more phones than Apple and the results are the same...
That's why they are using a relative scale. You don't have to wonder anymore why there was that strange % symbol in front of the numbers

[Denver_80203 @ Feb 13th 2008 10:03AM]

'It has nothing to do with units sold'

I'd say that it has everything to do with units sold.

[Stimpski @ Feb 13th 2008 3:43PM]

It's about customer satisfaction, not about popularity!

[bob e @ Feb 13th 2008 9:53AM]

Why no HTC, they have more smart phones than Apple?
I love my HTC Touch!

[Josh @ Feb 13th 2008 10:15AM]

Yea WTF, why no HTC, one of the largest smartphone suppliers. And yea Palm sucks. When i had verizon i had a Tre 650w, what a total piece of junk. Constantly locked up, lost settings after a soft reset, etc. Took it back and got a Q instead.

And why do i have to enter my god damned password everytime i post here? Thats what the "remember me" box should be for.

[boe @ Feb 14th 2008 3:35PM]

I agree HTC should be in there - I really like my Touch as well but I also hate HTC for -
Not improving battery life
Not using VGA - still stuck in QVGA
Not coming out with reliable firmware updates or even regular one - have to depend on other sources to make firmware updates - e.g. ppcgeeks
Not working with MS to fix the crappy BT - not sure why free phones have better BT than $500 phones
Not listening to the customers when you tell them there is a problem - I had to start a campaign of terror by posting on ever website possible including their wiki to get them to recognize the issue with the mogul BT - took 6 months to get a "fix".

[LJKelley @ Feb 13th 2008 11:18AM]

Survey says that most people don't believe surveys.

But honestly without HTC this 'research' is flawed considering how many HTC phones exist including the AT&T Tilt which does say HTC on the battery cover. Call me cynical but I wouldn't be suprised if apple 'paid' for this 'research'

[xbit @ Feb 13th 2008 11:38AM]

HTC (largely) isn't a consumer brand. That's an AT&T Tilt you're carrying, not a HTC Tilt.

[webon @ Feb 13th 2008 9:53AM]

4 thou people, c'mon, I did better on my masters thesis

[Chewedtoothpick @ Feb 13th 2008 10:10AM]

We all did, but most people are far too ignorant and/or stupid to know anything about statistics.

[paragraph @ Feb 13th 2008 9:54AM]

This chart is obviously off...

I have never once been very satasfied with a cell phone... ever... and i think that most people here can say the same.

All phones needs tweaks, and content, and good service. Palm phones just happen to weigh as much as a brick, are about the size of a brick, and come in the same colors as bricks... infact, if i didn't own a treo, i'd be suspect that it is little more than a brick.

Either way, this is clearly from a consumer level, and consumers don't need smartphones... and thats all that palm makes... plus 66% of those phones are Palm OS.... therefore they are not phones at all (they are turds...) so really, when you look at it, it's skewed...

:\

Palm should buy Moto

[RockPaper @ Feb 13th 2008 10:44AM]

I can honestly say I am 100% satisfied with my iPhone. Im not a mac fan boi, I use windows. But I seriously like and appreciate my iPhone. It changed my life and made it easier.

[mr. mario @ Feb 13th 2008 11:23AM]

haha...
true - to be satisfied means to be complacent.

then again Apple owners are the most complacent - in my book. Who else would pay such a premium for a product that doesn't really perform but just looks pretty?

I need my EVDO - i could not handle obsessively checking my email, facebook, etc with 2G.

[Harkonian @ Feb 13th 2008 11:25AM]

I agree--the iPhone really is a quality product that makes it hard to use any other device after becoming used to one. I'm not overly enthused about other Apple products, but the iPhone is extrordinary. Before getting one I used to get a new phone every couple of months because I would get fed up with the abysmal user experience of my current phone.

I think once more multi-touch phones make it to market with a UX that is built around that functionality (I'm talking to you, Nokia S60) I'd be willing to revisit my iPhone only stance, though. For now, it's just too awkward to go back to using a non-touch interface.

[Scott @ Feb 13th 2008 11:48AM]

@Mario

Doesn't really perform? Nice anti-Apple troll. The iPhone interface is smooth and fluid. It's the other devices out there that don't "perform." You can talk about feature lists until your face turns blue, but that doesn't make your phone stop lagging on every key press.

[jus10 @ Feb 13th 2008 9:55AM]

Palm hasn't been relevant in years. If it wasn't for all the hoopla on this site about their pathetic laptop add-on, I would have thought them out of business.

[Carbonize @ Feb 13th 2008 10:02AM]

And how many different phones does Apple produce? Oh yes one. And how many different models do people like Nokia, Samsung and LG produce each year?

The only accurate way of doing this is the number of phones sold and how many complaints the company received/have been reported.

[insertAlias @ Feb 13th 2008 10:58AM]

I think the only fair way to do this is by individual models, not brands. Then show us a graph for "somewhat satisfied," "somewhat dissatisfied," and "I hate it."

That would be fair and accurate.

[Carbonize @ Feb 13th 2008 11:03AM]

Yup. Either / Or

[mac @ Feb 13th 2008 10:03AM]

Wait, you mean to tell me I'm supposed to trust a site that says a "3-point change" is something to worry about when I have no clue HOW he sampled to arrive at these numbers? They don't even tell me how many respondents actually had each brand in question...am I missing the original report somewhere?

Maybe more importantly to all of you, the graph only represents people who were "very satisfied", but does not tell me anything at all about who might just be "satisfied", a distinction that could change a lot.

[Physboy @ Feb 13th 2008 11:11AM]

Exactly, I am glad that someone brought up the fallacious nature of this report. I never trust reports where the methodologies used to perform the study are not disclosed. This is just crap marketing from a Stock Market firm designed to disinform people for the purposes of moving a stock price.

Apple just has not been the same since MacWorld, their stock has been diving and their does not seem to be an end to it.

[Noel @ Feb 13th 2008 10:05AM]

These results couldn't possibly be because:
a. the kind of people who buy a palm device are the kind of people that are hard to satisfy
b. the kind of people who buy an iphone are satisfied with anything that has a fruit logo on it

[Scott @ Feb 13th 2008 11:48AM]

I've never own a single Apple product in my life, yet I love my iPhone. See how generalization fails all?

[Scott @ Feb 13th 2008 11:49AM]

I meant prior to buying an iPhone of course...

[Craig Tucker @ Feb 13th 2008 10:06AM]

When reading statistics such as this you need to realize the psychology of each brand and what goes into their users saying "very satisfied". Apple users tend to accept what they're given and change their habits to match the product, so they are by nature very likely to satisfied. Palm users are generally the type who are seeking out the device of their dreams, the exact specs they want. Thus, Palm users are likely to not be "very satisfied" with anything. If they bought an iPhone, they would find it lacking in some way.

[itchytooth @ Feb 13th 2008 11:38AM]

I'm an Apple fanboy and I approve of this comment.

[Ladderless @ Feb 13th 2008 10:06AM]

It's going to be interesting to see how happy those IPod owners are next year when their batteries start to age.

[farfisa @ Feb 13th 2008 10:08AM]

"Yeah, I'm not so satisfied with my Palm and it's only eleven years old!"

[SwissFreek @ Feb 13th 2008 10:11AM]

Let's put this in a little perspective. People love bashing on Palm, and as a former Palm owner (and current iPhone user), I definitely agree that they seem to have stagnated, to put it mildly.

BUT, I disagree with the statement above that we should assume that Palm has the smallest number of owners. I know more people with Treo's than people with iPhones. While this is just my own personal observation and has no bearing on the population as a whole, my point is just that Palm was huge until not TOO long ago, and lots of people are still fans, despite the fact that they really haven't changed anything in a coon's age (that, by the way, might also say something about how good their designs were). And Sanyo? Really? When was the last time you met anyone who had a Sanyo phone?

I would also like to point out that for all the sh*t that Palm gets here on the tech blogs, notice that Samsung, Sony/Ericsson, and Motorola are all at 34%, and Nokia is at 36%. Given the size of the sample and all that, +-4% could be statistical variance. And even if it's not, 34% isn't THAT much better than 30% satisfaction.

So let's not put too much spin on this chart, m'kay?

[Djunior80 @ Feb 13th 2008 11:21AM]

HTC should be in there. Also, correct me if i am wrong, but I have never seen a Sanyo Smartphone!

[Chewedtoothpick @ Feb 13th 2008 10:17AM]

I am just curious to see the numbers...

[mattclarkie @ Feb 13th 2008 10:19AM]

Find me an Apple owner who is willing to admit that Apple Suck, and I will give you $1 billion.
It was obvious that Apple would come first, and not because they are the best, but because people that own them believe they are the best.

Disclaimer:
Any impression that you will receive money is purely accidental. No money will be given to you even if you manage to find an Apple owner who says that they hate Apple products.