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]

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 14th 2008 7:04AM]

Palm does just about everything at a satisfactory level instead of a couple of things really well. That's the trade-off palm users make. But give it up to Apple, the iphone's UI is simple and elegant and that is why people love it, not to mention that it is basically a fashion statement too.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 14th 2008 7:59AM]

That almost shocks me, because everybody I know that has an LG hates it, and two of my frieds that have iphones don't even like them because of the unopen platform. I had a samsung phone that was amazing, a moto q and a moto q9c, and didn't really like either, and now I have a palm centro and can't get enough of the damn thing!

That chart is really opposite of what I think.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 14th 2008 11:58AM]

The iPhone is really a dumb phone. It's pretty, and it appeals to idiots who have zero tech savvy whatsoever. It does what it comes out of the box to do, but - no expansion memory, no replaceable battery, very limited third party application support, and no HDSPA speed when connected to the internet, because the iPhone doesn't support the ATT 3G network.

Opera mobile does a better web browser. Simulscribe does visual voicemail one better by actually transcribing voice mail to text. Other third parties do similar high quality applications for true "smartphones."

A smartphone should not be a proprietary piece of crap. Although consumers really are idiots, so maybe it's no surprise that they flock to idiotPhones. Apple's latest ad campaign plays right into that, talking to the morons that spend all day on facebook, and talking about how nice it is to be able to check it from your phone.

Sure, if you want to wait forever for the page to load - it's not like the commercial. Most real smartphones have very capable web browsers that also deliver the "whole internet" and many of them support high speed connectivity that delivers the whole internet much faster than an idiotPhone.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 15th 2008 2:15PM]

this adds to my dilema...I currently have a Moto Q and have the option to change to a Treo 700wx...thoughts?

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 16th 2008 12:32AM]

Honestly, my Palm Centro is by far the best phone I've ever owned. I only use about 1/3 of the features on it and everything I do use it for is borderline magical.

I actually provide support for Blackberry's and Windows Mobile devices and I never have problems with my Centro like the people I speak with.

I had a Palm III, Vx, and then nothing for the better part of a decade, but I'll never go back. Palm forever!