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Tesla Model 3 loses Consumer Reports recommendation
The long-simmering tussle between Tesla and Consumer Reports over car reviews took a fresh turn Thursday, after the publication said it could no longer recommend the Model 3. Tesla had finally claimed the distinction last May after it was able to reduce the car's braking distance. Previously, Consumer Reports declined to recommend the car due to that issue, along with "stiff" ride quality and a "distracting" touchscreen.
Samsung edges past Apple in US smartphone satisfaction study, but reverse is true in Korea
What a difference a year makes. Apple topped American Customer Satisfaction Index's smartphone rankings back in 2012, but Samsung has taken the lead in 2013 by a slim margin. Owners responding to ACSI's national survey gave an 84-point score to both the Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note II, putting the two Samsung phones just past the 82-point iPhone 5 and iPhone 4S. Researchers haven't explained the changing attitudes, although they add that the Galaxy S 4 and other newer phones didn't ship in time to count. It's at least clear that the American sentiment doesn't extend worldwide -- ACSI notes that South Koreans ranked the iPhone 5 higher than the Galaxy S III despite Samsung's home turf advantage. Apple also maintains the lead in ACSI's device-independent scores at 81 points to 76, although Samsung is quickly catching up. It's safe to say that neither smartphone maker can afford to relax.
More than 600 million iOS devices sold, Tim Cook says
Tim Cook is on stage in California right now talking iOS numbers, and as you might imagine, they're big. There are more than 600 million iOS devices sold worldwide, according to Mr. Cook, and almost half of those just since the last year's WWDC. Smartphone usage market share is high, with iOS garnering 50 percent more usage than other platforms, and the iPad is even bigger in the tablet category, with 82 percent of usage as compared to 18 percent of "other" tablets. Users are also satisfied, with the iPhone winning multiple awards in its lifetime, and boasting a 97 percent satisfaction rate. Users are also unified on a single iOS install, with 93 percent of users using iOS 6, which Cook joked was a far cry from Android's situation. Cook then segued all of these numbers and this satisfaction into the announcement of iOS 7.
J.D. Power: average smartphone satisfaction is up, fights are fierce for second place
Satisfaction studies can sound like broken records, with familiar leaders and positions that don't move. Not so with J.D. Power's first smartphone survey for 2013. While Apple maintained the top spot for the ninth time in a row through US customers' happiness with the hardware design and ease of use, most of its major competitors made big strides in reliability, speed and camera quality in the past half-year -- to the point where there was a virtual dead heat for second place between HTC, Motorola, Nokia and Samsung. They lifted the average by about 22 points and left only LG (which has few high-end US phones) and a pre-transition BlackBerry lagging behind. We wouldn't be surprised to see an improvement for those last two by the September study. Whatever your platform preference, J.D. Power has found some shared experiences. Bugs are still a problem on phones when about 17 percent of those asked ran into some kind of glitch. However, it's clear that those who lean heavily on their smartphones tend to love them: survey takers who used social networking apps for 100-plus minutes a week were significantly more likely to recommend whatever they had. That might help explain a high conversion rate among basic phone owners, where three quarters of those planning to update their devices expected to move to a smartphone.
Asus, Samsung top TechHive's tablet satisfaction survey
While Apple is certainly selling the most tablets thanks to the wild popularity of the iPad and iPad mini, it did not receive the highest scores in a tablet satisfaction survey run by TechHive. Surprisingly, Asus scored at or near the top of all satisfaction measurements for the Google Nexus 7 (image above) that it manufactures. Next in the rankings was Samsung, which earned high scores for its Galaxy Tab range of tablets. Apple took third place with its tablets, earning top marks for speed, battery life and responsiveness of the touchscreens. iPads were also lauded for ease of use. Apple also received the top score for reliability, with only 4 percent of owners reporting any significant issue in the first two years of ownership. A full 12 percent of owners of other brand tablets experienced issues in the first two years. While Apple ran a close third place in the tablet category, TechHive reports that the company took top honors in satisfaction rankings for laptops, desktops and smartphones.
iPhone waltzes into top spot of US phone satisfaction index, small carriers trump the giants
We know almost too well how smartphones perform in US market share; what we don't usually see is how happy customers are once the shrink wrap's off. Going by a newly-expanded American Customer Satisfaction Index, it's the iPhone that most scratches the itch at a score of 83. Despite having just been added, Apple was noticeably ahead of a three-way tie between HTC, LG and Nokia at 75. You might not want to look if you're a freshly-minted RIM executive: the BlackBerry made its freshman debut on the charts at the bottom, or 69. Big carriers have their own reasons to wince, too, knowing that smaller carriers like US Cellular and TracFone scored higher on the happiness meter than incumbents hiking service fees. While there's definitely some wiggle room for your own experience to have been better or worse, if you were an iPhone owner on a regional carrier in the past few months, you were statistically the most likely to be on Cloud Nine.
Consumer Reports: Verizon has highest satisfaction rate among major US carriers, AT&T is lowest
It's annual satisfaction survey time for Consumer Reports, and the magazine has a few results to share in anticipation of next month's issue. It appears that regional provider Consumer Cellular topped the charts -- the survey rated scores from 66,000 online subscribers -- though Verizon was ranked the highest out of the four major players for the second year in a row, followed closely by Sprint and T-Mobile. According to the survey, the latter company was still "significantly better" than last-place AT&T. The full results will be published in the January 2012 issue. Your own personal experience with each provider may vary depending on your locale, of course, but 66,000 people have certainly made their voice heard.
iPhone 4S customers report 96% satisfaction rate
The iPhone 4S has been out for about six weeks, and owners have had time to learn the ins and outs of the device. ChangeWave wanted to find out what these people thought and asked 215 iPhone 4S owners about their new handset. If you're a long-time iPhone owner, you won't be surprised by the results. The survey reveals an overwhelming number (77 percent) of 4S owners are very satisfied with their handset. This is slightly higher than the 73 percent who said they were very satisfied with the iPhone 4 right after launch. The feature 4S owners liked the most about their handset was Siri. Almost half (49 percent) of those surveyed ranked Siri as the number one feature of the phone. The second and third favorite features were the iPhone's ease of use and its 8-megpixel camera. The iPhone 4S isn't perfect, and a little over a third of those surveyed (38 percent) said battery life was too short. It may be a problem, but most people are not overly bothered by having to charge their phone regularly. Only 8 percent of owners with reduced battery life said it was a very big problem; 20 percent said it was somewhat of a problem. Battery life may be worse, but the dropped call rate has improved significantly. The iPhone 4S dropped call rate is 2.5 percent which is almost half that of the iPhone 4 (5.2 percent). The majority of these dropped calls occurred on AT&T which has a 4.1 percent dropped call rate. Verizon iPhone 4S owners reported only a 1.3 percent dropped call rate. Overall, iPhone owners like their new phone. Even though the diminished battery may be an inconvenience, things like Siri and improved call quality make those little glitches seem bearable. As a current iPhone 4S owner, I would have to agree. [Via AppleInsider]
Apple tops J.D. Power customer satisfaction survey, grim reading for RIM and Nokia
Not only is Apple shipping the most smartphones, it's also shipping the best smartphones -- if you believe the stats in J.D. Power and Associates' latest US customer satisfaction survey. It gave the iPhone a score of 838, versus HTC's handsets in second place with 801 and an industry average of 788. Sammy got a disappointing 777, but we guess it might have fared better if the Galaxy S II had been quicker to cross the Atlantic. Hapless RIM got shunted into fifth place, having come second in 2010. You'll find plenty more factoids in the PR after the break, including evidence that people just love 4G. Well, we could have told you that.
Apple takes top spot in J.D. Power smartphone ratings five years in a row
For the fifth year in a row, Apple's iPhone has taken top spot on the J.D. Power and Associates Smartphone Satisfaction Study. "Apple ranks highest among manufacturers of smartphones in customer satisfaction with a score of 795 and performs particularly well in ease of operation, operating system, features and physical design. Motorola (763) and HTC (762) follow Apple in the smartphone rankings," according to the study. J.D. Power's study found that smartphone users cited different "key factors" for satisfaction: Ease of operation (26%) Operating system (24%) Physical design (23%) Features (19%) Battery function (8%) It's perhaps in Apple's favor that consumers assigned relatively little importance to battery function, as that was by far Apple's worst rating -- the only result it received that wasn't a perfect 5 out of 5 stars. This probably comes as little surprise to anyone who uses an iPhone heavily throughout the day. In fact, the iPhone's battery performance rated lower than every other smartphone manufacturer's handsets except for HTC, so Apple definitely has room to improve the iPhone's design beyond making it thinner/lighter/sexier every year. As for the other ratings, for the most part other manufacturers didn't even come close to matching the iPhone. RIM's position near the bottom of the pile should come as no surprise to anyone who's watched the BlackBerry's stagnation over the past several years, but what is surprising is Samsung's position at the very bottom of the satisfaction results. Whether it intentionally set out to ape Apple's iPhone design or not, according to these results it doesn't appear to have done the company any favors as far as consumer satisfaction is concerned. Next year's results should be interesting. Palm won't be on the list, and if RIM keeps going the way it has been, the BlackBerry may not be either. It'll also be fascinating to see how Nokia switching to Windows Phone 7 for its OS impacts consumer satisfaction regarding ease of operation and the operating system itself. As for HTC and Motorola, barring any revolutionary improvements in Android their results aren't likely to fluctuate much. Bookmark this post for next year, because I'm betting Apple's going to top the list again in 2012.
Poll: Are you satisfied with the TV service you're paying for?
When it comes to traditional pay-TV service the majority of us are still shelling out, but we're wondering how you feel about what you're getting in return. Let it all out, can you sit back and flip through channels / VOD / DVRed programming without a care in the world, does just looking at the channel guide fill you with rage over missing channels, high prices and poor customer service. Let it all out, this is a safe zone. %Poll-63507%
Netbook demand plummets while shoppers snap up iPads
An October survey by market research firm ChangeWave spells doom for manufacturers of netbooks. While just a few holiday seasons ago the cheap little PCs were on everyone's Christmas list, now they're only attractive to 14% of people who are considering the purchase of a laptop computer. At their peak, almost a quarter of laptop customers wanted inexpensive netbooks. Why the big change in such a short amount of time? The iPad, which is attracting the attention of buyers who want a small, portable device for web browsing and email. It doesn't appear that the upcoming flood of iPad competitors is having much of an effect, either. ChangeWave's data (based on a sample size of 3,108 consumers) shows that a whopping 80% of potential tablet buyers are considering the iPad, a figure 10 times that of the next closest competitor -- the still-unreleased RIM Playbook. A tiny 3% of tablet buyers are opting for the Android-based (and also unreleased) Samsung Galaxy Tab (see next page for graphic).
River of News' real money returns
Developer Dylan Ginsburg has noticed that a lot of iPhone companies (including most of the folks I spoke with at GDC last week) don't like to talk about exactly how much money they've made on the App Store. But he has no such compunctions, so he's written up a nice post on his blog about how much his River of News RSS app for the iPad has made so far. The short answer? About $20,600 since the app was released on August 19th. The app, which peaked in the top 30 (good, but not outstanding), has sold about 9,500 copies so far, and has made about $5500 of that total in the past month, which Ginsburg says seems like a pretty standard period. I can tell you from my own knowledge that Ginsburg could be making more -- it sounds like he hasn't even started exploring advertising or in-app purchases in his app, and I've heard from many developers that those can be very helpful in the right places. But more important, Ginsburg says the satisfaction he's getting from working on the App Store is better than any monetary gain -- he just recently stepped away from a corporate job, and plans to make a go at creating apps for a full-time living. It's cool to hear a straight story from one developer on the App Store about just how viable creating apps is. Of course, one thing Ginsburg doesn't talk about is how much work and training went into making his app -- that $20k in sales didn't just appear out of thin air. And not all developers see even his level of modest success, since there are so many apps on the store that don't even make it into the top lists. But Ginsburg is as good an example as any of the kinds of opportunities Apple has created with its App Store platform.
Apple #4 in e-tailing survey
This a bit of good news for Apple -- despite the numerous complaints seen day to day against the company, Apple's online store came in fourth in overall customer satisfaction in a recent survey. ForSee Results tracked the shopping experience for 23,400 over the Internet during a two-week period in February. Apple came in behind Netflix, Amazon and Avon. Read the entire report here (registration required). Given the economy and the uncertainty of buying stuff online to begin with (I vastly prefer handling a product in a brick and mortar store before buying it), it's good to find out which companies are easy to work with online. I've also dealt with both Netflix and Amazon and have had nothing buy excellent service, in addition to the few times I've ordered from Apple online. [VIa Fortune/CNNMoney]
The Street: Features can't sway Apple customers' trust
Jason Schwarz over at TheStreet has written an article analyzing Apple's current position in the marketplace and what Apple's competition needs to do in order to catch up. The article focuses mostly on Apple's iPhone/iPod + iTunes ecosystem, which isn't surprising. Though Mac sales bring in a fair amount of cash to the company, Apple's handheld market is the company's most current success story, and everyone from Microsoft to Palm to Google has spent the past several years trying (and failing) to duplicate that success. Schwarz notes that Steve Jobs's recent claim that, "We see no signs of the competition catching up anytime soon," doesn't necessarily apply to the feature set of the iPhone or its integration with iTunes, but rather Apple's financial success and brand impression. He has a point. Recent ads have been trying to sell the Droid on its feature set, telling us all the things that Sega does that Nintendon't - er, I mean, all the things Droid does that the iPhone doesn't, but trying to sell the Droid on features hasn't exactly toppled the iPhone's dominance quite yet, and all indications are that the Nexus One isn't likely to take a big chunk out of Apple's smartphone sales, either.
NDOORS CEO on Atlantica Online succeeding in the West
Massively multiplayer online games operating on the free-to-play business model are definitely a mixed bag in terms of quality. As such, they get a mixed reception in the West. Those who like more variety in their gameplay choices than the standard subscription model offers them tend to be more open to alternative business models. Staunch supporters of the AAA subscription model typical of the industry in Western markets have some serious misgivings about what the new crop of free-to-play titles could mean for the industry climate. NDOORS Interactive hopes to change some of these perceptions with Atlantica Online, their strategic turn-based MMORPG. Danny "Ralsu" Gourley from Ten Ton Hammer interviewed NDOORS Interactive CEO Peter Kang about Atlantica Online and how it fits into the industry climate in the West.
Issues with the realm first achievements
Apparently there have been some mistakes made in the realm-first achievements being given out. You've probably seen these (Blizzard apparently broadcasts them across the realms) -- when someone hits level 80 or finishes a profession first, they attain a feat of strength achievement. They don't get the original titles, but they do get credit for getting their first.But on a few realms, Blizzard ended up giving some of the awards to multiple players, resulting in the ingame mail you see above. We're not sure if it's because they all hit within a certain time period, or whether Blizzard's servers weren't working correctly, but as you can see, they say the issue is fixed for now. If you did rush to be the first on a server, you can be satisfied that you're the only one.Thanks, Penny!
J.D. Power survey ranks iPhone highest
J.D. Power and Associates released the results of a survey yesterday, showing Apple's iPhone ranked highest in terms of customer satisfaction among 1,388 business wireless customers queried between August and September. Apple scored 778 (out of 1,000), higher than Blackberry-maker RIM (703) and Samsung (701). The scores were derived from survey answers in five categories: ease of operation, operating system, physical design, handset features, and battery aspects. Apple owners reported the highest average purchase price for a smartphone, $337. Motorola owners paid the least, averaging $169. The average across all smartphone brands was $216. The survey also found that a quarter of all smartphone users have at least one software-related problem with their current handset. Forty-four percent had to reboot their device at least once a week. Sixty-nine percent own a hands-free device, and 74 percent of them are wireless. [Via Macworld.]
Satellite customers more satisfied than cable customers?
Those looking for an answer to the cable or satellite question may want to turn their eyes to a recent survey by Beta Research Group, suggesting the latter group is more satisfied with their TV provider. The numbers are 72% answering "satisfied" for satellite compared to only 62% for digital cable, while 66% of people with dishes said they would definitely continue as customers, compared to 45% with cable. We're pretty sure many of those interview have HD, with discovery and History channels ranking highest among the favorites - we like them too, but can't imagine liking them as much in SD. Take a look at the read link to get a couple more notes on the methodology and findings before making a decision, but for those of you who've already faced down the choice, are you sated?
Alltel snags lots of gold in recent call quality survey
While Verizon and T-Mobile shared honors in a customer service survey just two months back, it was regional carrier Alltel snagging most of the gold in a recent J.D. Power and Associates survey of wireless call quality. Reportedly, said carrier was able to take the "sole or partial top spot in three of the report's six regions," while Verizon stood on top in two regions, US Cellular in one and T-Mobile (along with Alltel) in another. The data was gathered from 24,570 respondents that were questioned about dropped calls, static / interference, failed connection on the first try, voice distortion, echoes, no immediate voicemail notification, and no immediate text message notification. Interestingly, the study also found that "customers using 3G handsets experienced fewer call quality issues," and while call quality problems reported by folks using CDMA happened around 14 times out of every 100 calls, nearly a quarter of calls from those on the iDEN network were primarily about problems with call quality. Check out the full spill in the read below, we won't tell anyone you're a number lover.
