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Car buyers aren’t thrilled about semi-autonomous features
JD Power's latest research into the likes and dislikes of car owners has two big takeaways: people love Kia and are pretty lukewarm about self-driving technology. Or, at least those components that most drivers can gain access to right now, like adaptive cruise control, collision avoidance and blind spot warning systems.
Note this: Samsung tablets rank highest in J.D. Power's owner satisfaction study
Apple's incredibly popular handset, the iPhone, has earned it multiple awards from J.D. Power, but the tablet market may not be playing out the same for the iPad maker. According to a recent study conducted by J.D. Power, which took place between the months of March and August, Samsung tablets are topping owner satisfaction ratings in 2013, with Apple and Amazon coming in second and third place, respectively. The market researcher takes into account five key factors: performance, ease of use, styling/design, features and price; based on a 1,000-point scale, Samsung's overall score was 835, while Apple's offerings netted 833, and 826 for Amazon. What's interesting here, however, is that the iPad line was rated the highest in every category but cost, which was, apparently, a valuable enough factor to tilt the scale in the South Korean firm's favor. J.D. Power's recent findings also note that 50 percent of consumers rely on recommendations from friends and/or family, so think very hard about the suggestions you'll be making come holiday shopping season.
iPhone tops in J.D. Power smartphone satisfaction survey one more time
J.D. Power & Associates has released its second Wireless Smartphone Satisfaction Study for 2013 and, surprise, surprise, the iPhone claims the top spot. If this sounds familiar, it's because the iPhone claimed the top spot in the first Wireless Smartphone Satisfaction Study of 2013 in May. While the iPhone did turn out to be the the most customer-satisfying device overall, J.D. Power broke down its rankings by carriers as well. AT&T came out on top as the best carrier -- with the iPhone its top device -- while Sprint came in at No. 2, with Samsung having the top smartphone. Verizon took third place, again with the iPhone in the top spot, and T-Mobile brought up the rear in fourth. Interestingly, J.D. Power found that the primary reasons for purchasing a smartphone device differ depending on the carrier. Sprint customers seem to care more about smartphone features, while T-Mobile customers base their smartphone purchases on price.
J.D. Power: Verizon is best carrier for iPhone users, worst for everyone else
Happy with your iPhone's service? That could be because you're on Verizon, whose iPhone customers reported the highest satisfaction in J.D. Power's latest survey. However, when combined with any other mainstream handset, Verizon actually ranked dead last in overall customer satisfaction -- yielding the top three spots to AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile, respectively. To be fair, a Consumer Reports survey said the exact opposite about Verizon just five months ago, so it's best to take these things with some seasoning.
J.D. Power: AT&T unseats Verizon as customer care leader
AT&T is the absolute bee's knees in customer care among the big four carriers. That's if you're listening to J.D. Power, anyway, which finds that longtime champion Verizon is no longer the best at solving its customers' problems. As a precaution, this study is rather narrow in scope and considers just three components of customer care: telephone assistance, online support and in-store personnel. Naturally, this is just one component of customer satisfaction, and factors such as coverage, data speed and call quality aren't considered -- look to Consumer Reports for insight on those. Still, customer care is important and J.D. Power suggests that it's now at its highest levels since 2009. Sadly, not everyone's a winner, as the study also finds that Sprint and T-Mobile both fall below the industry average. On the prepaid side, MetroPCS is keeping its position as the front-runner, but even more curious, it's said that a whopping 69 percent of non-contract customers use carrier apps to manage their accounts. What's more, customer satisfaction is reportedly considerably higher among prepaid carriers that provide these management apps to their subscribers. In this context, it seems that well-targeted bundled apps aren't necessarily bloatware, but we still think its carriers should let you remove that stuff.
iPad tops J.D. Power's customer satisfaction survey for second year in a row
Once again, Apple's iPad has topped the J.D. Power and Associates ranking of tablets as it pertains to customer satisfaction. In its most recent survey, J.D. Power surveyed 1,857 tablet users who have owned a tablet for at least one year. The survey measured satisfaction across five factors; performance, ease of operation, styling and design, features and cost. Each factor was weighted differently, with performance and ease of operation being afforded the most pull. When the data was tabulated, the iPad emerged victorious, edging out Amazon's Kindle Fire and Samsung's assortment of tablets as well. In achieving its top-spot ranking, Apple performed well across all factors, save for cost. The Kindle Fire, meanwhile, scored markedly high with respect to cost. The study also found that 94 percent of tablet owners who expressed high satisfaction were likely to purchase other consumer electronics from the same manufacturer. Clearly, this figure bodes well for Apple. Also interesting is that 51 percent of all tablet users were found to share their device with at least one other person: While the incidence differs across brands, tablet manufacturers may benefit from promoting shared usage as a selling point, as satisfaction increases when more people use one tablet device. When a tablet is only used by one person, overall satisfaction is 824 (on a 1,000-point scale), 28 points lower than when a tablet is shared by four or more persons (852). Apple is of course no stranger to accolades from J.D. Power customer satisfaction surveys. For nine years running, Apple's iPhone has topped J.D. Power's customer sastisfaction survey for smartphones.
iPhone tops J.D. Power customer satisfaction survey again
Make a little more room in the trophy case: the iPhone has topped J.D. Power and Associates' consumer satisfaction survey yet again in the category of wireless smartphones. For the ninth study in a row, Apple has earned the top numbers, scoring 855 on a survey that tracks issues like performance, ease of operation, physical design and various features. Overall smartphone numbers are up as well to around a score of 796, an increase of 22 points over last year. It's pretty easy to ascribe most of that satisfaction to Apple: the company's meteoric growth has definitely encouraged the smartphone market, and even its competitors are pushed to make better products thanks to the iPhone. Elsewhere in J.D. Power's survey, the company found that despite this higher satisfaction, about two in ten customers are still experiencing software or hardware issues with their phones. Not surprisingly, smartphone users who use their phones a lot are more likely to recommend them to others: customers who spent more than 100 minutes a week on their phones are 14 percent more likely to recommend their specific model than those that spend less time. When you combine that with the fact that iPhone users tend to use their phones a lot more than other brands, it makes sense that so many iPhones come so highly recommended.
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.
iPad tops JD Power's tablet survey
A recent study by J.D. Power and Associates suggests iPad owners are overwhelmingly happy with their tablet purchase. The survey of 1,900 tablet owners found that the iPad ranks the highest for owner satisfaction. Respondents gave the iPad high marks for its performance, ease of operation, styling and design, and features. Apple's tablet beat out Amazon's low-cost Kindle Fire, which did well in the pricing category. The survey also showed that people who are very satisfied with their tablet are more likely to buy another consumer electronics device from the same manufacturer. This "halo effect" is nothing new for Apple, as consumer interest in both the iPod and the iPhone have been linked to increased sales of the Mac. Now, we have the ability to easily share data and sync information between an iPad, iPhone and Mac using iCloud, which is yet another compelling reason to have all three devices.
iPhone tops J.D. Power satisfaction survey ... again
Every year at about this time, J.D. Power and Associates releases the results of the U.S. Wireless Smartphone Customer Satisfaction Study. For the eighth consecutive year, Apple is at the top of the list in terms of customer satisfaction for smartphones. On a 1,000-point scale, Apple ranked first with a score of 849, performing well in all key factors used to determine the overall score. Physical design, which makes up 23 percent of the overall satisfaction figure, and ease of operation (22 percent) were given particularly good marks by iPhone consumers. HTC was in second place with a overall score of 790, while rival Samsung trailed the average for the study with a score of 782. Apple was the only company in the survey to gain a Power Circle Rating of "Among the best," while Samsung was "About average" and beleaguered BlackBerry manufacturer RIM was just among "The rest." via The Loop
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.
J.D. Power: Verizon has best call quality nationwide, T-Mobile consistently below average
J.D. Power, that well known arbiter of human opinion in the United States, has just released its latest study on customer satisfaction with wireless carriers. It addresses such things as (the lack of) dropped calls, failures to connect, voice distortion, echoes, static, and late-arriving text messages, and ultimately churns out a rating out of five stars relative to the regional average and other carriers. In testing done between July and December last year, Verizon had the best or tied for the best satisfaction ratings in five of the six studied areas, while AT&T and Sprint traded blows for second and T-Mobile had to admit defeat as the laggard of the top four. US Cellular managed to score highest in the North Central region, but J.D. Power's overall assessment isn't very rosy for any of the carriers -- the stats collector says growing smartphone usage, heavy texting and more indoor calls are collectively causing call quality to stagnate, and even warns that "increased adoption of smartphones and wireless tablets may continue to compromise the quality of network service."
J.D. Power smartphone study ranks iPhone #1 in customer satisfaction
I don't know about you, but when I hear the name "J.D. Power and Associates," I think of customer satisfaction for automobile manufacturers. The company also does customer satisfaction surveys in a number of other industries, and yesterday they released the 2009 Wireless Consumer Smartphone Satisfaction Survey and the 2009 Wireless Business Smartphone Satisfaction Survey. As you might not expect after all of the commenter griping we see about the iPhone, Apple nabbed the number one spot in customer satisfaction in both the consumer and business surveys. As you can see in the regretfully fuzzy screenshot above, the iPhone took first-place honors in the consumer smartphone index with a score of 811 out of a possible 1,000. More importantly, the iPhone was the only smartphone to get a five-circle ("Among the best") Power Circle rating. LG was the surprising second-place contestant, with only three circles ("About average") and a 775 overall score. The iPhone is no slouch in the business world, grabbing the lead in the business smartphone satisfaction ratings (see below) with an 803 index ranking. Businesses surveyed agreed with consumers and gave the iPhone an "Among the best" Power Circle Rating, significantly better than RIM's BlackBerry devices. The J.D. Power and Associates ratings tend to have the respect of many enterprise CIOs, so this should be good news for Apple in terms of increasing enterprise iPhone sales.
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.]
Analyst confirms Apple slid past RIM to become number two smartphone vendor
So apparently Apple knew what it was talking about after all. Research firm Canalys says that Apple stole the rug out from underneath RIM in the third quarter to become the world's number two pusher of smartphones, taking a hearty 17.3 percent market share compared to RIM's 15.2 percent and Windows Mobile's 13.6 percent. For what it's worth, the firm says RIM could very well bounce back in the fourth quarter with the Bold, Storm, and Pearl 8220 all ramping up in time for the holidays, but either way, number one platform Symbian needn't sweat any time soon; Nokia's baby managed to lose 21.5 percent share year over year, but they're still sitting pretty with 46.6 percent.How'd Apple manage to steal so much BlackBerry thunder (pun painfully intended)? Part of the evidence might lie in J.D. Power's just-released 2008 Business Wireless Smartphone Customer Satisfaction Study, revealing that suits adore their iPhones, like their BlackBerrys just alright, and despise their Palms. Amusing to us was the iPhone's rating of a 5 out of 5 in the Features category -- the only contender to get a perfect score there -- despite the fact that virtually every other smartphone platform continues to outstrip it for raw capability. Usability, though, well... that's arguably another story altogether.[Via AppleInsider]Read - Apple outsells RIMRead - JD Power rankings
Verizon tops T-Mobile in J.D. Power customer care survey, again
T-Mobile may have once been able to bank on J.D. Power's customer care survey to bolster its bag of bragging rights, but it looks like that's no longer the case, as Verizon has now finally edged it out, following a similar shift in J.D. Power's retail sales satisfaction survey last year. Not only that, T-Mobile actually fell to third place, behind Verizon's merger-mate Alltel. There isn't much of a spread between the top-ranked companies, however, with Verizon snagging a score of 103, Alltel scoring 102, and T-Mobile garnering a respectable 100. Only Sprint Nextel, which got a lowly 79, scored below the industry average. Among the other tidbits to be found in the survey, which included more than 11,000 respondents, is the fact that customers spent an average of 4.4 minutes on hold with customer service, a jump of 34% from the previous survey, while 49% of all wireless customers said they called in for help at least once, a minor uptick from the 47% reported last time around. That, J.D. Power says, is at least partly due to the "increasingly complex" wireless phones and services available nowadays.
Verizon tops T-Mobile in J.D. Power customer care survey
T-Mobile may have once been able to bank on J.D. Power's customer care survey to bolster its bag of bragging rights, but it looks like that's no longer the case, as Verizon has now finally edged it out, following a similar shift in J.D. Power's retail sales satisfaction survey last year. Not only that, T-Mobile actually fell to third place, behind Verizon's merger-mate Alltel. There isn't much of a spread between the top-ranked companies, however, with Verizon snagging a score of 103, Alltel scoring 102, and T-Mobile garnering a respectable 100. Only Sprint Nextel, which got a lowly 79, scored below the industry average. Among the other tidbits to be found in the survey, which included more than 11,000 respondents, is the fact that customers spent an average of 4.4 minutes on hold with customer service, a jump of 34% from the previous survey, while 49% of all wireless customers said they called in for help at least once, a minor uptick from the 47% reported last time around. That, J.D. Power says, is at least partly due to the "increasingly complex" wireless phones and services available nowadays.
J.D. Power finds Blu bandwagon already full of salespeople
While this week's Blu-ray announcements from Best Buy and Wal Mart were big news, a study by J.D. Power and Associates shows that HD-peddlers across the retail landscape made the move to Blu back in January. Like a fleet of automatons, mystery shoppers sent into the field posed as new HDTV owners who were looking for a nameless dedicated HDM player. They reported back with numbers showing a decidedly Blu sales force: 25-percent didn't recommend one HDM format over the other and 67-percent recommended Blu-ray, leaving less than 10-percent sticking up for HD DVD. But the hits keep on coming: not a single HD DVD recommendation came from Best Buy and not a single salesperson suggested HD DVD would become the dominant format. Sorry, HD DVD; we may have just put you on deathwatch this week, but salespeople have had you in repose for quite a bit longer, it seems. [Via FormatWarCentral]
Verizon, T-Mobile take top honors in latest J.D. Power survey
We typically expect to see T-Mobile top J.D. Power's wireless customer satisfaction surveys, but it seems Verizon's been sneaking up on the peeps in pink. In Volume 2 of its 2007 study -- Volume 1 having come out in May -- Verizon has ended T-Mobile's 5-period streak atop the rankings, scoring 726 on a 1000 point scale to take the crown. To be fair, T-Mobile slides in just one measly point behind at 725, but it's still gotta smart a bit to lose the title. AT&T, Alltel, and Sprint Nextel round out the top five, scoring 708, 695, and 679, respectively. Not even Verizon really deserves to pop the bubbly here, though, seeing how the survey represents a 12-point slide in industry average satisfaction year over year and a 7-point decline since the last reporting period. Maybe the whole prorated ETF fad will start to turn things around?[Via MobileBurn]
JD Power ratings put BRAVIA LCD, Pioneer plasma, and Samsung DLP on top
JD Power and Associates has released the findings of their 2007 Large Screen HDTV Usage and Satisfaction Survey, and there are some very familiar names in the winners of the three categories. As judged on overall satisfaction, picture and sound performance, ease of use, features and styling, the HDTVs were then divided into 37- to 49-inch, 50- to 65-inch and rear projection 50- 72-inch ranges. Sony's BRAVIA LCD line took the smaller category with a five out of five rating in every area, but lost out to Pioneer's plasmas when competition went over 50-inches. Samsung's DLPs won the rear projection award, despite having a lower picture and sound rating than Sony, JVC, and Toshiba. Take a look at the overall results and then let us know how you think your HDTV measures up.
