The Apple iPhone 5 has been beaten by four Android handsets in a user satisfaction survey run by On Device research. Have Apple finally turned their backs on quality and disappointed their faithful?
You see, surveys ask a whole load of people what they think and the truth will out, as you’ll see below.
Although the survey was of 320,000 mobile and tablet users in six countries, including the US, UK, France, Germany, Japan and Indonesia, we only have results for the US and UK.
93,825 US mobile users took the on-line test that automatically detected the device being used, then prompted the user to fill in the survey. The headline statistic from that cross-section of America was that iPhone 5 owners weren’t as satisfied with their device as owners of the Motorola Atrix HD, Motorola Doid Razr, HTC Resound 4G or the Samsung Galaxy Note II. Look at this pretty graph that proves it:
Amazing, right? Apple have really dropped the ball if people are more satisfied with Motorola phones, because from my experience they have been rather underwhelming for a number of years.
OK, maybe I’m wrong and Apple are indeed giving less satisfaction than Motorola. Let’s have a look at the overall manufacturer satisfaction figures in this handy chart:
Blimey! Apple are bang up there, but Samsung phones must be really rubbish, after all even RIM (now Blackberry) blow them out of the water.
What about 52,140 of us discerning UK smartphone users? We just love our HTC One X’s don’t we? Oh, and those Samsung Galaxy SIII Minis (you know, the low spec phone that’s cashing in on its big brother’s reputation?) are even more satisfying than the SIII itself! Just see for yourself:
The discrepancy between the two countries, apparently, is due to the fact that the iPhone is under less competitive threat from other 4G enabled devices, as its 4G capabilities can only be used on EE. Part of what they call the ’4G effect’. Look how much happier 4G customers are:
The final interesting nugget is that On Device Research clients include Motorola, Blackberry, Nokia and Microsoft. Seems that Apple and Samsung haven’t joined this particular party.
Of course there are many ways of re-jigging statistics to make them say whatever is required, but one thing that can undoubtedly be proven by these figures is that I’m very cynical and urge you to take these figures with a large dose of salt. Don’t take my word for it though, maybe form a focus group in the comments section below.
About Ronnie Whelan
I work in IT and marketing, I spend my spare money on smartphones and tablets. My friends have grown weary of my fascination with mobile technology, so I write about it in the hope that someone out there is as obsessed as me… and it seems there is. Welcome to my world.
My current devices are: Samsung Galaxy Note II, Samsung Ativ S and a Huawei G300.
Follow me http://twitter.com/ronnie_whelan or email me at [email protected]
