The latest stats from the American Consumer Satisfaction Index show Samsung beating out Apple in consumer satisfaction for smartphones by just 2 points, with a satisfaction score of 81. According to Engadget, even though it’s not a huge lead, it’s a pretty significant jump for Samsung from last year’s score of 76. Apple on the other hand, saw its score fall more than two points since last year.
“It’s always tough to read much into these numbers (was it the Galaxy S5 that helped, or just Android improvements?), but it’s still a decent win for Samsung. Don’t be surprised if Samsung ends up marketing the heck out of this during the Super Bowl”.
ACSI, which surveys 70,000 consumers every year, showed Apple leading Samsung by five points in 2013, but the two were neck and neck for much of the year. Also, J.D. Power’s satisfaction survey for 2014 ranked Apple as the leading smartphone brand for all major carriers, though Samsung wasn’t far behind either.
As to why Apple fell behind, the source believes it is likely that some shoppers might not have been happy with Apple’s move into the big-phone arena with the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, especially those who were used to the smaller iPhone 5/5s devices. Meanwhile, Samsung released its most feature-rich entry yet with the Galaxy S5, complete with a water-resistant case and one of the best Android smartphone cameras in the market.
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Bogus….where is the real, raw data?
Any one who has ever dealt with Samsung on any consumer issue, especially warranty will tell you that they treat the customer like he (or she) is trying to commit fraud. They typically attempt to show that your device has water damage or some other damage so they can get out of repairing or replacing the device under warranty. Even tech writers have had issues. One comes to mind where Samsung returned the supposedly repaired device with a cracked screen (returned) when it did not have one. Fortunately, the person had pictures and video of the device being packaged and sent to Samsung. I know there are other examples out there too.
When it comes to customer service, Apple tends to be the most consistent (although they too are not as good as they used to be). Their warranty and support is only second to Costco.
This is an outdated benchmark, and it’s ridiculous to bring up the Galaxy S5, iPhone 6, and iPhone 6 Plus when speculating about any supposed changes.
These scores doesn’t include Galaxy S5, iPhone 6, and iPhone 6 Plus: http://www.theacsi.org/customer-satisfaction-benchmarks/benchmarks-by-brand/benchmarks-for-smartphones
Sad —but not surprising— to see this site fall into this category:
“falling over each other to ‘report’—or blindly re-report—an Apple fail that wasn’t” http://www.macworld.com/article/2863950/peeling-an-onion.html
I have an iphone 6, but I really like Android, especially the stock versions. I jailbreak because I like the flexibility to tweak on a level that approaches (but doesn’t reach) Android. That said, I really don’t get how people buy Samsung phones. The build quality is almost always total crap and the Samsung OS mods with bloatware completely take the enjoyment out of their products for me. There are nice Android phones (HTC, Nexus series, etc), but Samsung doesn’t make them.
I doubt the result of the poll has anything at all to do with the iPhone 6 or 6 Plus like this article suggests because the survey was carried out 5 months before they were released! How has the writer here not picked up on that?! Very misleading journalism.