The methodology included a breakdown on what makes the phones work or not work, and how satisfied the users are with specific features and functions. The criteria for traditional wireless handsets (think flip phones) are operation (30%); physical design (30%); features (20%); and battery function (20%). For smartphones, citeria are ease of operation (26%); operating system (24%); physical design (23%); features (19%); and battery function (8%). The results?
What's interesting is that devices with touch screens, in general, outranked non-touch devices by 40 points in J.D. Power's survey. Unfortunately the survey doesn't say why. Personally, after using touch-based devices for nearly three years, I find phones with buttons to be physically painful to use. It's so much easier to just touch the screen (touching what you want to do) than to click a d-pad five times to move a cursor around.
According to the studies, Apple ranks highest among manufacturers of smartphones, with a score of 810, and performs particularly well in ease of operation, operating system, features and physical design. RIM BlackBerry (741) follows Apple in the rankings. LG ranks highest in overall wireless customer satisfaction with traditional handsets with a score of 729, performing well across all factors, particularly physical design, features and operation. Both Sanyo (712) and Samsung (703) follow LG in the rankings.
Apple's iPhone won all the categories (ease-of-use, OS, design, and features) except one: battery life. Users appear to be dissatisfied with the iPhone's battery life. I don't blame the pollees on that one. The iPhone's battery life could definitely be better.
[Via J.D. Power]