Apple remains at the top, for the time being at least, when it comes to satisfaction ratings amongst smartphone owners. ChangeWave Research recently released the results of a customer satisfaction survey that shows Apple's strength in keeping owners of its iPhone products happy, but it does have some company from other manufacturers as well.

ChangeWave surveyed over 1,200 participants in the United States who had purchased a smartphone within the last six months.  The survey, which was completed earlier this month, revealed that 77 percent of iPhone owners were very satisfied not only with their decision to purchase the Apple smartphone, but also with the product itself.  The high ratings are nothing new for Apple, as the manufacturer scored a 74 percent rating on ChangeWave's survey last year.  The 2009 ratings collected for Apple far surpassed those of any other competitors.

While Apple led the way with its strong customer satisfaction results in 2010's survey, Motorola was not far behind.  Motorola, which sells Android-based smartphones such as the Droid 2 and the Droid X, had a 74 percent approval rate of customers stating they were very satisfied with its products.  Although the high marks for Apple were not a real surprise, those for Motorola were, according to ChangeWave's vice president of research, Paul Carton.  HTC, which supplies the smartphone market with the Android-based Droid Incredible and Evo 4G, came in third place with a satisfaction rating of 63 percent.

The top three of Apple, Motorola, and HTC rated far ahead of the rest of the group.  Samsung had a satisfaction rating of just 45 percent.  RIM, makers of the popular Blackberry smartphone, was rated at 44 percent.

In terms of more specific results, the 32GB version of the recently released iPhone 4 had 84 percent of its polled owner's state that they were very satisfied with the product.  The 16GB version of the iPhone 4 had a rating of 78 percent.  The high ratings for the iPhone 4 are an improvement over those revealed in a similar survey completed in late July, where only 72 percent of polled participants said they were very satisfied.  Continuing with specific results from the most recent ChangeWave survey, the HTC Evo 4G had a 76 percent very satisfied rating, while the Droid 2 from Motorola came in at 74 percent.

Apple has held its spot atop the satisfaction mountain for a while, but that spot may become threatened as more Android smartphones continue to flood the market.  According to IDC, a market research firm, 20 million Android phones were sold during the third quarter of 2010.  During that same time period, only 13.5 million iPhones were sold.

Apple may see a future spike in its sales numbers versus Android phones if other carriers besides AT&T begin selling the iPhone, however.  Verizon may jump into the iPhone market, and that may convert many smartphone users over to Apple's side.  ChangeWave's study found that approximately one-third of smartphone owners said they would have purchased the iPhone if their carrier offered it.

For more on this topic, visit http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9197378/iPhone_4_trumps_Android_rivals_in_customer_satisfaction?taxonomyId=75&pageNumber=1

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