Samsung beats Apple in latest customer satisfaction survey
Despite being knocked off their laurels over the past few years by Android and the manufacturers that make them, Apple has always taken pride in a few different things. Revenue, day-one sales, adoption rates of new platforms — they’ll spew those numbers at you in a New York minute during a keynote speech.
One of those things they like to tout is that they are often the recipient of customer satisfaction awards from the likes of J.D Powers and other consumer trust groups. Will that be the case in the next top survey in the industry? Tough to say, but the American Consumer Satisfaction Index’s latest poll suggests Apple has been taken down a notch.
The company fell from its previous satisfaction rate of 81 down to 79, with the drop likely being attributed to #Bendgate and a perceived notion that Apple’s reputation for superior build quality has taken a hit. We all know #Bendgate affected far fewer people than the voices on the internet would lead you to believe, but that vocal minority’s cries reached a lot of ears and we wouldn’t be surprised if it had a significant impact.
But even more of a story is that not only has Apple dropped, but Samsung has taken a considerable climb. The company has come up from their previous score of 76 to 81, effectively trumping Apple to become the top smartphone manufacturer in terms of customer satisfaction.
To hear most Android fans tell it, Samsung’s use of plastic and an uninspiring design, coupled with the company’s oft-maligned TouchWiz interface, are the sole downfalls of Samsung. It’s true that the company has taken a major sales hit in 2014 — so much so that executives have agreed to take paycuts in the midst of structural changes — but that doesn’t mean there aren’t a ton of people who love them some Samsung.
This is good news for the South Korean company headed into 2014 as they are expected to introduce their biggest iteration of the Galaxy S line yet. We expect a metal unibody build and a refined user interface for Android 5.0 Lollipop while still maintaining the cutting edge features Samsung’s known for. They’ll just have to hope it’s enough to turn “satisfaction” into “sales” to prevent any more bleeding. Hit the source link for the full rankings.
[via ACSI]