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Two new J.D. Power surveys have shown that consumer satisfaction is highest among those that use touchscreen smartphones. On a scale of 1000 points, touchscreen phones scored 771. Traditional feature phones weren’t far behind though, with a rating of 756. Apple’s iPhone is obviously included in the touchscreen category, and its 810 rating pulled up the smartphone average. In fact, Apple came out first in overall satisfaction. Though, RIM did well too with a score of 741.
Participant in the survey were asked to rate their phone’s ease of operation, operating system quality, features, design, and battery power. Feature phone users did not have to answer questions about their phone’s operating system, because – well, none of them are very good. The survey also found that people are sharing media at ever increasing rates. Over 50% of respondents with smartphones said they share pictures, music, or video with friends on their phone.
When it comes down to it, is it really that surprising that people spending significantly more money on phones are happier with them? It seems likely that at least some feature phone users are hankering for a smartphone. If you have a smartphone, how do you feel about it?
Image via JD Power
Comments are closed on this article
nHeroGo
April 02, 2010 at 8:51am
I rate my LG touchscreen phone 342 of 1000 points, or a solid 3 on a regular scale of one to ten. Not just because the audio is crap and not just because the microphone is crap so that neither I nor the person I'm talking to can hear very well - but because of the touchscreen. The touchscreen works overtime when you don't want it to and it goes on strike when you need it.
Example #1: I am in a public restroom, I've got my hands ful, and the touchscreen decides to go off in my pocket, connecting to the Internet and try to download stuff, or starts talking about waiting for voice commands, or just starts typing iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii. It is annoying. Lay off the overtime, you stupid phone! (I use different language when shouting at mu phone).
Example #2: Try calling a phone system with a menu, like a bank, and enter PINs and codes. It's nearly impossible, because as soon as the phone is dialing the number, the digital keypad goes away and the screen goes dark. Please enter your PIN. Please enter your PIN. You are searching for some menu to conjure up a numerical pad, but the screen is dark, so you are bound to first hit some button you do not want to press. Once you have entered the PIN and you hold upthe phone to your ear to listen for the next quiz in the phone system the screen is dark, so you migght enter the wrong info in the phone system. The stress is unbearable.
There are two solutions; both solutions include throw this LC touchscreen in the bin. Either buying a phone with a physical number pad. Or one of those qwerty-keyboard ones.
bart3385
April 01, 2010 at 8:31pm
Touchscreen is cool on some icon-based graphical apps or map apps.
But when it comes to composing messages, (both text & email), and typing data on excel spreadsheets, touchscreen is such a pain. Frustratingly very painful. (No difference even with smooth slick iPhone capacitive touch) I wouldn't survive with a pure touchscreen smartphone. Unless i use the phone purely for games and graphical stuffs.
Phone calls is no easy task either for pure touchscreen. It's difficult to scroll thru more than a thousand names with finger sliding. Unless your friends and contacts is limited to maybe 100 or so. Smartsearch with NumPad is still the best way.
The option of physical input device is still a must for users who need to input a lot of words and data in the smartphone. (Like me, for example).
I'd prefer Numeric Pads with T9 over Qwerty Pads. Size of keys is number one problem for qwerty. Plus, with more keys, more mistakes.
I am most satisfied with the combination of Touchscreen and Numpad unit. Unfortunately, this type of unit are so rare. Some people didn't even know it exists. In most survey forms, this option is not even included. Many have never experienced its convenience. So it's rarely even mentioned.
For those who have tried and used this combination, most of them would not let go.
