Are you happy with your smartphone?
The JD Power “2017 Full Service Smartphone Satisfaction Survey” ponders whether your smarthome is driving your smartphone satisfaction (the answer is yes if you care) but we were more curious as to whether issues with the recall of the Samsung (005930.KS) Note 7 last year had changed users satisfaction with Samsung products, particularly smartphones. According to the 2017 survey, Apple (AAPL) edged out Samsung, by 0.12% (or one point on a 1,000 point scale), the same one point that Apple beat Samsung with last year.
That said, the differences between the two years were very small, and the satisfaction rating for both Samsung and Apple increased marginally, while the overall satisfaction rating for smartphones increased by 1.2%. With both Apple and Samsung’s y/y ratings increasing, it would seem the Note 7 issue had little effect on user satisfaction, although the survey is taken from those who have already made a purchase, so it does not reflect ‘avoidance’ or those that switched to a competitive product.
So we like our smartphones a little more this year than last, but why? According to the survey, the category that received the biggest increase y/y was ‘Satisfaction with the phone’s features’, which was up 9.4%, indicating that the quality of features (and we assume pre-packaged applications) has improved, but what about the original question concerning whether smarthome products were making you more satisfied with your smartphone? The survey says, “Customers using their smartphones daily to control their connected devices have higher satisfaction than those who use it less frequently.” So does that mean in order to be more satisfied with our smartphones we need to add smart thermostats or smart refrigerators to our houses? We would rather go with applications that don’t freeze, drop calls, drain the battery, gather personal information, or just stop working, than having to buy a new refrigerator so we can see if the milk has expired from a remote location, but that’s just us.
That said, the differences between the two years were very small, and the satisfaction rating for both Samsung and Apple increased marginally, while the overall satisfaction rating for smartphones increased by 1.2%. With both Apple and Samsung’s y/y ratings increasing, it would seem the Note 7 issue had little effect on user satisfaction, although the survey is taken from those who have already made a purchase, so it does not reflect ‘avoidance’ or those that switched to a competitive product.
So we like our smartphones a little more this year than last, but why? According to the survey, the category that received the biggest increase y/y was ‘Satisfaction with the phone’s features’, which was up 9.4%, indicating that the quality of features (and we assume pre-packaged applications) has improved, but what about the original question concerning whether smarthome products were making you more satisfied with your smartphone? The survey says, “Customers using their smartphones daily to control their connected devices have higher satisfaction than those who use it less frequently.” So does that mean in order to be more satisfied with our smartphones we need to add smart thermostats or smart refrigerators to our houses? We would rather go with applications that don’t freeze, drop calls, drain the battery, gather personal information, or just stop working, than having to buy a new refrigerator so we can see if the milk has expired from a remote location, but that’s just us.
Smartphone Satisfaction Survey - Source: J.D. Power 2017
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