Traditional wireless cell-phone owners are keeping their devices longer than ever before, and Apple's iPhone is the number-one smartphone in customer satisfaction. Those are some of the conclusions of new studies released Thursday by J.D. Power and Associates measuring customer satisfaction for both traditional mobile phones and smartphones.
Customers are keeping their mobile devices an average of 20.5 months, the longest period since the study began in 1999. The length depends on the brand, with the longest average period at 27.8 months, and the shortest at 17.5 months.
Service Costs Up
Kirk Parsons, senior director of wireless services at J.D. Power, said one possible reason customers are postponing upgrading a device is simply due to the economic downturn. He added that the additional expense could include a new, more expensive service plan, and customers are thinking more carefully about whether the additional expense is worth the benefit.
The average monthly wireless service plan is now $78, including taxes and fees, compared to $69 three years ago. The increases are due to data services and additional usages, such as texting. But while service costs are increasing, device costs are dropping. The survey found the average price of a traditional wireless phone is now $76, down from an average of $81 at the beginning of last year. Nearly half of all respondents said they received a free mobile phone from their carrier as a result of subscribing to the service.
When measuring satisfaction, the survey found that the key factors for smartphones are ease of operation for 26 percent of customers, operating system for 24 percent, physical design for 23 percent, features for 19 percent, and battery function for eight percent.
On a 1,000-point scale for satisfaction, Apple's devices rank 800 and took first place for the fourth straight survey. Second place was taken by Motorola at 791, with HTC third at 781. BlackBerry, Samsung, Palm and Nokia were next, in that order.
LG Tops Among Traditionals
Among traditional handsets, LG is highest for the fourth straight survey with a score of 731. Sanyo ranks second at 712, and Samsung third at 709. Motorola, Sony Ericsson, Nokia and Kyocera took fourth through seventh places.
Smartphones have become platforms for applications, and the Power study indicates that more than two-thirds of users have downloaded games by third-party developers. Fifty-four percent have downloaded travel software, and 36 percent have done so for business applications.
But a recent study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, released earlier this month, found that only about 24 percent of adults actually use apps. "Having apps and using apps are not synonymous," the Pew report noted.
The Power studies, based on more than 11,000 traditional mobile-phone users and more than 6,800 smartphone users, found that the three best-received mobile operating systems were Apple's iOS, Google's open-source Android, and Palm's webOS.
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