Thu, 07/15/2010 – 07:18 by ChangeWave released a new
survey of 4,028 US smartphone owners that looked at future intent to purchase and customer satisfaction. The survey included polling about iPhone 4 and Droid Incredible. It showed Apple and HTC to be among the winners and RIM, Palm and others to be among those suffering by comparison in the survey.
The firm noted that overall smartphone demand is growing:
[C]onsumer interest in smart phones [is now at] unprecedented levels – with consumer planned buying now at an all-time high for a ChangeWave survey.
As mentioned, Apple and HTC gained in the survey while demand for RIM and Motorola waned. (That may change with today’s release of the Motorola Droid X.) RIM also suffered Customer Satisfaction. According to the survey findings:
RIM . . . has fallen to sixth place in terms of customer satisfaction (30%) – their seventh consecutive quarterly decline.”
Notwithstanding the snafu over iPhone 4 antenna problems (“death grip”) — this survey was conducted before the controversy erupted — satsifaction levels are much higher for Apple than its smartphone rivals.
Here’s a final and interesting observation about BlackBerry devices from ChangeWave:
In recent quarters RIM models appear to have lost their ‘cool factor,’ and the onus is now squarely on RIM to regain consumers’ confidence in their products.
We haven’t done any polling but if in fact that interpretation is accurate and RIM has “lost its cool” that could be quite damaging for future sales. Younger users were buying RIM devices in surprising numbers, partly because they’ve been aggressively discounted but also for their texting capabilities.
Fashion and image have been among the strongest selling features of the iPhone and certainly the Droid devices at Verizon in the US.
In addition, as demand for apps and the Internet on mobile devices grows, RIM is in a weaker position with its current smaller selection of apps and generally weak mobile Internet experience. However the company has vowed to change that with a better browser and renewed emphasis on its app store.