Apple dips below Samsung in annual smartphone customer satisfaction index

Credit: Andrew O'Hara, AppleInsider

Apple has fallen below Samsung in customer satisfaction among U.S. consumers for the first time in years, according to the results of a new consumer satisfaction index.

Samsung's retained an American Consumer Satisfaction Index score of 81 in 2020, the same score it had a year prior. However, Apple's score dropped 2% year-over-year to 80, landing it in a three-way tie with Motorola and Google.

Credit: ACSI

The South Korean smartphone maker also nabbed the five highest-rated smartphone models in the U.S. The Galaxy Note 10+, Galaxy S10+, and Galaxy S20+ tied for first place with ASCI scores of 85.

Samsung's Galaxy S20 and Galaxy A20 were next in line with scores of 84 and 83, respectively. Apple's iPhone 11 Pro, iPhone 11 Pro Max, iPhone X, and iPhone XS tied with the Galaxy S10 with ASCI scores of 82.

Credit: ACSI

Other Apple devices on the list included the iPhone 11 and iPhone 8 Plus, which had scores of 80, and the iPhone 8 and iPhone SE with scores of 79. The iPhone 7 ranked list in the lineup with a score of 75.

Among respondents in the survey, the top criteria for judging a smartphone included ease of text messaging in first place, followed by ease of phone calling, phone design, and audio quality.

The ASCI survey also ranks wireless phone service providers. Compared to a year prior, AT&T achieved an ASCI score of 74, tying with Verizon Wireless. T-Mobile's ASCI score dropped from 76 in 2020 to 72 in 2021. U.S. Cellular came in fourth with a score of 69, while Sprint is no longer part of the ranking.

ASCI's 2020 to 2021 data is based on interviews with 21,189 U.S. consumers carried out between April 1, 2020 and March 29, 2021.

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12 Comments

Japhey

said about 2 years ago

The top 5 rated smartphones in America are all Samsung models?

Bullshit.

2morrow

said about 2 years ago

They probably only called people with landlines to do the survey.

rcfa

said about 2 years ago

If ease of text messaging is the top criterion I’m not surprised. Apple needs to educate people about iMessage, and possibly make it cross-platform.

It happens more and more often that people answer, when I tell them I prefer iMessage over WhatsApp for privacy reasons, that “they/nobody use(s) SMS anymore”. I then have to explain to them, that although iMessage and SMS use the same app, it’s not the same thing, just for convenience using the same app, and that one can see at the input fields and the bubble color, what system is being used.

As convenient and nicely integrated iMessage is, it’s reach limited to Apple devices starts to backfire, as too few people use it, and thus familiarity with the difference between iMessage and SMS/MMS goes out the window.

The idea that iMessage would tie people to the Apple platform won’t work, if fewer and fewer people using iPhones don’t use the system because they don’t understand it, and use WhatsApp, or (at least better) Telegram, or if they are paranoid Signal instead.

The way to stem that is by increasing its use across other platforms, and use it as a way to demonstrate that Apple cares about all people’s privacy, and so get people interested in other Apple services.

AniMill

said about 2 years ago

Not surprising. Samsung has constantly improved their products these past years. But also, there’s no iPhone 12 anywhere in the mix. ALL smartphones have become incredible devices with their OS and cameras as their distinctions.

flydog

said about 2 years ago

rcfa said:

If ease of text messaging is the top criterion I’m not surprised. Apple needs to educate people about iMessage, and possibly make it cross-platform.

It happens more and more often that people answer, when I tell them I prefer iMessage over WhatsApp for privacy reasons, that “they/nobody use(s) SMS anymore”. I then have to explain to them, that although iMessage and SMS use the same app, it’s not the same thing, just for convenience using the same app, and that one can see at the input fields and the bubble color, what system is being used.

As convenient and nicely integrated iMessage is, it’s reach limited to Apple devices starts to backfire, as too few people use it, and thus familiarity with the difference between iMessage and SMS/MMS goes out the window.

The idea that iMessage would tie people to the Apple platform won’t work, if fewer and fewer people using iPhones don’t use the system because they don’t understand it, and use WhatsApp, or (at least better) Telegram, or if they are paranoid Signal instead.
The way to stem that is by increasing its use across other platforms, and use it as a way to demonstrate that Apple cares about all people’s privacy, and so get people interested in other Apple services.

I don't know what's so difficult. Type, then hit send. The bubbles could be blue, green, purple, or pink, or they could be squares with dancing unicorns. Works the same way, no thinking required.

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