Apple’s Lead in Customer Satisfaction Ratings Narrows

The American Customer Satisfaction Index has released the results of its annual survey, and several tech firms got bad news. Apple and Microsoft saw their index scores drop, and U.S. Internet service providers got the lowest ratings of any industry in the country.

Bloomberg BusinessWeek’s Scott Moritz reported, “Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s iPhone lost ground to Samsung Electronics Co. (005930) and Google Inc. (GOOG)’s Motorola in an annual study measuring the satisfaction of consumers, following a sales slowdown for the pioneering smartphone. While the device still had the top ranking among mobile-phone users, Samsung and Motorola have narrowed the gap, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index, which published its 2013 report today.”

ZDNet’s Larry Dignan noted, “According to the American Customer Satisfaction Index, Apple still dominates the smartphone category with a score of 81, down 2 percent from a year ago. Samsung had a score of 76, up 5 points from 2012. Nokia also had a score of 76.”

Computerworld’s Greg Keizer added, “Customer satisfaction with Microsoft’s software, primarily Windows, dropped slightly in the last year, likely part of the fallout over Windows 8, a national survey released today said. Microsoft scored 74 points, down a point from the year before.

And BGR’s Brad Reed observed, “Major Internet service providers in the United States have long taken a beating in customer satisfaction surveys, but the latest survey from the American Customer Satisfaction Index has the grimmest news yet for American ISPs: They now have the lowest customer satisfaction ranking of any industry in America, worse than even airlines, health insurance companies and gas stations.”