Garden of earthly delights

BlackBerry devices, manufactured by Research in Motion (RIM), rank highest in overall customer satisfaction among business wireless smartphone users, according to the JD Power and Associates 2007 Business Wireless Smartphone Customer Satisfaction Study, reports sister site MarketingCharts.

The inaugural study measures business customers' satisfaction with their wireless smartphones (mobile phones with advanced capabilities), based on six key factors: ease of operation, operating system, physical design, audio, battery aspects, and utility features (in order of importance).

RIM ranks highest in overall smartphone customer satisfaction with a score of 702 points on a 1,000-point scale. Treo manufacturer Palm (698) and Samsung (698) tied to closely follow RIM in the rankings.

RIM performed particularly well in the operating system factor, which includes the speed of moving between applications and speed of sending/receiving emails. RIM also performs particularly well in battery aspects, including the length of battery life.

The study also finds that satisfaction is critical to future sales and profitability of smartphone manufacturers:

• Highly satisfied owners are more than 50 percent more likely to repurchase the same brand than those who are not satisfied with their smartphone.
• Owners who are "delighted" with their smartphone are 80 percent more likely to recommend a particular brand than an unsatisfied owner.

MarketingCharts provides more findings on smartphone usage patterns and operating systems.