Users love iPhone, hate AT&T

Users find that the iPhone gives them an excellent user experience, and they tend to rank it highly in surveys, though they almost universally dislike the service provided by AT&T.

In survey after survey, the iPhone has come out on top of every other smartphone on the market in terms of customer satisfaction. Recent studies, including those by ChangeWave and the American Customer Satisfaction Index, showed the iPhone to be at the top of its class, almost universally loved by its users in category after category, according to an SFGate article. It has gotten to be a truism in the smartphone marketplace.

These results have been shown, once again, not to be a fluke. Apple’s supremacy has been upheld by a newly released study by the CFI Group. Their survey found that that the iPhone once again took the blue ribbon among smartphones according to a  survey of more than 1,000 users. The iPhone scored 83 on a 100-point scale. Android and the Pre tied for second at 77, followed by BlackBerry (73) and Palm’s Treo (70).

There is, however, a fly in the iPhone ointment. As usual, virtually the only problems noted have been laid at the feet of the exclusive wireless service provider, AT&T. In the most recent survey, respondents took the time to write in complaints about AT&T service, including the following about the possibility of Apple renewing its exclusive service agreement with AT&T:

I think it is never a good thing to have an exclusive agreement. It stifles innovation and competition and keeps prices artificially inflated.

When (or should I say, if) the iPhone comes to Verizon, I will call in sick to work and spend the night in line to be the first person to own an Apple iPhone on Verizon’s network. Should I hold my breath?

No more, please.

It seems that users currently understand that the problems identified with service should be laid at the feet of AT&T and not Apple. That being said, though, what happens to that perception if Apple ignores the complaints of users and grants AT&T another exclusive contract for the iPhone? It seems likely that iPhone users may then begin blaming the service problems on Apple, because they will have had an opportunity to solve the problems by cutting AT&T out of the loop, but failed to do so. If that happens, and if Apple has to accept the blame for service problems because of bad decision-making, the iPhone may quickly tumble in the eyes of users in satisfaction survey ratings.

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