Customer Satisfaction Ratings: iPhone leads, likes and dislikes highlighted

Far more iPhone owners are “very satisfied” than owners of other smart phones, according to data from a ChangeWave Research survey conducted March 17-24.

A report released by Rockville, Md.-based ChangeWave Research on customers of the top two smart phones identifies what they like and don’t like about Apple’s iPhone and Research in Motion’s BlackBerry.

The results echo commonly accepted notions about the strengths and weaknesses of the rival communication devices, but also illustrate how a few changes to the iPhone – several of which are expected in June -- could make it far more attractive to many more customers.
The iPhone enjoys an edge in Web browsing, with its customized version of Mac OS X’s Safari. Instead of “application problems,” iPhone users complained their device “doesn’t support third party software” -- but again, Apple has targeted that issue with the impending release of the iPhone Software Development Kit.

The dissatisfaction with the BlackBerry’s keypad surprised me a little, as numerous critics have claimed the iPhone’s touch screen keyboard is harder to use. Yet 27 percent of iPhone users cited the touch screen interface as their favorite feature.
Not surprisingly, even more iPhone owners (36 percent) preferred its “integration of phone, iPod and Internet browser” functions in a single device. Those two features comprise the essence of the iPhone’s appeal.

The iPhone dislikes chart similarly contains no major surprises. The top two items involve AT&T, Apple’s designated cellular provider in the U.S. One in five iPhone owners (21 percent) said their biggest gripe is the slow speed of AT&T’s EDGE network, and nearly as many (17 percent) objected to the requirement to use AT&T.
If recent conjectures on the June arrival of a 3G iPhone prove true, Apple soon will have an alternative for those dissatisfied with AT&T’s network speed.
Citigroup analysts Richard Gardner and Yeechang Lee predicted in a research note last week that Apple CEO Steve Jobs will introduce the 3G iPhone in an as-yet-unannounced keynote address at the Worldwide Developers Conference (June 9-13).
A 3G capability was the feature most cited by iPhone users (19 percent) in the ChangeWave survey when asked which new feature they’d like to see. Third party software (18 percent) followed close behind along with GPS (15 percent).

Talk about giving the people what they want. A 3G iPhone married to the iPhone 2.0 software will satisfy several customer desires in one swoop.
Only two significant impediments to iPhone sales appeared in the ChangeWave survey: price and the AT&T requirement.
Of those surveyed that said they planned to buy an iPhone but had not yet done so, 24 percent said they were waiting for the price to drop. Almost as many (22 percent) said they were waiting for the iPhone to become available on other service providers.

iPhone on Vodafone: Ray of hope for Airtel and others

Since the iPhone debuted in June, 2007, Apple has followed the same game plan for introducing its mobile device to a new market: Find a local service provider and ink a deal granting that company exclusive rights to providing cellular service for the iPhone.
Apple has exclusive deals in place with AT&T’s in the US market, O2 in UK and Ireland, T-Mobile in Germany and Austria, France Telecom’s Orange in France, and Rogers Communications in Canada when the phone arrives in that country later this Year.
Vodafone’s deal with Apple will let customers in India, Australia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey buy the iPhone for use on the company’s networks there later this year.
This means that only Vodafone customers in India, can get the iPhone luxury. Airtel and other network users will have to wait a little longer.
But thanks to the recent developments in Italy, there is a ray of hope for them. Exclusive deals was Apple’s M.O. until earlier this week, at any rate. On Tuesday, news broke that the iPhone would expand its reach into Italy later this year. But instead of being locked into one provider, Italian iPhone customers will have a choice—both Vodafone and Telecom Italia struck deals with Apple to offer service for the mobile device.
Having two partners in one market certainly signals a change from how Apple has grown its iPhone business in the past year. And it’s a pattern that could repeat itself as the company looks to expand into additional countries in 2008 and beyond.
But don’t expect Apple to entirely abandon its exclusive partner strategy, analysts say—which means iPhone owners in the US should expect AT&T to remain the exclusive service provider for the phone, at least for the foreseeable future.
Why did Apple shift its long-standing strategy for rolling out the iPhone to Italy? An analyst familiar with the European mobile market says Italy’s climate is much different from other countries in Western Europe.
Similar to India, most of the subscribers are on prepaid plans in Italy – 81 percent, compared with just 51 percent in the rest of the continent. “There are very few postpaid subscribers in Italy, making it harder for Apple to earn money from revenue-sharing. Hence, Italy could, for now, be the exception rather than the rule” said Neil Mawston, director of wireless device strategies for Strategy Analytics in the UK
However, that could change as the iPhone business expands. Mawston believes that Apple will continue to seek out multiple operators as it looks to launch the iPhone in new countries, allowing it to increase sales and market share.
“In the long-run, we expect Apple to adopt a multi-operator distribution strategy,” Mawston added. “Apple will never be a mass-market global player by just targeting one carrier per country. LG has tried making exclusive deals with 3G operators in Western Europe in the past, and that resulted in lackluster shipments and a loss of market share due its limited retail presence.”
But a shift to multiple carriers doesn’t figure to happen in markets where Apple already has a partner lined up—particularly in the US, where AT&T has been the iPhone’s exclusive service provider since day one. So long as AT&T has an agreement in place with Apple—and it’s widely believed the current pact runs for five years—customers looking to buy an iPhone will have to get their service through the telecom giant.
Further down the road, though, things could change in the US
“In the U.S., there is ample precedent for handsets coming to other carriers after a window of exclusivity,” said Ross Rubin, director of analysis at market-research firm NPD. “With T-Mobile now embracing 3G and Verizon looking to switch to LTE and more open handset choice in the future, chances are improving that the iPhone will eventually come to other carriers if AT&T no longer offers enough incentive to Apple to keep it exclusive.”
Strategy Analytics’ Mawston agrees: “AT&T is likely to be the sole supplier for the US in the near-term, unless the deal gets renegotiated.” he said.
India is the world's second largest mobile phone market with 261 million users, second only to China. Indian mobile firms added a record 10.2 million subscribers in March.
With the expansion of the market, the call tariffs have gone down as low as two cents a minute, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.

iPhone coming to India soon

By Alex Armitage, (Bloomberg) – Vidafone Group Plc, the world's largest mobile-phone company, won a contract to sell Apple Inc.'s iPhone this year in 10 countries with a total population of more than 1.4 billion, including Australia, India and Italy.
Vodafone will also offer the iPhone in the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey, the Newbury, England-based company said in a statement today. Milan-based Telecom Italia SpA will also sell the iPhone in Italy by the end of the year, it said in a separate statement today.
The deal is a win for Vodafone, which lost out last year to Telefonica SA’s O2 and Carphone Warehouse Group Plc for the rights to distribute Apple's combination media player and mobile phone in the U.K., which has a population of 60.8 million. For Apple, the agreement is part of Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs’s plan to capture more buyers outside the U.S.
Last month, Cupertino, California-based Apple reiterated its plan to ship 10 million iPhones in 2008, capturing 1 percent of the global mobile-phone market. The company sold almost 4 million iPhones last year. Apple already sells the device in the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Austria and Ireland.
Emerging Markets
In the past two years, Vodafone has bought stakes in wireless operators in India and Turkey to tap faster-growing emerging markets and has said it wants to expand in other countries.
In India alone, mobile operators have added more than 8 million wireless subscribers each month for the past six months, making the country the fastest-growing major wireless market.
Vodafone shares fell 0.8 pence, or 0.5 percent, to 162.7 pence at 10:44 a.m. in London trading. Apple rose $3.79, or 2.1 percent, to $184.73 in Nasdaq Stock Market trading yesterday.
San Antonio-based AT&T Inc., Apple's exclusive provider of the iPhone in the U.S., has said it will sell a new version of the handset later this year. The new iPhone is expected to offer faster downloads from the Internet over so-called third- generation, or 3G, wireless networks.
Source: Bloomberg