A US mobile phone survey has confirmed what some of us already know - that buying and owning an iPhone is a great thing to do. Palm handset owners may need to find crumbs of comfort elsewhere.
That's because the ChangeWave survey shows that 72 per cent of iPhone owners are 'very satisfied' with their Apple-made touch phone, beating owners of rival mobiles from makers like RIM,
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. Palm came bottom of the pile with just 30 per cent of owners saying they were 'very satisfied',
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Of course, surveys are as notorious for what they don't say as well as what they do - ChangeWave hasn't revealed how many owners were just 'satisfied' (ie just happy) with their current mobile, which - if you think about - it probably the overwhelming majority of us. This is why Palm, in particular, has taken umbrage at the ChangeWave stats.
Palm's Paul Loeffler has instead put forward a Satmetrix survey that shows that 65 per cent of Palm owners gave their handsets 8-10 out of 10. Loeffler also quotes another Russell Research survey that shows 56 per cent of Palm owners are either 'very satisfied' or 'extremely satisfied'. It won't surprise you to learn that both surveys were commissioned by Palm.
Apple, RIM to benefit most
What's really interesting about the ChangeWave survey though is that it also shows how the mobile phone landscape is changing. ChangeWave says increasing numbers of mobile users are switching away from traditional handsets and towards smartphone with Apple first, then RIM (with the Blackberry) benefiting most.
None of this is good news for Motorola, which has been on the slide ever since Apple CEO Steve Jobs launched the iPhone at Macworld 2007. Only 11 per cent of those surveyed plan to say 'Hello Moto', within the next six months, a fall of 25 points since July 2006.
