WP7 Gains Interest While the iPhone Keeps Top Spot in Customer Satisfaction

Based on a recent report from the ChangeWave Alliance, Microsoft has finally turned the slow bleed around on their mobile platform. One of the questions they ask their alliance members is which mobile device platform they are mostly likely to be buying in the near future. Palm and Microsoft used to be at the top of this response several years back, but Palm has dropped to zero in June 2010, and Microsoft wasn't too far behind having dropped to 1% in September 2010. The Windows Phone 7 roll-out has influenced buyers and brought Microsoft back up to 5% for December 2010, a level that they had not seen in over a year. Three years ago, Microsoft was reported by 24% of respondents as their preferred platform. Apple's iOS, Google's Android, and RIM's Blackberry all gave up 2%. If this trend continues, Microsoft will surpass RIM in buyer interest over the next few months.

While the platform race is a dead heat between Google and Apple, the hardware race looks very different. Google's Android platform comes to market on PDAPhones / Smartphones from many different manufacturers, so the platform hardware picture is more fragmented. Apple is the clear front runner with the iPhone, dominating future buying decisions. Of the respondents in December 2010, 40% reported that they intend to buy an Apple iPhone, an increase of 1%. All other hardware producers dropped for the quarter, with the next largest share dropping from 15% to 13% for HTC. RIM is the other platform maker that solely sells on their own hardware, and they dropped to 5%. RIM did not provide any big PDAPhone announcements at CES last week, choosing to put all their eggs in their new tablet product, so we will want to watch for something from them in the next few months.



One of the reasons that Apple may be continuing to maintain their market position is that they are still the king on customer sat. From a platform / OS perspective, the iOS device owners achieved the highest customer sat percentage with 72% saying they are Very Satisfied with their PDAPhone. This is remarkable given the number of complaints that continue regarding the only network that the iPhone currently runs on. I would expect this to increase even further with the expansion of the iPhone to Verizon later this year. Microsoft, while in the back of the pack with an overall 21% reporting Very Satisfied, is actually making big progress. If you break down the responses into their old and new OS, only 18% are Very Satisfied with Windows Mobile (the older OS) and 44% are Very Satisfied with Windows Phone 7 (the new OS). This would put them in third place behind Android, at a point when the platform is still immature and lacks the large application market and features like copy and paste. The first half of 2011 will be an opportunity for Microsoft to pull up into the top tier or stay in the bottom pack depending on how their roll-out goes.



For more information on this survey, contact ChangeWave Research. The ChangeWave Research Network is a group of 25,000 highly qualified business, technology, and medical professionals - as well as early adopter consumers - who work in leading companies of selected industries.