Droid-Maker Motorola Pushes iPhone in Customer Satisfaction

The latest cell-phone survey from ChangeWave shows that there are a lot of happy iPhone buyers out there, but those who bought Motorola smartphones are generally pretty satisfied also.

The survey, completed earlier this month, asked more than 1,200 consumers whod bought smartphones in the past six months to rate their new devices. More than three in four (77 percent) iPhone buyers claimed to be very satisfied” with their purchases, despite some of the negativity at launch surrounding antenna problems and a shortage of available devices. What might be surprising to some, however, is the performance of Motorola. The manufacturer of a number of popular Droid smartphones got very satisfied” ratings from 71 percent of owners, coming closer to iPhone territory than anyone has dared to tread in previous ChangeWave surveys.

But on the flipside, theres still a lot of iPhone envy out there among Motorola handset owners. When asked which they wouldve purchased an iPhone or their Motorola phone if the iPhone had been available on their wireless network, 39 percent stuck with their Moto, but almost as many, 37 percent, said the iPhone. The other 24 percent were undecided. Its a good bet most of those Motorola smartphone owners are on the Verizon network and are anticipating a CDMA iPhone in early 2011. Overall, 34 percent of non-AT&T customers surveyed said they would have purchased an iPhone if available on their network, while 46 percent say they still wouldve selected their current phone. Twenty percent were undecided.

The customer satisfaction news wasnt as hot for HTC, Samsung and BlackBerry. Only 63 percent of HTC smartphone owners were very satisfied” with their choice; far worse were Samsung (45 percent) and BlackBerry (44 percent). But its important to remember,” the survey says, that both companies just recently released their newest models (e.g., the Samsung Galaxy S line and the RIM Torch) and theyre only partially reflected in the overall satisfaction ratings.”