Early iPhone Adopters Extremely Satisfied

The results are in from the latest ChangeWave Alliance survey of 74 Apple (AAPL) iPhone owners – including what these early adopters like best and dislike most about the new multifunction device. We also asked 3,000 non-owners about their future cellular purchase plans.

The Alliance survey was conducted July 18-25, 2007, less than a month after the iPhone’s release – and the findings are good news for Steve Jobs and company.

Better than three-in-four (77%) owners report they are Very Satisfied with their Apple iPhone and another 15% say they are Somewhat Satisfied, for a combined 92% Satisfaction Rating – the best we’ve seen for a cellular phone device.

To put this in perspective, in our most recent consumer cell phone survey we also received satisfaction ratings on the other leading cell phone manufacturers, and the next closest competitors to the Apple iPhone in terms of customer satisfaction were RIM (RIMM) (50% Very Satisfied) and Sanyo (SANYY) (48% Very Satisfied).

Of course, in the case of new iPhone owners there is always the potential for bias, as we're speaking with people who were already favorably predisposed toward the gadget – otherwise they wouldn't have rushed right out to get it.

But offsetting this potential bias is the fact that ChangeWave Alliance members tend to be harsh critics of technologies which fail to live up to their expectations. They’re a tough crowd of business and technology early adopters. So even though these are the first wave of buyers, there's a high likelihood their opinions are based on the real world merits and flaws of the iPhone.

iPhone Likes and Dislikes

We also asked iPhone owners what they liked best and disliked most about the iPhone. Here’s what they told us:

Question Asked: What do you like best about your iPhone? (Choose No More Than Two)

Two-thirds of Alliance iPhone owners cite the integration of cell phone, iPod and Internet browser as the feature they like best, while 45% say it’s the touch screen interface and 21% the iPhone’s ease of use.

What do iPhone owners dislike most?

Question Asked: And what do you dislike most about your iPhone? (Choose No More Than Two)

By a wide margin, the Speed of AT&T's (T) EDGE Network (35%) was the biggest dislike. Owners also disliked the fact that the iPhone Can't Copy and Paste Text (23%) and that it Doesn't Support Third-Party Software (23%).

When we asked about additional iPhone features they’d like to have, owners pointed to voice recognition (15%) as the number one thing missing from their iPhone, followed by personalizing features (13%) and GPS (13%).

In one of the most positive overall survey findings, nearly nine-in-ten (89%) owners said they would recommend the Apple device to a friend or colleague.

Question Asked: How likely are you to recommend the Apple iPhone to a friend or colleague? (n=74)

Of course in business, when a company releases a new product its competitors are often the worse for wear. This appears to be the case among industry cell phone service providers and manufacturers.

Importantly, more than one-in-three (34%) new iPhone owners say they switched cell phone service providers when they got their iPhone – and Verizon (VZ) (40%) and T-Mobile (40%) were the top providers that lost customers. (Note: The iPhone requires a subscription to AT&T’s EDGE Network.)

Amongst cell phone manufacturers, Motorola (MOT) tops the list of companies losing out to the iPhone, with one-in-three owners (32%) saying that Motorola was the brand of phone they were using before buying the iPhone. Nokia (NOK) (17%) was the second biggest loser.

And What About Non-Owners?

To get a better sense of the total potential impact of the iPhone, we asked all members of the ChangeWave Alliance about their future iPhone purchase plans regardless of time frame:

How likely is it that you will purchase an Apple iPhone for yourself or someone else (e.g., a family member) in the future?(n=3,003)

*Note: Previous April 2007 survey results are based on the composite responses to two questions – one asking about purchase plans for yourself, and the other asking about plans for purchasing an iPhone for someone else (with duplicate responses eliminated).

Better than one-in-five total respondents (22%) say they will purchase an iPhone in the future for themselves or someone else – an extraordinarily high number.

To put this in context, in our previous survey back in April a total of 13% of respondents said they were very likely or somewhat likely to purchase the device for themselves or someone else in the future.

The increase from 13% in April to 22% currently indicates tremendous upside momentum for the iPhone. It means there is still plenty of gas in the tank in the aftermath of Apple’s extremely hyped June 30th iPhone coming out party.

Importantly, while more than two-in-five likely buyers (42%) say their iPhone purchase will take place within the next 12 months, we wanted to know the main reason why they haven’t yet taken the plunge. Here are the top three reasons cited for waiting to buy an iPhone:

• Waiting For The Cost to Come Down (28%),
• Waiting For The Next Generation To Be Released (20%), and
• Waiting for It to Become Available With Other Service Providers (16%).

And finally, what about people who are NOT considering buying an iPhone? Why aren’t they going to get the device?

Satisfaction with their current cell phone (47%), the iPhone’s high cost (30%) and their reluctance to switch to AT&T (10%) were the top reasons cited by non-buyers for why the iPhone won’t become a part of their gadget collections.

This notwithstanding, the current survey results confirm the exceptionally strong iPhone momentum ChangeWave originally identified in two previous surveys (January 2007 and April 2007).

The high ratings given by the Alliance early adopter iPhone owners, along with the continued extraordinary interest among non-owners, are powerful indicators that iPhone sales will outperform over the next 12 months.

The ChangeWave survey findings indicate the iPhone will continue to roil the cell phone manufacturer and service provider markets alike.

Jim Woods co-wrote this article.
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This article summarizes the results of a recent ChangeWave Alliance survey. The Alliance is a research network of 10,000 business, technology and medical professionals who spend their everyday lives working on the front line of technological change. For more info on the ChangeWave Alliance, or if you are interested in joining, please click here.

Comments

[Tom B]

"the next closest competitors to the Apple iPhone in terms of customer satisfaction were RIM (RIMM) (50% Very Satisfied)"

the iPhone's numbers are staggering, considered against the fact that Blackberry users are a bit of a cult and can only achieve 50%.

"Waiting For The Cost to Come Down (28%)"

I don't think that will happen. I think we will see lower end models coming out, though. I would buy an iPod/Skype-VOIP/intern... phone. 90% of the time, I'm near wifi and don't need "phone cells".

[pavlov]

neonode.com

Look at excellent competition.

[Tom B]

In your dreams.

[Partners inGrime]

Impressive! Very telling numbers. A 92% satisfaction rating for Apple's initial foray into the cell phone market? That's outrageous. That's crazy. Some might even say it's insanely great. Talk about smacking a home run your first time at bat.

[Alan]

Very interesting. I agree with Neil that the satisfaction rating is crazy given some of the detractors of the iPhone.

Looking at the iPhone Reviews, a 92% satisfaction rating on a version 1.0 of a phone seems to imply that some people are happy despite the missing or lower-quality features.

[finance]

What's not to like! I get instant stock quotes, instant weather conditions, email and, oh yes, a phone!
William

[hansk00]

I understood that that stock quotes were delayed . How do
you get the quotes instantly?
HANS KAUFMANN
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