Samsung’s Galaxy S3 ‘marginally higher’ than Apple’s iPhone 5 in ACSI customer satisfaction

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Imagine if you received a recommendation proclaiming you were marginally better than your competitors. Well, that’s the case with Samsung, which has two smartphones that scored “marginally higher” than the iPhone 4S and the iPhone 5 in a new customer sat survey, to use Tim Cook’s jargon talk.

Samsung’s 14-month-old Galaxy S3 and Galaxy Note II each scored 84 out of 100 – a full two points better than the nearly year-old iPhone 5 and the almost two-year-old iPhone 4S. Before you get too carried away with chants of ‘yeah two points!’

Let’s get to the details…

The American Customer Satisfaction Study Index (ACSI) is the organization’s first study of smartphone brands. As Forbes notes, “the marginally higher scores of the Galaxy phones come at a time when Apple’s iPhones are nearly due for a refresh”.

Just what about the two Samsung products which caught the eye of customers?

First was the larger screen size, according to ACSI Director David VanAmburg. Price was also mentioned. The findings are newsworthy due to the traditional poor showing by Samsung and the overall Android class of smartphones when it comes to customer satisfaction.

For Samsung, the survey was a nice poke in the eye after Apple’s iPhone and iPad both were just deemed best by South Korean consumers – in the Galaxy maker’s hometown of Seoul.

The survey’s director had an interesting explanation of why Samsung usually scores lower in these customer surveys: feature phones. Yes, Samsung is viewed badly by consumers because its feature phones act like an anchor on the brand.

It couldn’t just be that Apple makes better smartphones, nah, couldn’t be that simple.