AT&T (T) And Sprint (S) Key To iPhone And Palm Customer Satisfaction

Wall St. analysts and the media have spent the weeks after the release of the Palm (PALM) Pre on the Sprint (S) network wondering how the handset is actually selling and whether it is getting customers that might have bought Apple (AAPL) iPhones of RIM (RIMM) Blackberry smart phones. No one has come up with an adequate answer and Palm will not release numbers.

One piece of research that works against the chances of the Pre being successful is a new ChangeWave survey of 198 Apple iPhone 3GS owners and 38 Palm Pre owners – comparing and contrasting their initial reactions to these new smart phone models. One of the few advantages Palm has appears to be the Sprint network.

It would be fair to ask ChangeWave whether the sample size is large enough to be meaningful. At first blush, it does not seem like it. If the results are accurate, even directionally, the Pre has problems, with a few exceptions, in terms of customer satisfaction.

Eighty-two percent of people who bought new iPhone 3GS models were very satisfied with the product. The figure was much lower, only 45% for the Pre.

Thirty-eight percent of customers who bought the iPhone said it “exceeded their expectations.” The figure was only 18% for the Pre.

The features that most people liked where common to both products, especially the touchscreens and ease of use. Third party applications were ranked high among the aspects of the iPhone that people like. The Pre can’t match Apple in that department because it has nothing like the App store

The most disliked feature of the phones was the same–low battery life.

The single feature of the phones that stands out is the extent to which iPhone users do not like the AT&T (T) network. Thirty-two percent of those sampled said the carrier was one of the things that they disliked. On the other hand, the Sprint network was critical to satisfaction rates for the Pre. Twenty-four percent of Pre customers listed the Sprint network among the things that they liked most about owning the handset.

Douglas A. McIntyre