While we've had our own survey about the supposed excess heat coming from the new third-generation iPad, ChangeWave has done their own, and largely agreed with our results. After polling 200 owners, ChangeWave found that 89% didn't have any "warmgate" problems whatsoever. Besides that, their survey yielded predictably high satisfaction rates; 82% were "very satisfied", and 16% were "somewhat satisfied" with their recent purchase. Of course, the Retina display was indicated as the best feature of the new iPad by 75% of respondents, while the biggest complaint was the device cost (26%) followed by wireless data plan cost (23%). Only 7% said the new iPad's heat was their number one dislike.

For a closer look at why customer satisfaction is so high, be sure to take a look at our extensive review of the new iPad. While there aren't any particular surprises in this survey, it's good to get some hard numbers assuring that yes, people like the new iPad, and no, the heat thing really isn't a problem. I would be really interested in hearing from anyone who got a new iPad and wasn't happy with it; do  y'all know anybody who ended up returning theirs? Maybe some Australians unhappy that they couldn't get LTE on theirs after all?

Source: ChangeWave

ChangeWave has a new survey out indicating that 54 percent of near-term smartphone buyers are planning on picking up the iPhone 4S over competing devices.

The late December survey looked at smart phone demand trends going forward, and finds Apple iPhone demand remains incredibly strong more than two months after the iPhone 4S release. Among respondents planning to buy a new smart phone in the next 90 days, better than one-in-two (54%; down 11-pts) say they'll get an iPhone. Apple has never dominated smart phone planned buying to this extent more than two months after a major new release.

The survey, conducted in late December, studied 4,000 North American consumers with the results suggesting huge demand for the iPhone 4S even with it being more than two months old. Based on ChangeWave's history, this also advocates the iPhone 4S as being Apple's most popular release, as they've never covered the spread of planned smartphone purchasers this far after a major iPhone release.

In addition, Apple continues to lead smartphone satisfaction rates with 76 percent being very satisfied with their iPhone, compared to the nearest competition coming in at around 47 percent with Samsung.

Source: ChangeWave

ChangeWave has come out with a new survey polling customer satisfaction among new iPhone 4S owners, showing an overwhelming 96% satisfaction rating and propelling the iPhone 4S into "nosebleed territory".

Overall satisfaction with the iPhone 4S showed 77% of users being Very Satisfied and 19% being Somewhat Satisfied, compared to 72% and 21% respectively for the iPhone 4 that launched in 2010.

When asked about which features were enjoyed most in the iPhone 4S, users pointed to Siri as the big seller, and 'general ease of use' coming in second at 39%. The beefed up 8MP camera was also a big seller (33%), but interestingly enough, Apple's new iCloud service came up at just 19%.

In terms of dissatisfaction, users pegged battery life being too short as a big drawback in the 4S, although Apple has been hard at work investigating the issue. Additionally, the lack of 4G support was a downer for some users (30%), but that shouldn't be an issue next year. When looking at dropped calls, the iPhone 4S compared well against its predecessor with only 2.5% of calls dropped compared to 5.2% in July under the iPhone 4.

Overall, it seems that most iPhone 4S users are pretty happy with their purchase despite some battery life hiccups, but it's clear the positives far outweigh the negatives here. How satisfied are you with your new iPhone 4S?

Source: ChangeWave

A recent ChangeWave report surveyed 4,068 wireless subscribers and revealed that AT&T iPhone users see more than double the amount of dropped calls compared to their Verizon iPhone peers. AT&T iPhone users reported that 4.8% of calls were unexpectedly dropped on the network, a far cry from Verizon at just 1.8% of calls. This lines up with a survey of overall cell phone customers that found 4.6% of AT&T subscribers and 1.4% of Verizon customers have reported dropped calls.

In addition, 46% of prospective iPhone 4 buyers say they will be going with Verizon, with 27% favoring AT&T and the remaining 27% still undecided. If you look back at the last survey from ChangeWave, it looks like the deciding factor for consumers on which carrier to choose is network quality and dropped calls. Based on these new results, it looks like AT&T (and their new T-Mobile spectrum, if the deal goes through) has a lot of work to do in terms of improving their network and lowering dropped calls if they want to stay competitive now that Verizon has the iPhone 4.

It's not all bad news, however. Consumer satisfaction was about even, with Verizon showing 82% of iPhone users being very satisfied with their device compared to AT&T iPhone users at 80%. The iPhone has historically held much higher consumer satisfaction ratings than smartphone competitors like RIM and Motorola, so this didn't come as much of a surprise to us.

Are you planning on buying an iPhone 4 soon? Which carrier will you be going with, and why? Sound off in the comments below!

[ChangeWave]

Despite growing competition as new tablets begin to enter the market, Apple's iPad is still king when it comes to consumer demand and customer satisfaction according to a recent ChangeWave survey.

The new research, which surveyed a total of 3,091 consumers just prior to Apple announcing the iPad 2, confirms the new tablet market has drawn high demand from consumers around the world, with a large majority interested in the iPad specifically. According to the survey, 82% of consumers planning on buying a tablet in the near future will be opting for an iPad, compared to the closest competition, the Motorola Xoom, coming in at only 4%.

On the customer satisfaction front the iPad garnered outstanding numbers among current owners, with 70% being 'very satisfied' with their purchase and 25% being 'somewhat satisfied'. Apple has always done well on the customer satisfaction so we're not surprised with these results. In addition to high customer satisfaction ratings, it looks like the iPad has continued to steal market share from eBook readers like the Amazon Kindle and further suggests the iPad has had a growing impact on netbook and notebook sales.

What does this all mean for Apple? Lack of competition for the original iPad meant their was nothing to stop them from establishing a dominant position in the tablet market. While the survey was conducted just as real competition began to show up, it was also before Apple even announced the iPad 2. So we have a strong suspicion Apple won't have any trouble keeping a strong position throughout 2011.

With the iPad 2 launching tomorrow in the US and other countries shortly after, do you think Apple has anything to worry about going forward? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

[InvestorPlace]

Apple's iPhone 4 topped the charts in customer satisfaction again with 8 out of 10 users being very satisfied with their smartphone device. From ChangeWave:

As we’ve consistently seen in our consumer smart phone demand surveys, the Apple iPhone continues to outperform the industry in terms of customer satisfaction.

If you compare Apple's customer satisfaction ratings to specific competing smartphones such as RIM's Blackberry Torch (64%) or the Motorola Droid X (71%), you can clearly see that the iPhone 4 is winning the race by continuing Apple's goal in delivering only the highest quality devices to its users. In addition to RIM and Motorola, Samsung's new Galaxy S Android smartphone failed to reach Apple's level and only saw 55% of its users to be satisfied with the device.

Something else we found interesting was that a full 1/3 of smartphone owners would have chosen the iPhone if it were available on their carrier. With the Verizon iPhone just around the corner, could this spell trouble for other high-end smartphone makers trying to compete with the iPhone?

[InvestorPlace]

ChangeWave has released their latest survey results, this time asking 1,009 new smartphone buyers (including iPhone buyers) why they chose the phone they did, how satisfied they were with their new phone, and some general opinions positive and negative about their new phone.

The results in a sentence:

The results show the continuing threat the iPhone poses to the rest of the industry.

The results in a lot of stats:

iPhone had the highest satisfaction of any smartphone at 77%, with Motorola second at 64% and HTC 3rd at 51%. Samsung was last at 35%.

iPhone also had the lowest likelihood of return, with only 7%. Motorola was next with 12%, then HTC with 15%, and Palm was last with 36%.

When asked if non-AT&T users would still have bought their current (Verizon/Sprint/T-Mobile) smartphone if the iPhone were on their carrier, 39% said they would, 32% said they would have gone with an iPhone instead, and 29% weren't sure.

More graphs after the break!

[ChangeWave]

Thinking back to the hype surrounding the launch of the first iPhone, with podcasters stomping their Treo's on the floor of Moscone West and customers waiting in line outside the New York Apple Store for weeks, it's hard to imagine that interest in the iPad could be even bigger, but that's what ChangeWave's survey just may be telling us.

Gizmodo notices something interesting as well:

The lowest end and the highest end [iPad] win, with 19% each. With the 64GB Wi-Fi getting only 8% and the 16GB Wi-Fi and 3G version getting 9% of the interest. 68% of the people interested in it want to surf the internet, 44% for email, 37% for eBooks, 28% for the reading magazines and other periodicals, and only 24% for watching video.

Is 2007, a lot of people wanted something new from a smartphone and the iPhone was the first thing in a long time to really offer that "something new". Now in 2010, there are 75 million iPhone-platform devices on the market, so is there simply more awareness? Most people need a phone, we can't see most people needing a tablet... or is this measuring more want than need anyway?

[Digital Daily via Gizmodo]

Apple's iPhone has hit 30% marketshare in the US, according to ChangeWave. When laying out the current players, 4,225 consumers were surveyed, 39% of whom owned smartphones, and of those the top 3 answers were RIM's Blackberry down ever-so-slightly to 40%, the iPhone up 5% to hit that 30% mark, and Palm steady at 7%. As sibling-site PreCentral.net points out, Windows Mobile, Android, and Symbian weren't even included on the chart (does that mean the percentages were too low and unchanged to graph, Changewave?)

Going forward, iPhone retains the lead for planned future smartphone purchases, though dipping from 44% in June to 36% in September). RIM's second, with 27% up from 23%, and Palm again holds steady at 8%.

Customer satisfaction, however, remains Apple's biggest advantage. The iPhone has a lofty 74%, way out ahead of second place RIM at 43%, LG at 39%, Sanyo at 36%, HTC at 35%, and Palm at 33%. Droid-maker Motorola is at 32%, Nokia at 29%, Samsung at 29%, and Sony/Ericsson at 17%. Ouch.

The bottom line according to Investorplace?

In the horserace among manufacturers, the release of the iPhone 3GS has led to a big jump in smart phone market share for Apple and has placed them within striking distance of Research In Motion — whose slew of models are still number one but have fallen to their lowest level in two years.

[Thanks everyone who sent this in!]

With 82% of iPhone 3GS users claiming they're "very satisfied" and 17% claiming they're "somewhat" satisfied, we don't need Leanna to do the math -- that's 99% pure satisfaction according to RBC/IQ and Changewave (via Macrumors).

Apple sold 5.2 million iPhones last quarter, many of which were likely iPhone 3GS -- that's a spectacular satisfaction rating for a spectacularly successful launch.

Given that rival handset makers aren't (yet?) hitting either those per-product sales or satisfaction levels (and even passionate iPhone boycotters are lamenting the alternatives), we're wondering if the gap isn't widening?

(Of course, AT&T satisfaction levels were somewhat less impressive, to put it kindly...)