iPhone 3GS Trumps Palm Pre in Satisfaction Survey

[macduke]

TIf I could put WebOS on my iPhone I'd be one happy smartphone user.

Actually, aside from the Pre having a little bit slower graphics chip than the 3GS, they are pretty much the same hardware wise. That difference in speed you are perceiving is OS X. Same thing with my 2.4ghz C2D MBP and my 2.4ghz C2D HP at work. Same amount of ram, the HP has comparable if not faster graphics being a desktop system. Yet my MBP is faster at everything.

Also if your Pre was on iPhone hardware it wouldn't run unless they made a touchscreen keyboard in the software. It would look better though.

As for the results of this survey: is it too soon to declare victory? Whatever happened to the Instinct? Or any other "iPhone killer?"

 

[r00fus]

Seems odd to compare a 3rd Gen Phone to a 1st Gen Phone

I wonder how the iPhone 2G would compare to the Palm Pre . . . .

These phones released within days! This comparison is entirely accurate. Palm was late to the game despite being the leader in PDAs 10 years ago (not as bad a comparison as: MS is nowhere to be found, after rolling out smartphones 8 years ago)

Hard to say more than that.

 

[50548]

No surprise here.

Absolutely no surprises, for sure...they're just stating the obvious. Whoever gets the iPhone is hooked; even the staunchiest of my PC-using colleagues have succumbed to the sheer superiority of Apple's PERFECT integration of hardware and software.

The Pre is a moribund joke that won't go much farther than next year. In fact, Apple is probably gonna buy them with some change money that they have hoarded in the bank...and bring Jon back with that.

 

[kamiboy]

It will be a cold day for lucifer when a clone or anything dubbed with the moniker "killer" ever surpasses the original it is trying to ape.

 

[macjonny1]

Seems odd to compare a 3rd Gen Phone to a 1st Gen Phone

I wonder how the iPhone 2G would compare to the Palm Pre . . . .

Well that's what consumers are going to do...compare the current offerings of different manufacturers. Seems odd to do anything else.

 

[cocky jeremy]

Considering 1/3 of Pres get returned, is anyone shocked?

 

[PlaceofDis]

lets not forget the most important statistic from this article:

In a survey of 200 3GS users conducted Aug. 4-11 by RBC Capital and ChangeWave Research, 99% pronounced themselves satisfied, of which 82% were "very satisfied."

In a matching survey of 40 Pre owners, 87% said they were satisfied and 45% "very satisfied."

99% of 3GS owners are satisfied.
87% of Pre owners said they were.

that is just wow. especially with the larger sampling size of the 3GS owners.

link

 

[iphones4evry1]

The carrier for the iPhone in the U.S., AT&T, heads the list of dislikes for iPhone 3GS users, with 55% of users citing it as a negative factor. Palm Pre users' only complaint about Sprint, ... a complaint offered by only 8% of the survey's respondents.

Attention FCC: The majority of iPhone users cite AT&T as a negative factor. Please investigate AT&T on EVERY possible account that you can think of.

 

[JGowan]

Ahh i hate when journalists or who ever happens to write some sort of news takes sides. Just give me facts and ill make my own opinion.

Informative vs Persuasive -- sometimes it's hard not to.

 

[Burnsey]

I'm not surprised to see this, the iphone is a phenomenal product, and it will be hard to match by anyone.

 

[cohibadad]

Web OS could easily surpass OS X.

If I were Apple right now, I'd be very worried about the next hardware device Palm releases, which will fix many of the complaints.

Wow. The limitations of Web OS almost equal the boundlessness of iPhone OS. I would love to hear how exactly Web OS could surpass OS X unless Apple stopped any further development.

 

[Illusion986]

Informative vs Persuasive -- sometimes it's hard not to.

I suppose thats what separates good journalists from the trying ones. I imagine how hard can it get some times not to take a side.

 

[ericinboston]

What's interesting is that the Pre only lags by 2% on ease of use, but also gets a 42% like the multi-tasking features, which the iPhone doesn't even have. This tells me that, while the Pre isn't the best device (yet), with a larger screen, higher resolution/better camera and some bug fixes, Web OS could easily surpass OS X.

If I were Apple right now, I'd be very worried about the next hardware device Palm releases, which will fix many of the complaints.

I 100% agree.

And...

1)This is Palm's 1.0 at this...surely things will be enhanced, fixed, etc. on version 2.0.

2)Palm can't just copy the iPhone...it would likely be sued and surely ridiculed...so for a first stab at trying to "compete" (pricing, features, data plans, ease of use, etc) in a sense with the iPhone, it seems pretty good.

3)Without knowing more about the survey (wouldn't it be nice to actually see it too) it's possible the results are skewed for better or for worse for either vendor.

4)I do not own an iPhone and have done a tiny bit of research today on the Palm but I'm not sure who the Palm is aimed at. It's certainly not as recognizable as the iPhone...and all the marketing that Apple has done since Day 1 of the iPhone...so the users in this survey may have totally different reasons for buying the iPhone vs. the Palm. My gut tells me that a decent percentage of people bought the Palm because it has MS Exchange (read: corporate email) while we know iPhone has yet to even consider participating in the corporate email world.


My guess is that the 2 devices are pretty close in what they offer...but each is probably aimed at different users or at least their needs. For someone like me who does not need corporate email, I would probably consider both to meet my satisfaction...and understanding that the iPhone is several generations older than the Pre.

-Eric

 

[ericinboston]

lets not forget the most important statistic from this article:



99% of 3GS owners are satisfied.
87% of Pre owners said they were.

that is just wow. especially with the larger sampling size of the 3GS owners.

link

1)Let's not forget that the Pre is brand new...version 1.0....I'm sure a decente percentage of iPhone 3GS customers had SOME previous iPhone experience.

2)87% is still a pretty darn good number for a 1.0 release.

3)99%...I don't believe that statistic. No product has a 99% satisfaction rate except for maybe a pencil. Seeing a number like this smells of something being askew.

-Eric

 

[RebootD]

Absolutely no surprises, for sure...they're just stating the obvious. Whoever gets the iPhone is hooked; even the staunchiest of my PC-using colleagues have succumbed to the sheer superiority of Apple's PERFECT integration of hardware and software.

The Pre is a moribund joke that won't go much farther than next year. In fact, Apple is probably gonna buy them with some change money that they have hoarded in the bank...and bring Jon back with that.

I don't have you on my block list only because I get a chuckle out of every post you make. If it is intentionally over-the-top sarcasm I applaud you for being a master of it!

 

[NoExpectations]

Finally....good signal here

I think that AT&T opened up a new cell tower or maybe they enabled some new frequencies (that they recently purchased). I used to get 1-2 bars inside my house....now I consistently get 4-5 and 3G. Somewhat happy before....very happy now where I live. Hmmm...do I need my landline anymore? -Chicago.

 

[inkswamp]

I wonder how many people for both devices claimed satisfaction simply because they want to justify their expensive purchases

My employer pays for my iPhone. I hate cell phones. Always have. Always will. I hate constantly having a device with me and I hate always being reachable. And still, I think the iPhone is hands-down one of the most amazing gadgets I've ever used and I love it. There's almost nothing wrong with it. I've had so many phones or hand-held gadgets that had two or three glaring design problems or usability issues. None of that on the iPhone. When at home, I find myself reaching for the iPhone more often than for my laptop.

I would believe, at least in regard to the iPhone, that the satisfaction rating is pretty accurate if it's able to win me over.

 

[kdarling]

The real problem with the Pre (and I think this is Sprint's failing) is that you can't use the phone and the Internet at the same time!

The GSM based Pre phones that are coming to ATT and others won't have that limitation.

These phones released within days! This comparison is entirely accurate. Palm was late to the game despite being the leader in PDAs 10 years ago (not as bad a comparison as: MS is nowhere to be found, after rolling out smartphones 8 years ago)

If Apple had been making smartphones all that time, most of them would've looked quite similar to the MS or Palm models. Or at least, similar to the Newton. The trouble with making something for a long time, is you usually want to keep backward compatability. That slows down progress quite a bit.

So a smart thing that Jobs did, was to stay out of the smartphone business until others had brought the price and power of the radio and cpu and graphics components into range.

 

[RebootD]

that is just wow. especially with the larger sampling size of the 3GS owners.

link

Again as a Pre owner it's due to the hardware. Apple makes some amazing hardware and compared to the Pre it is very far ahead in build quality.

Most of the complaints from fellow Pre users generally revolve around the hardware being subpar and/or that stupid Nascar app!

 

[QCassidy352]

Seems odd to compare a 3rd Gen Phone to a 1st Gen Phone

I wonder how the iPhone 2G would compare to the Palm Pre . . . .

Seems odd to compare a phone originally sold in June 2007 with one sold in June 2009.

A potential buyer cares what is available now and how good it is. Maybe comparing a first gen product to a third gen isn't "fair," but this isn't about being fair - it's about which currently available product people are happier with.

 

[nagromme]

What's interesting is that the Pre only lags by 2% on ease of use, but also gets a 42% like the multi-tasking features, which the iPhone doesn't even have. This tells me that, while the Pre isn't the best device (yet), with a larger screen, higher resolution/better camera and some bug fixes, Web OS could easily surpass OS X.

If I were Apple right now, I'd be very worried about the next hardware device Palm releases, which will fix many of the complaints.

There's no 2% difference in ease of use: those factors are not compared between the two phones. They are just compared against other factors on the same phone. If you asked people familiar with both to compare ease of use, then you'd get numbers to use that way.

And the iPhone does have multitasking--and better, in some ways, than the Pre's. (Not in all ways--the Pre has some good points too.) The iPhone multitasks the browser, the email app, downloads, the music player, the phone (of course), the voice recorder, calendar alerts, incoming instant messages (push) and more. (In other words, the most common functions of a smartphone.) And all the apps that "do not multitask" will still multitask with those that do. Meanwhile, you don't have to manage memory and system resources manually, the way you have to on a Pre. Best of all, push lets ALL apps be "multitasking" at the same time, for notifications at least, without using up RAM and CPU time. It's a great solution. So the iPhone's multitasking doesn't do everything the Pre's can do, but it DOES do a lot of very common things better.

As for Apple worrying about the NEXT Pre.... I am sure Apple's spending more time concerning themselves with the next iPhone This Pre may not be the last one... and the 3GS surely won't be the last iPhone either.

 

[gnasher729]

What's interesting is that the Pre only lags by 2% on ease of use, but also gets a 42% like the multi-tasking features, which the iPhone doesn't even have. This tells me that, while the Pre isn't the best device (yet), with a larger screen, higher resolution/better camera and some bug fixes, Web OS could easily surpass OS X.

If I were Apple right now, I'd be very worried about the next hardware device Palm releases, which will fix many of the complaints.

You are misreading the numbers. This is like asking guests in a restaurant whether they preferred starter, main course, or afters. It doesn't matter whether you ask guests in a good restaurant or a bad restaurant; you will get about the same numbers.

 

[HiRez]

Sort of a confusing survey, for example they ask "What do you like best about..." but then all the numbers add up to more than 100%, whereas "best" implies one and only one answer, so the totals should add to 100%. I'm also kind of surprised only about 20% mentioned they liked the hard keyboard on the Prē, I thought that was supposed to be a major differentiator vs. The iPhone.

 

[50548]

I don't have you on my block list only because I get a chuckle out of every post you make. If it is intentionally over-the-top sarcasm I applaud you for being a master of it!

You may say it's a mix of both...because everything I said so far rings true anyway...and I've been using Apple computers since 1989...but feel free to block me, I don't really care.

 

[SnowLeopard2008]

Apple wins again, not that it's surprising. The Pre is a big hunk of junk. Most people I know would rather buy something that didn't cut corners during development such as the iTunes iPod emulation (illegal btw) and a tiny App "Store". Come on Palm! You can do better than that, remember the good ol' days a few years back when you were king/queen of smartphones and PDAs?