Oct 19, 2012

IT Pros Value Device Over Service Quality

IT service professionals say mobile phone satisfaction is heavily driven by the manufacturer and device itself, rather than the wireless provider in new survey released by OnForce. According to the recent survey of nearly 900 IT service professionals, AT&T and Verizon are tied when it comes to overall satisfaction. Sprint, on the other hand, is trailing behind in third place with only 55 percent of Sprint customers saying they’re “very satisfied” with their overall mobile experience. Meanwhile, there’s a significant jump when compared to the 67 percent of AT&T customers and 66 percent of Verizon customers who are “very satisfied.” OnForce found, however, that when they conducted a “deeper analysis” of what constitutes a customer’s overall satisfaction, the results varied. For instance, although AT&T seems to have the advantage over Verizon and Sprint, only 35 percent of AT&T customers are actually “very satisfied” with the service compared to 58 percent for Verizon and 35 percent for Sprint. According to OnForce, it all boils down to the battle between iPhone and Android. iPhone is said to be ahead by 69 percent and its customers were reportedly more satisfied with 10 of 11 functionality categories OnForce surveyed. In addition, Apple’s functionality improvements in iOS6 are a big reason for satisfaction as well. In fact, “fully 67 percent of AT&T customers use the iPhone, compared to only 33 percent of Verizon customers.” “IT field techs tend to be on the leading edge and often prefer open systems like Linux and Android,” said Peter Cannone, chief executive officer of OnForce. “However, based on our findings, significantly more technicians are likely to recommend iOS to a friend or colleague than Android.” However, Samsung shouldn’t be dismissed just yet as 20 percent of IT service professionals prefer the device and OnForce says it’s only building momentum. According to the study, both Apple and Samsung can “expect to see a slight increase in market share, rising to 38 percent and 23 percent, respectively.” The study comes after an article released by CNet stated that the Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy 3S surpassed the iPhone 4S as the top-selling U.S. smartphone in August. Canaccord Genuity analyst T. Michael Walkley told CNet, “We believe this is the first month since the iPhone 4S launched in October 2011 that it was not the top-selling smartphone in the U.S. market.” With the recent patent infringement ruling against Samsung, however, OnForce says that it could have an impact on the company’s growth and adoption. “We’ve seen a steady increase in Android usage amongst our community over the past year, but that could change quickly with new hardware and software developments on the horizon for Apple, and the majority of IT service technicians indicating that their next mobile device will be an Apple device,” said Cannone. Cannone adds, “Regardless, we’ve seen huge demand for our recently launched Android application, which is running on 247 distinct hardware/OS version combinations – further demonstrating the incredible variety of Android devices.” The OnForce app for Android helps IT and CE service professionals find quality service work without spending on sales and marketing. The company’s first native app can be found on Google Play with a 3.8 rating.