While Apple may have the flashier, more well known tablets - including the most recently unveiled iPad Air and Retina iPad mini - Samsung's tablets apparently aren't doing too badly in the U.S. That's according to a recent survey by JD Power Reports, which finds Samsung ranking highest in owner satisfaction with tablet devices.
The report was released Thursday by the consumer product rating service and it shows that Samsung has overtaken Apple in consumer satisfaction, among other interesting tidbits.
Samsung scored a 835 on the total consumer experience, beating Apple's 833 score for its tablets, and ending Apple's nine-time consecutive JD Power award streak.
JD Power considers several different factors when ranking the overall customer experience with a certain tablet. "Whether consumers prefer the online channel for competitive pricing compared with the tactile retail store experience, effectively matching owner needs with the appropriate tablet model during the purchase process goes a long way in positively influencing overall satisfaction," said Kirk Parsons, senior director of telecommunications services at J.D. Power in a press release.
The company considers whether the tablet is an online or brick-and-mortar purchase, along with price, device information, brand, and model selection. In ranking the actual tablets, performance, ease of use, physical design, and tablet features also figure in the overall satisfaction ranking.
The study found that 59 percent of tablet owners purchase in-store, with the rest making their decisions online, but those who purchased online rate their experience slightly higher than those who buy in person, especially when considering the price of the tablet.
Word of mouth makes a big difference with tablet buyers, with about half of consumers relying on recommendations from family, friends, and others, while 49 percent check out the manufacturer's website or other information. Brand reputation figures into about 42 percent of tablet decisions, with 32 percent being past experience with a given brand.
Samsung should be pleased that friends are recommending their tablets, along with the fact that the company's reputation is ostensibly rather high and likely to gain more ground: it was the only manufacturer to move up in all five tablet metrics from the previous reporting period of April 2013.
Particularly helping the South Korean device-maker is the fact that Samsung tablets gained 25 points in about six months just on cost-factor analysis alone.
Of course, mass market-friendly pricing has never been a goal of Apple, which still out-scored Samsung and every other major tablet manufacturer in every category but cost - earning a perfect five in performance, ease of use, physical design, features, and even overall satisfaction.
Meanwhile, Samsung's tablets still lag significantly behind Apple in performance and ease of use, along with getting only "better than most" ratings on design and features.
In any case, apparently Samsung tablet owners were just a little more perfectly satisfied by having some extra cash in their pockets.
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