The latest J.D. Power and Associates report on customer satisfaction with mobile phones shows that Nokia is continuing to improve its position relative to other manufacturers. Nokia has improved its customer satisfaction amongst smartphone owners by 4.19% in the last six months and 13.25% in the last year. Amongst leading manufacturers Nokia was in last place a year ago, but it now lies in second place overall on a rating of 795 (out of 1000 points), behind Apple on 855 points.

The report measures satisfaction with mobile phone among US customers who have used their current device for less than a year, with satisfaction measured by several key factors including performance, ease of use, design and features. The overall results provide further independent confirmation for Nokia's assertion that its Lumia devices are enjoying positive consumer feedback and increasing net promoter scores.

Nokia's improved performance in smartphone satifaction can be linked, in part, to its adoption of Windows Phone 8. The March 2012 figures would have been partly based on Symbian device ownership. The increase from September 2012 to March 2013 can be linked to Windows Phone 8, although the survery results will also include a substantial number of Windows Phone 7.5 device owners.

J.D. Power customer satifaction ratings from the last 18 months

The results shows that average customer satisfaction across all manufacturers is also increasing (e.g. Samsung up 1.4% in last 6 months), although a few manufacturers (HTC and BlackBerry) have seen a small decline. J.D. Power attributes the overall average increase to the growing number of features that are being offered with smartphones:

This improvement is likely due to a growing array of new features and services being offered that are providing a seamless product experience between the operating system functions and third-party apps. While satisfaction in all factors of the smartphone customer experience increases from 2012, satisfaction has increased the most in performance (26 points), as a few key attributes, such as operating system reliability, processing speed and video/camera picture quality, have improved significantly.

Nokia's rate of improvement is significantly greater than any other manufacturer because, in part, it was starting from a lower base. In customer satisfaction terms, it is now is roughly on par with Samsung, Motorola, and HTC. It remains to be seen whether it can make up more ground against Apple (i.e. break away from the chasing pack). This is something worth watching for in the next set of J.D. Power customer satisfaction figures.

Via: WMPowerUser