iPhone 3GS vs Pre Happines

Those who bought an iPhone 3GS are much more likely to be very happy than those who bought the Palm Pre, a study by ChangeWave and RBC Capital Markets shows. At 99 percent, nearly all Apple smartphone buyers are satisfied on at least a basic level with what they bought. Of those, an extremely high 82 percent are "very" satisfied. By comparison, 87 percent of all Pre buyers are satisfied, but only 45 percent of those are very satisfied.

When asked about the reasons they chose their given phones, the primary reasons chosen are similar. Both rank the touchscreen interface as the top feature they appreciate and also put ease of use in the top three.

Remaining reasons vary sharply, however. Exactly a third of iPhone 3GS users like the phone for its faster performance, but 42 percent of Pre users pick multitasking as one of their most important concerns. They also like other Pre-specific features like the performance of the Sprint phone network, the Synergy integration of contact data and the hardware QWERTY keyboard. Meanwhile, iPhone users prefer the breadth of apps, larger screen and improved camera.

Dislikes between the two are more diverse. Notably, a full 55 percent of iPhone owners hate AT&T's network, which hasn't been scaled properly to handle the device and very frequently results in dropped calls and slow data in large cities like New York City and San Francisco. Both have complaints about short battery life, but the next most significant flaw for Palm users is a lack of third-party apps, which 24 percent consider to be a problem. Among the minor issues, both consider a lack of corporate support an issue, but lower-key iPhone complaints center on more specific issues like handwriting recognition and importing contacts from unofficial sources where some Palm users complain about having to use Sprint and, occasionally, difficulty with the phone itself.

While Palm trails Apple significantly in these findings, its score for very satisfied users is a major improvement compared to the time before the Pre, when users had to either choose the aging Palm OS or Windows Mobile. It also puts the company just behind BlackBerry maker Research in Motion's 48 percent. [via Fortune]

By Electronista Staff