Apple leads smartphone satisfaction survey; Nokia comes in last

As if to crystallize its momentum in the smartphone market, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) took the top spot in J.D. Power and Associates' smartphone satisfaction survey--and Nokia (NYSE:NOK) came in dead last.

Apple, powered by the surging success of the iPhone, nabbed a score of 800 out of 1,000 possible points in the ranking. Motorola (NYSE:MOT) came in second with a score of 791, shooting up in the rankings. HTC scored a 781, the first time it has ranked above the industry average, which in this latest survey was 764.

Apple is still dominating, but not by as much as it has in the past. The company's lead is smaller than it was last year, when it edged smartphones from LG and Samsung by 11 and 19 points, respectively.

J.D. Power's methodology weighted several categories: Ease of use and the smartphone's operating system were each worth 26 percent of the final score, while battery accounted for just 8 percent of the final score.

Meanwhile, Research In Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM) scored a 737; the company is trying to improve its prospects in the intensely competitive smartphone market by rolling out its new Blackberry 6 platform to more devices this fall. Nokia, which was ranked low in J.D. Power's previous smartphone surveys, fell to a score of 711, below Palm's score of 726.

Nokia, which still leads the world in smartphone market share, is pushing ahead with new smartphones running its Symbian^3 platform, and also is preparing to launch a new, high-end device running on its MeeGo platform by the end of the year.

For more:
- see this Computerworld article
- see this AllThingsD post
- see this Electronista post
- see this VentureBeat article

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