J.D. Power and Associates is considered the upper echelon of costumer satisfaction surveys. It is highly regarded among businesses and if anyone is ever mentioned by them, people tend to listen to what they have to say.

Which is good for the iPhone since it received a high rank for its overall customer satisfaction among smartphone users. The iPhone received a score of 778 out of a possible score of 1000, "performing particularly well in the ease of operation, physical design and handset feature factors." The iPhones major competitors, Blackberry and Samsung, scored 703 and 701 respectively.
 
"With the introduction of the iPhone in 2007, Apple has clearly differentiated itself from the competition in areas that are most important to business smartphone users," said Kirk Parsons, J.D. Power senior director of wireless services. "By making basic applications and features easy to use and providing functionality in a thin, lightweight device, Apple has performed well in exceeding customer expectations."
 
The study concluded:

- Sixty-nine percent of business smartphone users own a hands-free headset, and 74 percent of those owners use a wireless headset device. Motorola owners report a higher incidence of using wireless headsets (86%), while only 60 percent of Apple iPhone owners report using a wireless headset device.

- Among smartphone users, 37 percent would like GPS (global positioning system) capabilities on their device, 25 percent would like Wi-Fi capabilities, 23 percent want touch screen and 15 percent would like to have voice recognition command for automatic dialing.

- The average reported purchase price of a smartphone device is $216, compared with an average reported purchase price of $261 in 2007. Apple owners report the highest average purchase price at $337, while Motorola owners report the lowest device pricing at $169.

- The top five reasons given for choosing a smartphone brand are: Internet capability (45%), ability to use e-mail account (41%), overall design/style (39%), Bluetooth capabilities (37%) and keyboard style (e.g., QWERTY) (37%).

- Thirty-four percent of smartphone owners say they download third-party software. Popular software downloads among business users include games (49%), business applications such as Microsoft Word and Excel (43%) and travel-related programs (36%).