ChangeWave Survey: Verizon iPhone Drops Fewer Calls Than AT&T

Now that Apple's iPhone is available on both AT&T and Verizon Wireless, people are bound to compare their network quality. According to ChangeWave's latest survey, AT&T has already lost the first round of battle, as the research firm revealed that AT&T's iPhone is reported to be dropping more calls than Verizon's counterpart.

The survey of more than 4,000 consumers concluded that the customer satisfaction rates with both versions of the iPhone are "virtually indistinguishable". About 82 percent of Verizon subscribers are "very satisfied" with their devices, while 80 percent of AT&T owners say so.

However, when it comes to dropped calls, Verizon performs far better than its industry rival does. Over the past 90 days, customers of the AT&T iPhone reported an average call drop rate of 4.8 percent, which is noticeably higher than Verizon's 1.8-percent rate.

The fact that AT&T has more reported dropped calls is not the only bad news for the service provider. Of those who are looking to buy an iPhone 4 in the future, 46 percent say they will opt for Verizon as their carrier, while only 27 percent will choose AT&T. The remaining 27 percent are undecided.

Nevertheless, the research firm also pointed out that Verizon's iPhone 4, which debuted in early February, is still in its early stage of offering. The expected increase in the number of subscribers will inevitably put more pressure on the network, which may in turn alter Verizon's performance in the future.

Still, Verizon has been doing well in network quality since ChangeWave's first survey a few years ago. In the current study, Verizon claims the top spot again with a dropped call rate of 1.4 percent, followed by T-Mobile at 2.3 percent and then Sprint at 2.7 percent. AT&T, though seeing a good reduction from their all-time high of 6 percent in September 2010 to 4.6 percent, is still placed last among the four major wireless providers.

With Verizon and AT&T offering the same lineup of Apple devices, their competition is only going to intensify. AT&T must do its best to improve both network quality and customer service in order to stop its existing customers from hopping to other carriers.

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Apple iPad 2 – A Sleeker, Slimmer and Faster Variant of the Original iPad

The Apple iPad 2, one of the most highly anticipated devices of the year, has arrived to bring new excitement to the tablet computer industry. Drummed up with great improvements in thinness, weight, speed and functionality, the new iPad has what it takes to continue its domination in the field. Now let's take a look at the tweaks and goodies brought by the wonderful tablet.

• Size

At first glance, the iPad 2 looks just like its predecessor. But coming in at 9.50" by 7.31" by 0.34" and weighing in at 1.33 to 1.35 pounds (depending on the version), it is in fact 33 percent thinner and about 15 percent lighter. Its much slimmed-down profile makes it more comfortable to hold in hands.

• Model & Storage

Like before, the new iPad comes in a Wi-Fi version and a Wi-Fi & 3G version, with the latter available on both AT&T and Verizon Wireless. Customers have three options in storage capacity: 16GB, 32GB and 64GB. The good news is that there are now two color options: glossy black and glossy white.

• Camera

One of the brightest highlights on the iPad 2 is the addition of two built-in cameras – a front-facing VGA one and a rear-facing HD (720p) one – for FaceTime video chatting over Wi-Fi. Both of them support photo taking and video recording capabilities.

• iOS

The revamped iPad is the first device to run on iOS 4.3, an updated version of Apple's mobile OS, which brings some enhancements to Safari, AirPlay, iTunes, Home Sharing, etc. For example, the improved AirPlay lets you shoot videos on your iPad and stream them to an Apple TV.

• Speed

Sporting a dual-core Apple A5 chip instead of the A4 chip in the first iPad, the second iPad offers obvious performance boost in graphics processing and general performance. Loading apps, surfing the Internet, watching movies, playing games and so on – everything runs smoother than before.

• Built-in Apps

Besides the usual elements like iTunes, YouTube, Safari, Mail and iBooks, there are a few newly added on-board apps, namely Camera, FaceTime and Photo Booth. The fun iMovie video editing app and the GarageBand music app are available on the App Store as well.

• Sensors

In addition to an accelerometer and a digital compass, the iPad 2 is also embedded with a three-axis gyroscope. This makes the tablet capable of advanced motion sensing such as user acceleration, full 3D attitude and rotation rate.

To wrap up, the experience on the iPad 2 may be similar to the previous model, but its adjustments and additions are definitely worth the wait. It is a successful follow-up and just like its predecessor, is bound to be an impressive hit in the tablet market.

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Palm Pre 2 – Lets You Accomplish More with Less Effort

After months of anticipation, HP's Palm Pre 2 has finally landed on Verizon Wireless. Apart from a few hardware updates, the revamped Pre is also the first device to ship with WebOS 2.0, presenting a handful of notable improvements in multitasking, universal search, Web browsing and other areas.

Sporting Palm's iconic pebble-shaped design, the Pre 2 measures 3.96" high by 2.35" wide by 0.67" thick and weighs 5.1 ounces, which are about the same size and weight as its predecessors. The smartphone has a 3.1-inch multi-touch glass display with 24-bit colors and an HVGA (320 x 480 pixels) resolution. Below the display you will find a small gesture area for navigation, while sliding up the display will reveal a full QWERTY keyboard.

The new WebOS brings several welcome enhancements to the Pre 2. To begin with, its multitasking capabilities are greatly boosted by Stacks, a layout that groups similar open tasks and apps in a neat deck-of-cards view for easy management. There is also a function called Just Type, which allows you to start a search, create an email or a message, update your status and do more simply by typing on the keyboard. The Exhibition app is another great upgrade, as it automatically sets your Pre 2 to display useful information when the phone is placed in a dock.

As before, the Pre 2 is a powerful messaging device. With HP Synergy, users can keep themselves updated with information from Facebook, Google, Microsoft Exchange, LinkedIn and Yahoo accounts. You also get support for other major POP3/IMAP services, including Gmail, AOL, Hotmail and so on. In addition, the phone offers multimedia messaging, and combines instant and text messages into one convenient view.

The Pre 2 does not disappoint in the multimedia department either. While the integrated media player supports a variety of music and video formats, the 5-megapixel camera comes with LED flash, geotagging and video recording functions. You can save your songs, videos, photos and other files on the phone's 16GB built-in memory, but there is no memory card slot on board.

Other than the aforesaid, the Pre 2 also sports a Flash-supported HTML5 browser, a PDF reader, a dedicated Youtube app, Skype Mobile, Microsoft Quickoffice, Verizon's VZ Navigator and Amazon MP3 Store. As always, you can find more apps from the App Catalog. Last but not least, the device supports Bluetooth, Wi-Fi with mobile hotspot, GPS, voice dialing and speakerphone, and is embedded with an accelerometer, an ambient light sensor, a proximity sensor and a 3.5mm stereo audio jack.

Like its previous versions, the Palm Pre 2 is comfortable to hold and friendly to use. And with all the new features brought by the incredibly intuitive OS, it is an amazing device that Palm fans would truly appreciate.

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Apple Beats Android Again in Smartphone Customer Satisfaction

J.D. Power & Associates has published their latest customer satisfaction survey. For the fifth consecutive time, Apple came out on top in the smartphone rankings with a good lead over other smartphone rivals.

The research firm measured customer satisfaction in terms of five categories – ease of operation, operating system, physical design, features and battery performance. With the help of the iPhone 4, Apple outplayed other smartphone manufacturers and scored 795 out of 1,000 possible points, acing all categories except for the battery aspect.

Although Apple's score is slightly down from last September's survey (800 points), it is still significantly higher than its two closest competitors, Motorola and HTC, who are huge supporters of Google's Android mobile operating system. These two vendors hold the second and third places with 763 and 762 points respectively, just above the 761-point industry average. It seems like even with popular devices like Motorola Droid, Motorola Droid X, HTC EVO 4G and HTC Inspire 4G, Android is still unable to narrow its gap with the iPhone maker.

"It really is Apple, and then the next tier," said Kirk Parsons, J.D. Power's senior director of wireless services. "The iPhone just keeps getting better. Apple keeps upping the ante by finding something, one key feature or a design change, to separate it from the rest."

Four other smartphone manufacturers also made J.D. Power's list, but fell below average: Palm scored 736 points, Nokia and Samsung tied at 734 points, while BlackBerry maker Research in Motion, with 732 points, was placed on the bottom as the least favorite in top seven among consumers.

High customer satisfaction may not guarantee the best sales figures, but as Parsons pointed out, it is critical to keep customers coming back. Handset manufacturers should take notes of the results of the study if they want to retain their customers' loyalty and boost future sales.

Tags: Apple iPhone/iPad Accessories, Motorola Accessories, HTC Accessories, Palm Treo Accessories, Nokia Accessories, Samsung Accessories, BlackBerry Accessories
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AT&T Proposes to Buy T-Mobile for $39 Billion

In a shocking move, AT&T announced that they agree to purchase T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom for a deal of $39 billion in cash and stock. The merger, if approved, will bring AT&T from the second to the top position in the U.S. wireless market.

According to the announcement, T-Mobile will receive $25 billion in cash in addition to $14 billion in the form of AT&T common stock. Deutsche Telekom, parent company of T-Mobile, will also get approximately 8 percent ownership of the combined company. AT&T expects the deal to be approved by the Federal Communications Commission and the US Department of Justice and finalized within a year.

AT&T is currently the second-largest wireless carrier in the U.S. with a base of 96 million subscribers, while T-Mobile, the No.4 provider, has about 34 million customers. After the acquisition, with a total of 130 million subscribers, the new AT&T will overtake current industry leader Verizon Wireless, and will be almost three times the size of Sprint, which is left in a distant third place.
 

Although the decision came as a shock to most people, it is in fact a logical move for both carriers. AT&T's network can gain extra spectrum capacity from T-Mobile, while T-Mobile will benefit from a network upgrade into 4G LTE, bringing improvement to both networks' quality. Since both of them run on GSM network technology, their compatibility will not be an issue.

On the downside, the acquisition also raises concerns about a monopoly in the U.S. wireless market. Analysts believe that once the two companies are combined, the number of handsets available for selection will most likely be cut down and pricing will be driven up. Some existing T-Mobile customers particularly worry that their current lower-cost plans will disappear under the deal.

Whether customers will be benefited from the merger is still an unknown, but one thing is certain: The industry will witness a great shift in the balance of power.

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