Apple’s Tech Support Is Not As Good As It Used To Be, Study Claims

According to a study conducted by Minnesota-based research firm Vocal Laboratories (aka Vocalabs), Apple’s lead in tech support quality is slipping, while consumer satisfaction scores for HP are improving.

Vocalabs interviews people by telephone right after a customer service experience, and for this study completed 4,161 surveys between May 2008 and June 2011.

“Apple used to be well ahead of the pack in tech support. Now it would be fair to say that they are merely at the front of the pack. Apple used to lead on nearly every metric for support quality. Now there are several metrics where Apple is tied with its competition, or even trails.”

It’s worth noting customers remain quite satisfied with Apple’s support agents, with 77 percent of customers in the first six months of 2011 indicating that they were “Very Satisfied” with the technician, compared to 56 percent of Dell customers and 61 percent of HP customers.

However, only 24 percent of Apple customers reported being “Very Satisfied” with the automated part of their support calls, trailing Dell with 36 percent and HP with 40 percent.

In surveys held between May 2008 and June 2011, 40 percent of Apple customers reported a problem with the automated part of the call, nearly double the 21 percent rate from a year ago.

If you agree that Apple’s tech support isn’t as good as it used to be, please press 1.

Google acquires a face recognition technology company, PittPatt

Google acquires a face recognition technology company, which will likely fill out its Google+ photo application. Will the software be implemented across a variety of Google platforms as well?

http://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/google-buys-pittpatt-what-does-it-mean-for-google-products/

Samsung May Trounce Nokia Once And For All. Is Apple Next?

Samsung is primed and ready to dethrone Nokia from its nearly 15 year reign as the top smartphone maker in the world, and it would seem the moment is upon us. We can’t say for sure, as Samsung hasn’t released official numbers, but research firm Strategy Analytics told Bloomberg that Samsung’s official sales numbers should fall between 18 million and 21 million units sold worldwide.

Should Samsung pull in upwards of 20.3 million units sold, the South Korea-based company will also trump Apple’s quarterly iPhone sales. Samsung is expected to take a 20 percent market share, while Nokia’s feature phone division has kept the Finnish phone maker out front with a 26 percent share.

Samsung also makes and sells “dumb phones” that run Bada OS, which of course contributes to these impressive quarterly estimates. However, talk of Samsung’s recent success can’t go much further without mention of the Galaxy S II, which sold over 3 million units in its first 55 days. That’s one Galaxy S II sold every 1.5 seconds. According to analysts, the S II actually doubled Samsung’s mobile operating profit in the second quarter, and still has yet to launch in the U.S.

Samsung’s flagship (the SGSII) is expected to launch on American soil in August, while Apple is expected to debut the next iPhone in September. Both phones should heat up the race nicely