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Johannesburg - For the fifth year running Apple's iPhone has topped the South African Customer Satisfaction Index. (SAcsi).
The latest report for mobile handsets, conducted by market research company Consulta, found that local mobile users were most satisfied with iPhones, followed by phones by Chinese smartphone maker Huawei, with South Korean firm Samsung maintaining third place.
Apple has topped the rankings every year since the survey started in 2014.
“Although Apple and Samsung have maintained their dominance in the minds of their customers, Huawei has made strong inroads to grow its market share since last year,” said Consulta CEO Professor Adré Schreuder in a statement.
“Apple’s brand perception across a variety of linked devices such as tablets, laptops and watches has contributed to customers viewing it as a high-quality brand that meets their needs in a reliable way," said Schreuder.
"However, Huawei is looking to firmly establish its reputation as a premium product as it increases its service and maintenance footprint in South Africa."
With an overall SAcsi score of 84, Apple was well above the SA industry average of 79.7 and 0.5 points ahead of its 2016 score of 83.5.
Huawei ranked second with a score of 81.3, followed by Samsung which scored 80.4.
Other handset manufacturers – including the likes of Sony, Blackberry and LG among others, were grouped together is the survey. They experienced an overall decline in customer satisfaction to 75.1 in 2017, down from 77.5 in 2016 and 82.4 in 2015.
The satisfaction score is based on brands exceeding or falling short of customer expectations and the respondent's’ idea of the ideal product to achieve an overall result out of 100, said Consulta.
The sample included 1 405 mobile phone users, who were randomly selected to participate.
