Apple’s customer satisfaction drops from top slot for the first time since the iPhone 11
Apple’s customer satisfaction drops from top slot for the first time since the iPhone 11
Publish Date: 2026-05-20 14:11:00
Source Domain: www.macworld.com
Summary created by Smart Answers AI
In summary:
- Macworld reports Apple’s customer satisfaction score dropped to 80%, falling behind Samsung’s 81% in the American Customer Satisfaction Index study for the first time since iPhone 11.
- The decline appears linked to new AI feature performance metrics, as Apple marketed iPhone 16 for ‘Apple Intelligence’ before the features were actually available.
- Google and Motorola both improved to 77% satisfaction, narrowing the gap with industry leaders in an overall rising smartphone satisfaction market.
Apple is no longer the top dog in the smartphone market, in one respect at least. The company has dropped from joint top to second place in the latest American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) study.
In a new report published earlier this week, the ACSI reports that Apple has dropped one point for overall cellphone satisfaction, from 81 percent in 2025 to 80 percent this year. Samsung, meanwhile, remains at 81 percent, which means it no longer has to share the top spot. This is the first time since the 2020-2021 study, when the Galaxy S20 leapfrogged the iPhone 11 series, that Apple doesn’t have a share of the No. 1 position.
Google and Motorola sit in joint third in the 2026 study. Each registered a score of 77 percent and a two-point increase on the previous year, thereby closing the gap on Apple and Samsung. The market as a whole saw a general rise in customer satisfaction, with companies outside the top four seeing a rise from 68 percent to 73 percent, and the industry average (including the leaders) rising from 78 percent in 2025 to 79 percent this year.
- Samsung: 81% (no change from 81% in 2025)
- Apple: 80% (down from 81%)
- Google: 77% (up from 75%)
- Motorola (Lenovo): 77% (up from 75%)
- All others: 73% (up from 68%)
The changes are small, so it would be unwarranted to claim Apple’s reputation has suffered significantly in the past 12 months, nor that Samsung, Google, or Motorola are…
