I've been reading reports regarding ChangeWave Research's consumer cell phone survey of people who are "very satisfied" with their current cell phone. The ChangeWave report ranks Palm as being at the bottom, with the chart being broken out by manufacturer. I sometimes wonder about these types of surveys. I mean, how do we know exactly who was surveyed and what specific device each person uses on a daily basis? Palm didn’t rank last in customer satisfaction – that’s not what the chart shows. The chart can be misleading. For example, it’s important to look at who was surveyed. According to ChangeWave’s website, the Alliance is a worldwide group of 14,000 highly qualified business, technology, and medical professionals in leading companies of select industries. Members are credentialed professionals who spend their everyday lives working on the frontline of technological change. The Alliance is surveyed weekly on a wide range of business and investment research and intelligence topics. This doesn't exactly indicate that it’s a representative sampling as it doesn't specify if the cell phone users surveyed even owned/used a Palm device.

Recently, two third-party research firms contracted by Palm (Satmetrix and Russell Research) conducted similar surveys to that done by ChangeWave, and both surveys found that Palm's customer satisfaction is much higher than the ChangeWave study suggests. According to the Satmetrix survey, 65% of respondents rated their overall satisfaction with Palm as an 8-10 out of 10. Also, the Russell Research study found that 56% of respondents were either “very satisfied” or “extremely satisfied” with their Palm smartphone device. So it seems that the results of two third-party research firms strongly demonstrate that Palm's customer satisfaction is much higher than the results sent out by ChangeWave in their report.

Well, that makes more sense to me. Palm's main point is that their third-party data contracted by them suggests a stronger picture than what was included in the ChangeWave study and what people have been writing about. I'm no analyst and I certainly don't go around doing surveys to ask people what cell phone they use and how satisfied they are. I do know that out of all the people I know who use Palm phones, the only ones who have complained to me personally are Treo 700p owners who have not been very satisfied due to the ROM problem. And I certainly don't blame them a bit. I just wouldn't go by one single survey report out there. Yes, I am a Palm fangirl, but I'm also a big Apple fangirl . Heck, I'm just a plain out gadget freak and I love them all! I even want a BlackBerry Curve after using one in the Round Robin recently.

But anyway, the point is that Palm's customer satisfaction is much higher than the results shown in ChangeWave's report.