If you own an iPhone, you’re more likely to get a quick answer from tech support compared to Android and BlackBerry users, which require much more hand-holding, a Friday report suggests.
The best tech support calls are the shortest, both for the user and the handset maker. Analytics firm ClickFox found most iPhone problems can be solved in one call. However, 77 percent of Android users require multiple steps and transfers from agents spanning several calls. BlackBerry users don’t have it much easier, needing multiple steps 37 percent of the time.
Why? An iPhone is an iPhone, since they all have one source: Apple. Android phones, by contrast, are a hodgepodge of custom-tailored installations coming from a half-dozen manufacturers. It could be akin to buying a Mustang from Ford and a Mustang from six different car makers – it’ll take longer for your corner mechanic to understand how all those non-Ford autos are put together.
BlackBerry doesn’t have the same problem, but there are still way more hardware variations than with the iPhone. Complicating matters, BlackBerries also need to play nice with corporate intranets and enterprise deployments. That degree of convolution equals a lot more time per call on average.
Naturally, all that extra time means more money. Android users pay $97 million more while BlackBerry owners’ bill is $46 million higher. If you are a company footing the tech support bill, its another reason to pick the iPhone over Android or BlackBerry.
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
23 responses to “It’s Cheaper And Easier To Get Your iPhone Fixed Than An Android Or BlackBerry [Report]”
I don’t doubt that it is cheaper to get an iPhone repaired, but I don’t understand the sentence in the last paragraph: “Android users pay $97 million more while BlackBerry owners’ bill is $46 million higher.”
In what context are these numbers. Total cost far all Android and Blackberry users? Wouldn’t that depend on the number of units being repaired? The number in service. A much more meaningful number would the AVERAGE cost of repair for each user.
tinyurl.com/2df4ccp
agreed
A Ford is far cheaper and easier to fix than a Porsche, BUT a Porsche is far more reliable than a Ford. (Last I checked, it may have changed)It may be cheaper and easier to fix something, but it may be in the shop more often than another thing, thus making it more expensive and harder in the long run.Reliability (and to an extent durability) are key factors to also consider.Apparently one of the reasons why BB are popular in business is that they are like one of the most reliable smartphone out there. Apparently BB’s suffer far fewer problems than iPhones. Yes, it may be harder and more expensive to fix a BB, but in the long run, it may actually be (much) cheaper and easier to have a BB than an iPhone. (I won’t get into the Android much, because they are so many handsets and you have handsets that are not very reliable BUT you also have android handsets that are extremely reliable. Just like PC’s. there are a lot of PC’s that are no where near as reliable as Mac’s, but there are a lot that are far more reliable than Mac’s.)
Durability is another thing to consider. I cannot begin to tell you how many iPhone users I know, who had to go to Apple and had to pick up a new iPhone (either for free or payed to get a new one) because they “accidentally” dropped it. It almost seems that on a weekly basis, so-and-so is going to the Apple stor because their iPhone got dropped or something and broke. That being said, I hear all the time how their BB dropped or their Android dropped and worked perfectly fine after that and had do scratch at all.
Reliability and durability may be key factors to consider.Yes, an iPhone may be cheaper and easier to fix than a BB or an Android, but once you factor in reliability and durability, it turn the tables completely. Yes, it may be cheaper and easier to fix, but it could be in the shop getting fixed/repaired a lot more often than another thing.
That being said, a company will look at reliability and durability as well. Because the last thing they want to do is have to replace phones constantly because X employee dropped it or because it’s reliability is not as good as something else.
I’m sorry, I know this is off topic but I am looking at that mockup pictured above and cannot help wondering if it would actually be possible to hold it without accidentally touching the screen. I would have thought that either a more substantial body or a small bezel at least would be pretty much a must to be able to grip it. I know nobody amongst the general public knows for sure what it will look like but I for one would not be overly enamoured with it if that picture proves to be accurate. Besides potential problems gripping it, the layout just does not work for me. It seems unbalanced somehow.
Bob, don’t blame Ed. He’s just doing what every other blogger does: copy from another ‘source’. In this case, TUAW, who probably copied it from someone else, and on down the line. That’s ‘journalism’ these days. Isn’t it sad?
This is a tech blog. Basically everything here is an opinion piece that is biased towards Apple as can be expected from the name. They don’t need to be objective. There is no journalism involved. All entries on all tech blogs should be taken with a large block of salt.
Bob, it’s not the users who are paying this but rather the carriers who service those users. And this is compared to the baseline. So it costs $97M more to service Android than iOS and $46M more to service BlackBerry than iOS.
Check out the infographic and download the full report here:
http://www.clickfox.com/blog/c…
I agree with the bias statement, but Mr. Sutherland is ‘reporting’ this, hence the word ‘report’ in the headline. Last time I checked, reporters were required to have a degree in journalism. But I do take most everything posted on CofM with a HUGE grain of salt ;) Especially what comes out of Brownlee’s blog. Most of what comes out of CofM is hearsay and rumors. I originally came to this site because of the tips and tutorials Giles Trumbull posts.
I fix phones (hardware cracked screens, etc.), and let me tell you, iPhones are by far the easiest product to fix. Just the other day I was fixing an HTC Inspire, and its a mess to fix! Apple defiantly puts thought into how there products are put together, and taken apart. Do not want to fix HTC’s ever again! You have to take apart the whole device.
Good points all around, but Apple has a stalwart warranty and will fix anything that’s not your fault for up to a year, or two with AppleCare. Since the glass on the font and the back is cheap and easy to replace, it’s not a big deal if you crack the screen.
With that being said though, iPhones are very reliable and RARELY need service, unless you for some reason don’t have it in a case or are clumsy with your several-hundred-dollar handheld devices. Since they rarely, if ever have problems that are non user-related (many people I talk to still have 3GS’s and have never once needed a service call for it), and they’re cheap to fix in the event that you drop it, that’s a win-win in my book.
You mean three years with AppleCare!