J.D. Power and Associates released the results of a survey yesterday, showing Apple's iPhone ranked highest in terms of customer satisfaction among 1,388 business wireless customers queried between August and September.

Apple scored 778 (out of 1,000), higher than Blackberry-maker RIM (703) and Samsung (701). The scores were derived from survey answers in five categories: ease of operation, operating system, physical design, handset features, and battery aspects.

Apple owners reported the highest average purchase price for a smartphone, $337. Motorola owners paid the least, averaging $169. The average across all smartphone brands was $216.

The survey also found that a quarter of all smartphone users have at least one software-related problem with their current handset. Forty-four percent had to reboot their device at least once a week. Sixty-nine percent own a hands-free device, and 74 percent of them are wireless.

[Via Macworld.]

ComputerWorld posts that ChangeWave Research has studied satisfaction levels for corporate users of Leopard and Windows Vista. As you might expect, the Leopard users are altogether more satisfied than Vista users -- up to 5 times more likely to report that they're "very satisfied" with their operating system -- but you might not have known the following:

• Leopard reinforces tooth enamel and ensures brighter, happier smiles.
• Leopard users are more likely to find attractive mates.
• Vista users are subject to early hair loss.
• Leopard helps eliminate embarrassing halitosis.
• Vista users are five times likelier to be audited by the IRS.
• Leopard washes your windows and leaves lemon-scented stacks of pre-folded laundry around your house.

Okay, well maybe not. Consult the ComputerWorld article for the (far less amusing) statistical results. One worthwhile number to note: while 7% of respondents said they'd be buying Apple laptops in the next 90 days, a hold-steady from the previous survey, the likelihood of most other laptop purchases went down since the last time they asked. A MacBook Air effect?

I couldn't resist the headline, but can you blame me? This tech stuff can be a doozie on consumers, but it seems that Apple just received the highest rankings in a customer support satisfaction survey released by the ACSI (American Customer Satisfaction Index). This 2006 second quarter report found Apple's industry-leading satisfaction rating on the rise to 83%, up 2.5% from last year (funny: in my student adventures, an 83% leading the class is typically considered a bad thing). The industry overall saw a slow increase in satisfaction, with Dell leaping over 5% to their 78% mark, and even HP and (surprisingly) Gateway seeing mild improvements.

Check out the full list of results - which includes plenty of other industries like automotive and even search engines - for more details of which companies are putting smiles on their customer's faces.

Someone created a pretty darn funny chronological chart (warning: harsh language) of an OS X newbie's experience with Mac OS X. According to the nine-day chart, satisfaction can fluctuate wildly during the early stages of Mac OS X adoption, mainly due to the "I don't know where anything is" and "shoot, I miss my games" factors.

I have no idea who made this (I found it through del.icio.us/tag/mac), but check out the full chart for a good laugh at some of those early Mac OS X experiences.