DigitalMR Web Listening Report on Tablet PCs – iPad Accounts for Nearly Half of Negative Customer Comments Online

Social media research specialist DigitalMR has released its latest findings on what customers are saying about tablet PCs on the internet. Apple’s iPad achieves a third of positive comments with 33%, but also records a 46% share of negative ones, showing they may have become a victim of their own success with iOS 5. The free upgrade caused a spike in demand, leading many users to complain on forums that they kept getting error messages and the download was taking too long.

The overwhelming majority of customers are highly positive in their views on tablet PCs as expressed on the internet, says DigitalMR, which measured thousands of comments for slate devices across September-October 2011. Over two thirds (68%) of all views measured were positive with only 32% negative. Apple recorded a 33% share of all positive comments but more worryingly a 46% of the smaller pool of negative ones. Next placed is Amazon with 19% of positive mentions and only 13% of negative, followed by Samsung with 15% of positive mentions and 18% of negative ones.

The high percentage of negative Apple comments is likely to be related to problems that users faced in upgrading to Apples new iOS 5 software in October, according to the DigitalMR researchers.

Results are based on comments posted by consumers on the major tablet models made by: Apple, Motorola, Samsung, Blackberry, HTC, LG, HP, ASUS, Sony and Amazon across September-October 2011.

DigitalMR’s analysis (powered by SocialNuggets) is based on comments posted via a range of relevant websites and open access social media platforms. It measures, not only the number of comments posted by consumers on the internet, but also their sentiment whether posts are positive or negative in nature.

Managing Director of DigitalMR, Michalis Michael commented that “Apple’s high negative score shows they may have become a victim of their own success with iOS 5. The free upgrade caused a spike in demand, leading many users to complain on forums that they kept getting error messages and that the download was taking too long.”

This is something I can attest to first hand. I lost aal my stored data and collection of apps. in upgrading from iOS 4.3 to iOS 5. Fortunately nothing critical was lost that I don’t have backups for, but downloading and configuring all those apps. was an annoying time-burner, and I can appreciate how anyone who did lose irreplacable data would be wroth.

All the brands measured achieve a positive Net Sentiment Score (NSS) for Sep-Oct. NSS provides an overall percentage score of net positive posts. A positive score means a tablet attracts a higher proportion of positive than negative posts.

The average NSS taken across all brands measured is 36% which is very high compared with other industry sectors. This is good news for the tablet industry as it shows that generally customers and very satisfied with their products and are happy to spread the word online.

However Apple achieves the lowest NSS of 21%, just below Motorola with 22%. The best NSS scores are achieved by newer entrants to the market achieve. Sony is top with 87% (although this is based on a relatively low number of mentions overall) followed by Asus with 73%.

DigitalMR measured thousands of customer posts across Sep-Oct regarding the features that tablets offer. The most talked about features (both positively and negatively) are operating system (18% share of positive comments vs 30% negative) and application (20% positive vs 21% negative).

Comment forums:
http://bit.ly/zKE5Fd
https://supportforums.motorola.com/thread/60568
http://store.apple.com/uk/reviews/MC531ZM/A

For more information, visit:
http://www.digital-mr.com