Samsung squeezed past Apple in consumer satisfaction for smartphones

Apple may have owned Christmas, but Samsung won the year when it came to satisfying shoppers with its phones. The latest stats from the American Consumer Satisfaction Index, which surveys 70,000 consumers every year, show Samsung slightly beating out Apple by two points with a satisfaction score of 81. Sure, it's not a huge lead, but it's a big jump for the company from last year's score of 76. Apple, meanwhile, saw its score fall more than two points since last year. It's always tough to read much into these numbers (was it the Galaxy S5 that helped, or just Android improvements?), but it's still a decent win for Samsung. Don't be surprised if Samsung ends up marketing the heck out of this during the Super Bowl.

It's not as if we didn't see this coming, either. Samsung also trounced Apple in smartphone consumer satisfaction in the middle of last year (before the release of the iPhone 5s). ACSI's overall satisfaction stats for 2013 still showed Apple leading Samsung by five points, but the two were neck and neck for much of the year. J.D. Power's satisfaction survey for 2014 ranked Apple as the leading smartphone brand for all major carriers, but even then, Samsung wasn't far behind.

So what does all of this really mean? Some shoppers might not have been happy with Apple's move into the big-phone arena with the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. For buyers who were used to the svelte iPhone 5 and 5s, Apple's new devices might have been tough to get used to. Samsung, meanwhile, delivered its most feature-rich entry yet with the Galaxy S5. Its water-resistant case was ideal for the accident-prone, and it offered one of the first great cameras on an Android device. The battle for our affection from both companies will only be a good thing for consumers. It'll make them both focus on delivering devices that are actually useful, rather than just meaningless spec upgrades.

Apple locks iPhone 6 NFC to Apple Pay

While Apple has just hitched its wagon to NFC technology, new reports indicate the technology will only be available for use with Apple Pay.

After months of speculation, Apple finally came good on rumours of NFC functionality at last week's launch of the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, and Apple Watch. 

However, the NFC capability on the new devices is set to be locked down for use only with Apple Pay mobile payments.

While NFC has been present in Android smartphones for some time -- Samsung, Sony, and Nokia have all rolled the technology into their flagship device launches -- Apple is a new arrival in the realm of near field communications.

At last week's Apple event, the company announced Apple Pay -- a new mobile payments service that utilises NFC technology in conjunction with its Touch ID fingerprint scanner for secure payments that can be made from the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus or Apple Watch.

Apple also announced a number of retailers that would accept Apple Pay for mobile payments at launch.



However, Cult of Mac reports that NFC will be locked to the Apple Pay platform, meaning the technology will not be available for other uses.

An Apple spokesperson confirmed the lock down of the technology, saying developers would be restricted from utilising its NFC chip functionality for at least a year. Apple declined to comment on whether NFC capability would remain off limits beyond that period.

NFC can be used for a wide range of tasks, including pairing a smartphone to speakers for audio playback and sharing contact information between devices, while NFC tags open up the world of customisable automation to anyone with an NFC-enabled device. However, this latest word from Apple seems to indicate that after the long wait, Apple fans may not have all the NFC functionality they desired.

Apple sells a record 4 million iPhone 6 units in just 24 hours

Apple fans are responding to the two larger iPhone 6 models with great enthusiasm. The company announced on Monday that it sold 4 million iPhones in the first 24 hours. U.S. carrier AT&T also boasted that this has been its biggest iPhone preorder launch in history

The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus both became available for preorder on Friday September 12 at 12 p.m. PST 

in several countries, including the United States. Customers in the U.S. reported many problems during the first few hours after preorder opened up. Apple’s website and the sites of all the major carriers that were selling the new iPhones, including AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint, crashed frequently. Technical problems aside, Apple is having no problem selling the iPhone 6 and its big brother, the iPhone 6 Plus.

“iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are better in every way, and we are thrilled customers love them as much as we do,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “Preorders for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus set a new record for Apple, and we can’t wait to get our best iPhones yet into the hands of customers starting this Friday.”

The iPhone 6 Plus was the first to model to sell out and is currently listed on Apple’s website with an estimated ship date of 3-4 weeks. Meanwhile, the smaller iPhone 6 has a 7-10 day ship date estimate.



Apple sold 9 million iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C units during its first weekend of sales last year. So far, the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are set on a record-breaking pace and it hasn’t even arrived in stores yet.

Both iPhone 6 models will arrive in stores on Friday September 19 in the U.S., Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Puerto Rico, Singapore, and the U.K. Apple plans to launch the new iPhones in dozens of other countries on September 26, including Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, and United Arab Emirates.