Samsung?s Galaxy S III has taken the lead over Apple?s iPhone 5 in customer satisfaction, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index.

The study looked at ten of the top-selling smartphone models from Apple, BlackBerry, Motorola Mobility and Samsung as well as feature phones. While Samsung has yet to overcome Apple overall, this new data suggests that the reality may not be too far away.

?I think it?s important for Samsung, especially since they?ve been working hard for years to close the gap to Apple,? said David VanAmburg, managing director at ACSI, Ann Arbor, MI. ?Obviously in their world they would desire to be on top. This is helping push them that way.

?Our data shows that the release of the iPhone 5 didn?t really help Apple,? he said. ?It didn?t hurt Apple. For all intents and purposes, it?s the same as the iPhone 4s.

?For Samsung there?s a clear advantage of the S III versus the S II. That was a big jump. So that really was a game changer.?

Smartphone ratings
The Galaxy S III, Samsung?s flagship model for 2012, received an ACSI benchmark of 84, on a scale of 0 to 100. Another Samsung model, Galaxy Note II, also got an 84.

Apple?s iPhone 5, on the other hand, got a benchmark of 82.

The report also revealed that Apple consumers don?t even see much difference from one model to the next. The iPhone 4s matched the rating of the iPhone 5, and the iPhone 4 got an 81.

Galaxy models, on the other hand, are growing in consumer satisfaction, with Galaxy S II, the precursor to the S III, receiving a score of 78. This may show that Samsung is improving its product and customer experience at a faster pace than Apple.

Overall, Samsung received a lower rating than Apple, 76 compared to 81, but this may be because Samsung also offers feature phones, while Apple only offers smartphones. Nevertheless, Samsung has still achieved a seven percent gain since last year, while Apple saw a two percent drop compared with 2012.

Interestingly, while American customers prefer Samsung, Korean customers prefer Apple.

Additionally, ACSI data shows that smartphone users are more satisfied than feature phone users. Smartphones overall earned a customer satisfaction score of 76, while feature phones only got a 69.

With ratings of 67 and 64 for BlackBerry?s Curve and Bold models, it seems that BlackBerry will not be catching up to Samsung and Apple any time soon. Even feature phones beat BlackBerry?s phones.

Winning the race
The smartphone competition is a complicated race for brands such as Samsung and Apple.

An April Yankee Group survey showed that 42 percent of those planning to buy a new smartphone in the next six months intend to buy an iPhone, while only 17 percent intend to buy a Samsung phone. Yet research from Strategy Analytics showed that Samsung shipped nearly twice as many smartphones as Apple during the first-quarter of 2013 (see story).

The fact that customers are not seeing any improvement in Apple phones may signify that Samsung will finally be able to take the lead overall, but Apple is not nearing extinction anytime soon.

According to Mr. VanAmburg, Apple phones have not shown a wow factor in a while, and smartphone consumers tend to look for the new and the different. It will be interesting to see how Apple?s next phone compares to the iPhone 5.

?There?s lots of healthy competition in the phone industry,? Mr. VanAmburg said. ?Customer satisfaction leads directly to a couple of key outcomes for companies.

?One being a strong likelihood that a customer will purchase either the same brand or another brand the company makes the next time they have a need for a cellphone,? he said. ?It creates high levels of customer retention.

?Second thing it does is when consumers are extremely satisfied with Galaxy S III, for example, they?re much more likely to tell their family and friends about that model, which drives word of mouth, which creates new business. All as a result from high levels of satisfaction from the original use of the product.?

Final Take
Rebecca Borison is editorial assistant on Mobile Marketer, New York