The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) has released this year’s Telecommunications, Mobile Phone and Smartwatch Survey. Here’s how the iPhone and Apple Watch did.
The iPhone loses a point because the Apple Watch keeps it stable
Over the years, Apple has cited high customer satisfaction as a sign of the quality of its products, and Tim Cook’s “customer sat down” line has become something of a meme, especially during Apple events and earnings calls.
Over the past month Apple Q2 2026 Apple CEO Tim Cook and CFO Kevan Parekh mentioned twice that customer satisfaction for the iPhone 17 series was measured at 99% by 451 Research in the US. Parekh also cited 451 Research figures of 97% for Mac, 98% for iPad and 96% for Apple Watch.
However, this week ACSI (via Macworld) released this year’s Telecom, Mobile Phone and Smartwatch Survey with slightly different numbers.
The study is based on 26,963 completed surveys conducted between April 2025 and March 2026. Customers were asked to rate their recent experiences with the top companies in each category.
In the category of “mobile phones” in general, Samsung took the first place by collecting 81 points, while Apple dropped one place from last year and fell to 80.
The overall score for the category increased by 1% to 79. This year’s study also measured the performance of AI features for the first time, with the category scoring 85 points on ACSI’s scale of 0 to 100.
Notably, the performance of the AI feature debuts at 85, which is almost in line with the interaction between the best tables, indicating that artificial intelligence has moved from a novelty to a practical benefit for many customers.
When the mobile phone category is broken down by model type (flagship, foldables, and older/other), Samsung still scores higher than Apple in the flagship segment, 84 vs. 82, respectively, while Apple scores one more than Samsung in the older/other segment, 79 vs. 78, respectively. Samsung comfortably leads the foldable segment with 80 points, ahead of Google’s 72 points and Motorola’s 72 points. (Lenovo) beat 70.
Meanwhile, in the “smartwatch” category, Apple and Samsung each tied with 80 points, with Apple unchanged year-over-year and Samsung down from last year’s 83 points.
In the Smartwatches category, overall customer satisfaction also remained unchanged at 77, with “Connectivity with apps and accessories”, “Usability of fitness/activity tracking” and “Website satisfaction” each scoring the highest at 83.
To check ACSI’s full report, follow this link.
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