Nokia Windows Phone dominates PCMag’s 2013 Business Choice Awards for end-users

Yesterday we wrote an entertaining fluff piece about the brand ‘Windows Phone’ and how, when compared to iPhone and Android, feedback from the internet was actually quite positive. We tied it into the exceptionally high customer satisfaction ratings that Windows Phone devices typically get on carrier websites or third party outlets like Amazon.

In related news, PCMag yesterday published results of their 2013 Business Choice Awards, a survey of “actual users of smartphones” and “those responsible for deploying and maintaining the devices”.

The conclusion for Nokia is that the company is doing very well with those customers. So much so that PCMag called Nokia “…the clear winner of the end-user Business Choice Award for smartphones.”

Source: PCMag Business Choice Awards 2013

The results, shown above and below in user feedback data, demonstrate just how much people really enjoy their Lumias:

“Nokia had the highest ratings in every end-user satisfaction measure in which it had sufficient responses in our survey…The company received average ratings of 9.0 or higher for satisfaction with several business-related tasks including email, messaging, calendars and scheduling, and voice communications, which undoubtedly contributed to its 9.0 rating for likelihood to recommend.”

That’s quite impressive as Nokia (Average score: 8.8 out of 10) was put up against the likes of Samsung (second with 8.6) and Apple (third with 8.5), in addition to HTC, LG and BlackBerry (who was rated the lowest with 6.9).

Source: PCMag Business Choice Awards 2013

There is a flip side though. Nokia and Windows Phone in general had so little mass-deployment that IT administrators could not comment on its reliability for PCMag’s survey. That confirms the old story: people love Windows Phone when they have them, but not nearly enough do. Luckily, Nokia is working on that problem as Delta Airlines is deploying the Lumia 820 to more than 19,000 of its flight attendants and in general, they are getting more aggressive in courting enterprise.

The other negative news for Nokia was that they earned the second highest repair rate, tied with HTC: 14 percent of units needed fixing within the last year. But PCMag highlights how that number did not interfere with Nokia’s "satisfaction with reliability" rating. In fact, despite having the second highest repair rate, Nokia scored an 8.9 (out of 10) for reliability—higher than Samsung and Apple and still winning in that category.

Overall, Windows Phone as a brand is doing quite well. People who have it generally love it. The problem is getting that message out there so that more people can experience the “delightful” UI and features that Microsoft offers.

Source: PCMag; Thanks, @theprodman, for the tip!

Daniel Rubino
Editor-in-chief

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central. He is also the head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft since 2007, when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, laptops, next-gen computing, and watches. He has been reviewing laptops since 2015 and is particularly fond of 2-in-1 convertibles, ARM processors, new form factors, and thin-and-light PCs. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics, watched people sleep (for medical purposes!), and ran the projectors at movie theaters because it was fun.