Amazon beats Apple for consumer satisfaction

The online retailer's Fire tablets have won the latest JD Power tablet satisfaction award, pushing the iPad into second place.

Amazon's tablets scored a very impressive 827 points out of a possible 1000 while the iPad range earned three fewer, and, with 821, Samsung managed to snag third place.

The survey, which is conducted every six months, asks consumers to rate their tablets on a list of five criteria -- performance; ease of operation; features; styling and design; and price, each of which has a different bearing on the overall result. For example, performance is worth 28 percent of a tablet's total satisfaction score whereas cost is worth 11 percent and design and styling up to 17 percent. The results rate tablets by brand rather than individual model.

Last time around, Apple scooped the top spot and Amazon ranked fourth; the online retailer's ascendancy is due to achieving the highest scores of any tablets in terms of ease of use and value for money.

The survey of 2686 US tablet owners that have owned their device for less than a year also highlights a growing trend within the market -- consumers are no longer plumping for a device based on price alone, but on how this price reflects its overall value for money.

"As value-priced tablet brands continue to flood the market, customer attention is turning away from just the price of the device to their perception of the combined value of price, features and performance," said Kirk Parsons, senior director of telecommunications services at J.D. Power. "Tablet brands that continue to successfully convey more value and package more performance at a reasonable price are more likely to satisfy tablet owners and increase loyalty and advocacy for the brand."

Still, nearly one in three (32%) of those polled said that they plumped for their current tablet based primarily on price.

Amazon, who is known to sell many of its products including its tablets at near to cost price or even at a small loss, has become expert at packaging as many features and as much performance as possible into its affordable devices but it has also proved it knows how to innovate. For instance, the inclusion of the Mayday service that allows tablet owners to video chat with an expert when they're having problems has become a true standout feature on its Fire range.

The results, published this week, only cover tablets owned for less than a year up until August 2014 meaning that Apple's latest iPads, launched earlier this month, were not part of the study.