For the second year in a row, Apple (AAPL +1.18%) has topped the American Customer Satisfaction Index for cell phones, although its score of 81 declined modestly from last year. Google's (GOOG +2.53%) Motorola subsidiary earned the No. 2 spot with a score of 77.
Chief rival Samsung scored 76, which was the biggest sequential improvement of any company, gaining 7%. That put the South Korean company's satisfactions core on par with companies like Nokia (NOK 1.71%), who also scored 76 after a modest gain. Other OEMs like HTC, LG, and BlackBerry (BBRY +6.96%) scored lower in the benchmarks.
Earlier this year, Apple also earned the J.D. Power and Associates award for highest consumer smartphone satisfaction for the ninth consecutive year.
