The top three digital camera performers were the same as last year. However, whereas Canon previously edged ahead of Nikon, this time their positions were reversed. Snapping at their heels, but ahead of the pack, was, once again, Panasonic.
But the standard across the board was incredibly high. As with laser printers this is a very mature market with few bad products. Both Canon and Nikon satisfied 97% of their customers in terms of Image Quality. The lowest score came from Casio who still satisfied 90%. Such was the closeness that much depended on those who were Very Satisfied. Here, Nikon’s 73% Very Satisfied rating was 5% higher than Canon’s which gave Nikon an extra point and, ultimately, this year’s award.
Reliability scores were through the roof. On average 92% of all buyers were satisfied with Reliability with this rising to 95% for Nikon users and (only) dropping to 85% for Kodak.
Value For Money scores were a little lower though. On average, 85% of all buyers were satisfied. Sony was the most distant from this mark, satisfying 79% in terms of Value.
Unsurprisingly, brand loyalty was again high with an average of 90% of all buyers saying they’d buy from the same manufacturer again. This rose to 97% for Canon customers (amazing considering almost 3000 of them voted – no other company registered over 1000 votes) with only Ricoh falling away from the curve with a score of 78%. Nikon saw 94% of its buyers saying they’d buy Nikon again.
