J.D. Power and Associates have ranked RIM (Research In Motion) #1 in a Inaugural Business Wireless Smartphone Customer Satisfaction Study. While RIM ranked #1 for their BlackBerry devices, Palm and Samsung followed closely. 

The inaugural study measures business customer satisfaction with their wireless smartphone, which is a mobile phone offering advanced capabilities, often with personal computer-like functionality such as a BlackBerry or Treo. Overall satisfaction is examined across six key factors. In order of importance, they are: ease of operation (22%); operating system (21%); physical design (20%); audio (14%); battery aspects (13%); and utility features (10%).

RIM ranks highest in overall smartphone customer satisfaction with a score of 702 points on a 1,000-point scale, performing particularly well in the operating system factor, which includes the speed of moving between applications and speed of sending/receiving e-mails. RIM also performs particularly well in battery aspects, including the length of battery life. Treo manufacturer Palm (698) and Samsung (698) tie to closely follow RIM in the ranking.

 [CNN Money]