I'm quoted in the post. We're using Google reviews as one of several imperfect comparison points to Apple's 99% claim. You're absolutely right about a key downside to Google reviews. The limited information 451 provides on their survey methodology shows that they aren't asking about satisfaction as a yes-or-no style question.
If you want to go really deep on online review manipulation, I'm co-author of this research paper on ratings inflation in online marketplaces: https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/abs/10.1287/mksc.2022.135.... If you get in touch, I can send you more papers on fake reviews that I like.
> America’s favorite holiday, Thanksgiving, enjoys 82% popularity according to a 2023 survey by Statista. Memorial Day comes in second at 77%.
> The three most popular movies of all time on IMDB are The Shawshank Redemption, The Godfather and The Dark Knight. They have ratings of 9.2, 9.2 and 9.0 respectively.
These examples are so orange and apples it’s baffling the authors even came up with them.
You compare the most advanced personal pocket computer of all time with a patriotic holiday (assuming patriotism as an absolute value) or a movie about inmates escaping a prison.
Like, really?!
Better would be to ask everybody who watched Shawshank Redemption: ‘were you satisfied with the movie?’. A 9.2 on imdb is not equal to 92% satisfaction due to granularity in the answer options
If you want to go really deep on online review manipulation, I'm co-author of this research paper on ratings inflation in online marketplaces: https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/abs/10.1287/mksc.2022.135.... If you get in touch, I can send you more papers on fake reviews that I like.