To establish its infographic, the distributor partnered with Harris Interactive. Three data sources are used:
- the responses of 41,000 Darty customers who made a purchase between July 5 and August 27, 2021. They provide information on the renewal context of a product
- the 721,000 interventions carried out by e SAV Darty between August 2020 and July 2021 during the first two years of warranty for the devices analyzed
- the availability of spare parts according to the product database
From this data, Fnac-Darty established a repairability score (calculated from the repair rate and the availability time of spare parts) which has nothing to do with the repairability index, a score of reliability (division of the number of repaired and exchanged devices by the device fleet) and a durability score (average score between the reliability score and the repairability score).
Repair rather than buy
Before knowing the good and bad students, Fnac-Darty makes a general inventory. On average, a buyer uses their smartphone four years before replacing him. A figure above the national average (all distributors combined) established at just over three years (roughly) according to market players.
Consumers are therefore keeping their smartphones longer since the renewal period was just over two years barely 4 years ago.
Fnac-Darty customers therefore seem to favor repairs since the repair rate is 70% (30% of breakdowns resolved by an exchange). The availability of parts was ultimately not so important since 79% of the interventions did not require spare parts.
It should also be noted that consumers wait until their smartphone is exhausted before changing it. 47% of respondents say they waited for a breakdown to buy a new model. Only 29% replaced a smartphone that was still working. The remaining 24% is new equipment.
Apple and Samsung as patterns
The biggest smartphone sellers are also the most trusted brands. In any case, this is what emerges from the Fnac-Darty study. Thereby, Apple gets top sustainability score (137) ahead of Samsung (136). If the Korean obtains a better repairability score (172 against 147), its reliability score is only 100 (against 126 for Apple). Both brands are models in terms of parts availability: Apple provides them for 5 years, Samsung for 7 years!
At the bottom of the ranking, we will retain Xiaomi’s bad score. The manufacturer has established itself as one of the biggest sellers of smartphones in France, but the after-sales service does not seem to follow. The brand has a durability score of 107 and, most importantly, only supplies spare parts for one year.
Huawei, Honor and OPPO do much better with respective scores of 121, 120 and 116. On the other hand, they also suffer from the availability of parts. The first two do not provide them to the distributor, OPPO only provides them for one year.
The worst student is Nokia which has a durability score of 86. A real disappointment for an iconic brand that had made its reputation on the reliability of its products. Another era.