It's been nearly 50 years since the Yellow Pages® first urged phone customers to "Let your fingers do the walking." Back then, it was just an ad slogan, and the message wasn't meant to be taken literally. Nowadays, however, thanks to touch-screen technology, wireless phone users can "let their fingers do the walking." They can easily shop online, send e-mails and texts, and share multimedia files and pictures with friends and family-all with the flick of a finger. The technology has proven so popular that customers who own traditional mobile phones-as opposed to feature-rich "smartphones"- are increasingly moving to models that offer touch screens.

Touch-screen technology is gaining in popularity, partly due to the experience customers are having with the technology among both smartphone and traditional handset owners. A recent study by J.D. Power and Associates confirms that overall satisfaction with touch screens (among both smartphone and traditional handset owners) is considerably higher than those with other input mechanisms with regard to ease of operation and styling.

According to the J.D. Power and Associates 2010 Wireless Smartphone Customer Satisfaction Study^SM-Volume 1 and the 2010 Wireless Traditional Mobile Phone Satisfaction Study^SM-Volume 1, satisfaction among smartphone owners whose device has a touch screen is 771 (on a 1,000-point scale), which is nearly 40 index points higher than those whose smartphone uses other input methods such as a text keyboard. Currently, slightly more than half of smartphones have touch screens for navigation. While not as readily available on traditional mobile phones, satisfaction on phones with a touch screen is 756 (on a 1,000-point scale), 53 index points higher than the industry average.

The studies, which are based on experiences reported by more than 18,000 traditional mobile phone and smartphone owners who have used their current mobile phone for less than two years, measure customer satisfaction with traditional wireless handsets and smartphones across several key factors. In order of importance, key factors of overall satisfaction with traditional wireless handsets are operation (30%); physical design (30%); features (20%); and battery function (20%). For smartphones, key factors are ease of operation (26%); operating system (24%); physical design (23%); features (19%); and battery function (8%).