Editor’s Note: This story is excerpted from Computerworld. For more Mac coverage, visit Computerworld’s Macintosh Knowledge Center.

Apple’s iPhone came out on top in terms of customer satisfaction compared with other smartphones, according to a survey of 1,009 consumers who bought smartphones in the last six months.

But Motorola phones running the Android operating system, including the Motorola Droid, came in a close second in the survey conducted by ChangeWave Research.

ChangeWave found 77 percent of iPhone customers said they were very satisfied with their purchase, ahead of owners of Motorola smartphones, with 64 percent. Motorola’s second place finish puts it well above the industry average for recent purchasers, ChangeWave said Wednesday.

In terms of mobile operating systems, the iPhone also finished on top with 71 percent saying they were very satisfied customers, while the Android coming in with a close second, with 67 percent very satisfied. The Palm Web OS came in third with 57 percent of Palm users saying they were very satisfied. The RIM OS finished "well behind the three industry leaders" with 37 percent, but ahead of Windows Mobile with 24 percent, ChangeWave wrote.

Owners of HTC devices finished third in customer satisfaction with 51 percent very satisfied, while Research in Motion’s BlackBerry devices finished fourth, with 46 percent. Palm devices were fifth with 45 percent, followed by LG at 40 percent and Samsung at 35 percent.

Motorola’s Droid is driving the high satisfaction levels for Motorola, with 69 percent of Droid buyers saying they were very satisfied with the new Droid running on Android compared with 50 percent for all other Motorola models, ChangeWave said.

For HTC models, 68 percent of HTC Hero customers surveyed said they were very satisfied, ahead of the HTC Droid Eris with 50 percent and HTC Touch with 38 percent.

The ChangeWave survey, conducted April 21 through May 2, did not include results for the HTC Droid Incredible, which hit stores April 29. The Tour got the highest very satisfied rating of BlackBerry phones with 56 percent, beating out the Bold with 48 percent and the Storm with 45 percent.

ChangeWave also found that the biggest dislike on the minds of iPhone owners was AT&T as its service provider, by 22 percent, ahead of their dislike of the battery life (19 percent) and lack of multitasking (11 percent). For Motorola, the biggest dislike was battery life, with 14 percent.

ChangeWave also saw a surge of interest in Android devices in a survey of 4,000 potential smartphone buyers it conducted in December.

ChangeWave also has studied AT&T’s role as the exclusive wireless carrier of the iPhone in the U.S., noting in early May that more than half of Verizon Wireless subscribers surveyed said they would buy an iPhone if it were available with Verizon .

In the latest survey, 32 percent of smartphone owners said they would have purchased the iPhone if it was available from their carrier instead of the phone they did purchased. Palm smartphone buyers showed the strongest interest in buying the iPhone, followed by Motorola buyers.

This story, "Of smartphone owners, iPhone users are the most satisfied" was originally published by Computerworld .