Paul Carton
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It's not too hard to find stories on the latest Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) e-book reader, the Kindle 2.

But the newly released Kindle has a lot to live up to, according to a recent ChangeWave survey of original Kindle e-book owners.

Fifty-eight percent of owners of the original Kindle said they were very satisfied with their device, and 31% said they were somewhat satisfied. Only 4% said they were unsatisfied.

So, what's kept them happy?

While Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) and Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) are locked in their battle for smartphone supremacy, a new entry into the market has grabbed headlines.

Palm's (NASDAQ: PALM) brand new touch-screen smartphone -- the Pre -- was the surprise event at this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Among other things, the Pre uses the Palm's Web OS, which supposedly can consolidate data from multiple Web sources.

A recent ChangeWave smartphone survey of 3,800 cell phone owners measured customer reaction to Research In Motion's (NASDAQ: RIMM) newest touch-screen phone, the BlackBerry Storm.

The survey was conducted just weeks after the Storm went on sale.

We also compared the Storm's favorability rating to those of the original Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone, taken from a 2007 ChangeWave survey conducted a few weeks after the iPhone's release.

The original iPhone's "very satisfied" rating (77%) was more than double that of the Storm (33%).

Moreover, the original iPhone's unsatisfied rating (5%) was three times lower than that of the Storm (14%).

Dropped calls have been a nuisance since the dawn of cell phones. But which cellular service provider has the best record in terms of the fewest dropped calls?

In a recent survey, ChangeWave asked 3,800 cell phone owners to estimate the percentage of their calls that were dropped during the past 90 days.

The survey, which was conducted Dec. 9-15, 2008, produced a clear winner: Verizon (NYSE: VZ) has the fewest dropped calls of all.

After the stock market meltdown of 2008, Wall Street brokerages aren't anyone's favorites in 2009.

But some customers said they're still happy with their online broker.

A December ChangeWave survey of 3,051 consumers found that despite the extremely difficult financial market, two online brokerages still capture high customer satisfaction ratings -- Charles Schwab (NASDAQ: SCHW) and archrival, Scottrade.

Java junkies are shunning Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) in favor of McDonald's (NYSE: MCD) coffee, according to a new ChangeWave survey of more than 1,300 consumers.

The survey results show a massive shift away from specialty retailers toward less expensive alternatives like McDonald's and home brewing.

Just 4% of respondents said they'll be purchasing coffee more often at Starbucks during the next 90 days, while a huge 26% said less often (net score = -22).

Though 11% of respondents said they'll buy more coffee at McDonald's, only 4% said less (net score = +7).

Consumers are delaying big purchases -- big time.

A ChangeWave consumer spending survey reveals a massive breakdown in the willingness of consumers to buy big-ticket items.

In the survey of 2,763 U.S. consumers, completed Nov. 3, 21% of respondents said they have delayed or canceled a major planned purchase in the past 90 days.

What are the top big ticket items consumers have put on hold?

Here's the not-so-fab five:

It's no surprise that autos top the list.

As one respondent said, "Both of my cars have 80K miles. Usually I would be replacing one of them, but I'm delaying that decision due to the state of the economy."

Electronics giant Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) is not only suffering from the worst consumer holiday spending meltdown in years, but its beleaguered customer base is now fleeing to discount retailers like Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) and Costco (NASDAQ: COST).

So it appears Best Buy is getting hit with a double whammy, according to a November ChangeWave Alliance Research Network survey of 2,763 U.S. consumers.

The massive slowdown in consumer electronics spending this holiday season -- which the survey shows to be the weakest ever -- is a far cry from the surge that normally occurs at this time of year.

Only 19% of consumers said they'll spend more on electronics during the next 90 days compared with 43% who said less -- a net 40 points worse than a year ago.

Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE: ANF) apparently faces some major image issues.

According to a September ChangeWave survey of more than 4,000 consumers, Abercrombie was the store they said they're least likely to shop at in the future.

Consumers primarily objected to the company's risqué self-portrayal. One respondent took them to task for "immoral advertising and the message it sends to teens."

Other disaffected responses include:

• "Seriously disagree with their philosophy."
• "Overly suggestive catalog."
• "Don't like their advertising scheme."
• "Moral values."
• "I don't like the image they project."

Compounding the image issue is the huge pullback in consumer spending and the migration of consumers from mall stores to discounter retailers.