Last week, we reported that Samsung had beaten Apple and claimed the top spot in J.D. Power’s latest tablet satisfaction survey. On closer inspection of its findings, it was unclear how the South Korean company had earned first place after its tablets received lower ratings than the iPad in so many areas.

J.D. Power has since explained why that’s the case.

You’ll note in the chart below that Samsung received a “five power” circle rating for customer satisfaction despite not hitting five power circles in any other category. The iPad, on the other hand, received five power circles in five categories. So how could it possibly have been beaten by Samsung’s tablets overall?

Well, J.D. Power explained to TechCrunch that the graphic above is designed to be a simple visual tool that make the ratings easy to read at a glance. It’s not completely representative of the actual scores awarded to companies in its survey, however.

While Apple beat every other company in five categories, it did very poorly in the “cost” category, receiving just two power circles. Kirk Parsons, senior director of telecommunications services at J.D. Power, explained that this was enough to “more than offset” its lead in the other categories, allowing Samsung to overtake.

The iPad may be better when it comes to performance, ease of use, physical design, features, and overall satisfaction, then, but Samsung’s Galaxy Tabs are better because they’re cheaper. That doesn’t seem quite right, if you ask me. Maybe J.D. Power’s power circle ratings need a rethink.

• SourceTechCrunch