Apple tops PC Mag survey

Apple once again received the highest score among all PC vendors in PC Magazine's 18th Annual Reader Satisfaction Survey, . Based on data from readers on over 26,000 PCs, Apple "ran up the score against the Windows opposition," receiving a higher score in every single survey result. Apple recieved an overall score of 9.2 in both the desktop and notebook categories, well ahead the No. 2 place vendor, Alienware (8.8) and IBM (8.2), respectively. The report, however, cautioned against possible bias from a passionate user base and also noted Apple's "stingy" warranty policies as well as some problems with the recently released iMac G5.

"Once again, Apple achieves scores that are far and away the highest for all vendors in our survey, earning Readers' Choices in both desktops and notebooks. For Apple, in both the desktop and notebook sections of the survey, every single score is significantly better than the industry average for Windows machines. No exceptions. Apple's overall score for desktops is 9.2, and the closest competing score, Alienware's, is 8.8. Apple's overall score for notebooks, 9.2, is just as high, and the rest are even further behind: IBM and Fujitsu are the closest, at 8.4."

Despite the high grade, the magazine questions the effect of Apple's highly loyal customer base: as a precaution, it removed them from the overall PC mix average, creating a new for Windows-based PC and allowing the report to compare Apple's scores to the "average" Windows PC.

"For the first time, we've removed Apple from the mix when calculating these relative weightings. Whether because Apple's products are truly so much better than everyone else's or because Apple's customers st" warranty policy, saying that it "walks a thin line with its tech support. Support calls to Apple are more likely to result in an extra charge, according to the survey and Apple's 90-day tech support and one-year parts/labor warranty policy is well short of other vendors--some of whom offer lifetime of toll-free technical support and on-site service and repair.are so passionate about their products, the company scores so high that it's like the class genius blowing the curve. More importantly, however, when shopping for a system, buyers are apt to compare Apple's platform to the Windows platform—not just to, say, Dell's product line or HP's. By removing Apple from the calculation of averages, we can compare Apple machines with the 'average' Windows PC."

However, the report, does say that survey responses to specific repair questions, may not be suspect, since it requires a less subjective answers: "On the desktop side, readers say that Apple systems needed repairs only 11 percent of the time, an astonishing number when you consider that the closest competing score is Sony's at 16 percent. Just 17 percent of Apple notebooks needed repair—second to Averatec's 14 percent—but this is still amazingly low considering that no one else is under 20 percent."

The report, however, notes that Apple has "the stingiest" warranty policy, saying that it "walks a thin line with its tech support. Support calls to Apple are more likely to result in an extra charge, according to the survey and Apple's 90-day tech support and one-year parts/labor warranty policy is well short of other vendors--some of whom offer lifetime of toll-free technical support and on-site service and repair.

by MacNN Staff