apple news/media reports
10/23/2007, 3:25pm, EDT
Tuesday, October 23rd
Apple tops computer reliability report
The reliability of Apple's Mac computers could prove to be a high selling point this holiday season, according to one report. The Cupertino-based company's Mac line topped Rescuecom's second annual computer reliability report, soaring ahead of second-place contender Lenovo (IBM) for the top spot. Rescuecom's report is based on technical assistance calls received by the company, which is not linked to any one hardware vendor. Rescuecom tallies service calls made while noting each type of computer requiring service, and calculates these numbers against each manufacturer's market share to produce an idea of how often each manufacturer's computers require technical support.
"The data in this year's survey reconfirms observations from last year's results, namely that Apple and Lenovo's products and service continue to set the pace in the industry," said David A. Milman, founder and CEO of Rescuecom.
Rescuecom suggests that customers stick with well-known brands and carefully research extended warranty options -- particularly when planning to keep a given computer longer than three years.
The survey was based on 46,000 service calls to Rescuecom, calculating the reliability score for each PC vendor on the calculated difference between overall U.S. martket share over a three-year period and the percentage of calls requesting service.
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Why would anyone with a Mac call Rescuecomm instead of Applecare?
Uhm... maybe because Applecare won't send someone to your office or home. Every brand has their own tech support, but Rescuecom offers additional support services.
It is tempting to think that your conclusions are reached by "common sense", but as usual, common sense is wrong. A statistics and probability class is a humbling thing.
This C2D 20" iMac has given me no grief at all in the year I have had it. One of my friends liked it so much he got one; his refurb had a bad motherboard. His replacement is as good as mine. What does it mean? Nothing, really. Without a significant pool and full disclosure of circumstances, it is just noise.
Keep it in mind.
Only once have I had to call in for tech support and it turned out to be a SW problem. That was with the G5 and was solved by the AppleCare guy (though at first I did not believe him :-) ). My PowerBook G4 will be 3 in December and the hard drive just failed, so as soon as I have a spare moment I will take it to the Apple Store and get it fixed since I have AppleCare on it. Of all these machines, that is the extent of my Apple HW problems.
And my issues are:
Had to take the 17" macbook pro in twice to have LCD replaced due to whitish blemish (each time repaired in 3-4 hours)
oh, on my first imac, the hemisphere lamp looking one... the hard drive failed after four years.
Now, when I compare this with my friends and family's issues with Dell, Gateway etc. it is not good. The only two company's that did not have many issues (anecdotally, of course) is Sony and HP.
Thought this might be interesting.