Posted on 08/22/2006 8:22:41 PM PDT by HAL9000
"The similarities are almost eerie. This year, readers gave us the lowdown on over 13,000 desktop PCs—enough data to rate eight of the country's leading brands. And the final tally looks an awful lot like last year's survey results," Cade Metz reports for PC Magazine on "The 19th Annual Reader Satisfaction Survey."Metz reports, "This year, you diehard PC Mag readers detailed your experiences with nearly 20,000 PCs (notebooks and desktops) and more than 6,500 printers (from mono lasers to color ink jet all-in-ones). And what you say about the leading manufacturers isn't always what we'd expect. No big name is above criticism. (Well, maybe one is, but we're inclined to believe that's due to more than just spiked apple juice.) If you're in the market for a new desktop, notebook, or printer, this report is a must-read."
"Look no further than Apple, the leader of the pack, whose overall score holds steady at 9.1. Last year, Apple's score on units needing repair was an impressive 11 percent—well below that of any other company in the survey. But according to readers, the company has managed to cut repair rates even further over the past 12 months. This year, Apple's score on units needing repair drops to 8 percent. Among first-year systems, it's only 5 percent. That's nothing less than astonishing," Metz reports.
Metz reports, "As we've said in the past, Mac owners are unusually passionate about their machines, and this may have had an effect on the company's unusually high Service and Reliability scores. But the score for percentage needing repair is less subjective than others. Either Apple is doing something right when it comes to quality control, or its restrictive warranty makes people less likely to have their systems repaired."
"Just how satisfied are Mac owners? That 9.1 overall score is significantly better than the average for Windows PCs. And the same can be said of the company's scores for reliability and the likelihood of recommending. It should be noted, however, that Apple's score on technical support is down this year (from 8.4 to 8.1)," Metz reports, "Is that a reflection of Apple's standard warranty, which allows only 90 days of telephone support for software issues? Probably not. Readers say that, among first-year Apple systems, 88 percent of tech support issues are covered by warranty (either Apple's or a third party's)—the highest rate among leading vendors."
Metz reports, "[In notebooks], once again, Apple is at the top. Its overall score, 9.1, is significantly better than the average for Windows notebooks—and a full seven-tenths of a point better than Lenovo's overall score, 8.4. Its scores for reliability (9.2), tech support (8.5), and likelihood of recommending (9.4) are also significantly better than average. Yes, its score on percentage needing repair is merely average, but at 16 percent, it's the lowest of the survey (alongside Sony's 16 percent)."
"Is this a function of that unique passion Apple users have for the company's products? Perhaps. But, again, it's hard to question the number of units needing repair. Among first-year systems, only 7 percent needed repair—2 points better than Sony," Metz reports.
Full article here. (pcmag.com)
1 x heatsink fan delta high output
1 x ATI video card fan from a 8500 All-in-wonder
no they have magic elves design their parts.. omg.. and they get them from the magic factory
Geez, ET, 9 failures out of 25-30 computers? That's a 33% failure rate!
I'll stick with Apple, thanks.
so Apple doesn't use Ati fans or they have never used IBM hard drives or Pioneer dvd drives? hmmm..
Using substandard parts, eh?
it also has a lifetime warranty so... whats the problem?
we had a pretty bad thunderstorm last night and now its not working! grrrrrrrrrr :(
I hope to get it figured out before the Bears play friday. :)
Go Bears! hehe...
Still can't bring myself to trust a sat dish for TV. I'm looking forward to fiber optic cable TV delivery myself.
It won't convince anyone, but I ditched cable for DSS about five years ago and have never looked back. Cable was out for days at a time, and many channels were unwatchable most of the time. With DSS every channel is the same high quality. I've lost maybe an hour total in five years due to rainstorms.
I'll be up the rest of the night repairing a P.O.S. Dell server that has a badly corrupted file system. Grrrrr...
IT's not a matter of "keeping the good stuff" - it is about OEM specifications. Even with Apple's relatively small market share - you can bet that if Steve Jobs calls up ATI (or nVidia) and says he wants x-model video card - but wants this connector, this gpu, this memory config, and this particular board configuration, they won't accept and deliver? We are still talking about millions of $$$.
My current desktop machine - an Apple MDD PowerMac dual 1Ghz- came with a Pioneer "SuperDrive" that has worked flawlessly. In comparing it physically to the other OEM and retail packaged versions of the same drive, there are minor differences. Apple specifies some firmware that may restrict certain features of the drive that may be problematic.
Also - Apple's implementation of said hardware (stock/OEM) also enables tigher integration - which causes less conflicts (I have heard that up to 90% of warranty/service work on PC's is actually software related or caused). Reduce the software-related problems and you have made a significan dent in the service calls.
But even when adding OEM and Retail packaged add-ons (like additional hard dries/PCI cards/etc.), I have not encountered the same trouble that some PC users find.
Maybe the component suppliers are not often the trouble - it could be that the specifications by Apple are tight enough on the assembly end, that things just work better --- who knows.
What really is important - owner satisfaction - and Apple has long been a leader.
what are you complaining about...? just remember, job security.. :)
It's a volunteer job for a non-profit agency that helps developmentally disabled people. I'm glad to donate my services, but this fiasco that started when the ISP changed the static IP address without warning, the day before a big fundraiser, and I was out of town at a funeral with my cell phone turned off, so the agency people tried to fix it themselves - big mistake. I only slept a couple of hours last night, and I was looking forward to a nap today. Fortunately, after a lot of experience installing Linux servers, it didn't take to long to get the vital services restored.
couldn't you setup a router to use a static ip for them?
It was a headless server and it normally runs for several months without a reboot. They just abruptly shut off the power and tried to attach a monitor in order to try to change the IP address. (If they had used VNC instead as intended, it might have worked.) Then they called the ISP and begged them to temporarily restore the old address - but the file system was already destroyed at that point by the power interruption.
After I got home from the funeral and heard what happened, I had to drive over there, which took about an hour, reinstall the OS after the quick rescue attempt failed, restore the data, etc. I suspect the disk drive was writing a cached file catalog when they pulled the plug. I could have fiddled with fsck for a while and possibly fixed it, but it was quicker to just wipe it clean and start fresh. I see some sectors marked unusable now, so fsck may not have worked ultimately.
I have shortened the DNS cache times for an orderly midnight transition in a day or two.
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