Apple drops to third, IBM/Lenovo tops in reliability report
updated 05:55 pm EDT, Thu June 3, 2010
IBM and Lenovo top reliability ratings
Apple has fallen to the third position in Rescuecom's latest computer reliability report, after maintaining the highest overall score in 2009. Each of the top five companies showed improvements in scores, with IBM and Lenovo representing the strongest growth as both companies share the top spot for the first quarter in 2010.
The Rescuecom report placed Asus in the second position, while Toshiba fell behind Apple. HP and Compaq shared the last spot in the top five.
A recent Consumer Reports comparison showed different results, placing Apple ahead of its competitors by a margin of 36 percent or more. The scores were based on consumer ratings of each company's own tech support teams, while Rescuecom is merely comparing the number of calls to its third-party support service.
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Aug 2001
Still nothing to complain about
I can imagine some knee-jerk responses saying "Apple's quality has gone down the drain!" or something, but according to this study Apple's reliability has gone UP since last year, not down. It's just that IBM, Lenovo, and Asus all improved MORE than apple, putting them above Apple in the ranking.
Which is to say that Apple was the most reliable computer manufacturer last year, and they're even more reliable now. Hardly something to complain about, though I would of course prefer to see them in the top spot just because your reliability can never be too high.
Now, it's worth noting that this study seems to be based on calls to this 3rd party support organization, which I can imagine being a sample VERY unrepresentative of the overall market, depending on how they're doing the math. For example, because Apple has unusually good support during the warranty period, they might well get less calls from Apple users proportionately, making Apple appear more reliable than it actually is. Or, the fact that Macs probably have a longer service life than Windows machines could mean that there are more ancient, crusty units floating around out of warranty, with users calling in disproportionately frequently with problems, making Apple seem less reliable than an equivalent sample of, say, Lenovo machines (which have only been on the market at all for a few years).
So depending on which way you look at it, this report is either good news--increased reliability since last year--or meaningless. Take your pick, but it's not bad (waiting to see how long it takes some blogger or tech writer to inaccurately cite this as evidence of Apple's quality decreasing, though--less than a day, I'll bet).