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http://www.insanely-great.com/news.php?id=633
A For Apple in Consumer Satisfaction. B+ For Dell
By Remy Davison, Insanely Great Mac
July 10th 2002
Brand name PCs still dominate in notebooks - but white boxes make big strides in
desktop sector.
Apple and brand-name PCs scored best in a consumer satisfaction survey conducted by PC
Magazine, the Washington Post reports.
In a ''reliability'' survey of 15,000 readers, Apple, HP, Toshiba and IBM headed the
laptop reliability list, while Sony and Handspring topped the handheld sector. In the
desktop department, Dell and white boxes were front of the queue.
Apple and NEC did not get the necessary minimum 50 votes to qualify in the desktop
survey, while HP and Compaq did not rate particularly well. Sony and Compaq also rated
particularly badly on customer support.
In notebooks, Dell has fallen significantly in terms of quality; PC Magazine note the
number of Dell portables requiring repair rose appreciably. Dell also scored poorly on
technical support. 26% of those surveyed who bought Dells had to have their laptop
sent in for repair, while 4% had to have their Dell replaced by a new machine
entirely. In 31% of cases, the customer needed to be sent a new ''part''.
Analysis: Aside from the odd missing TiBook display adapter, how many of you ''Bookers
send in your PB/iBook for repair within the first 12 months? Not 26% of you, surely?
Does Apple send almost one third of you ''parts'' following shipment? Like what, a
missing hard drive? Screen maybe? The only thing Apple''s sent me is a replacement
yo-yo in the adapter exchange program.
The PC Magazine stats are a little skewed as they don''t give much info on Apple (100
responses on notebooks), versus Dell (over 1,600 responses). I doubt whether too many
iMac owners (and certainly not Pro Power Mac users) respond to PC mag surveys. But the
white box intrusion into the desktop stats confirms - broadly and unscientifically -
what other market indicators have proven recently: that white-box PCs are assuming
critical mass in the market at the expense of brand names.
It would be worthwhile a publication like MacWorld running a survey of this type, as
its readers not only own or administer Macs, but are also likely to own or to have
some experience with PCs, which would give a much more balanced and detailed view of
the equation.
Post your comments at:
http://www.insanely-great.com/news.php?id=633
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