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May 15, 2008

rivals

Consumer Reports says Apple laptops require just as much repair as everyone else’s

Posted May. 15, ’08, 10:29 AM PT by Cyrus Farivar
Category | Apple » Rivals

c-reports.jpgGranted, we’re a little late to the game on this one, but Fake Steve Jobs points us to a Consumer Reports piece on the computer industry. The part that caught CNET’s eye, though, was the section on frequency of computer repair.

So how does Apple stack up against Lenovo, HP, Dell and all the rest? On this chart, it appears that Apple is down at the bottom. Not so fast, turbo.

CNET Crave’s Dan Ackerman explains:

The chart shows data from about 75,000 laptops purchased between 2003 and 2007, recording how many have had a serious problem requiring repair. The companies listed are Lenovo, Compaq, Sony, Toshiba, Dell, HP, Gateway, and Apple, and all scored between 20 percent and 23 percent. Consumer Reports says a difference of less than three points is statistically “not meaningful.”

So, there you have it—no major laptop brand is really much more likely to break down than any other. Why? Because most laptops are essentially commodity products, made from the exact same components, and differentiated only by their outer shells and extra features. So, next time someone says not to buy a laptop from a certain vendor because they “break down all the time,” you can assure them that there’s about a 1-in-5 chance their laptop will develop a major problem, no matter where it came from.

Don’t forget also that last year, Apple’s desktops got top marks by CR and this year they snagged the number one position in tech support.


3 Comments

exnihilo said:

Wow. So are we to be happy now because Apple's laptops are no worse than other's? I consider this to be very bad news. One less reason to recommend an Apple laptop. So all those complaints people have had about Apple laptops in recent years are not just abberations. Bad news indeed.

May 15, 2008 4:46 PM
Harvey said:

Who cares? I can get it fixed.

I've owned other brands but I was never able to get them fixed.

May 16, 2008 7:47 AM
Yacko said:

"complaints people have had about Apple laptops"

Whoa, whoa son. If you noticed the char. you would see that all the laptop manufacturers are within a couple of percentage points of each other - there is no breakout "much worse". They are all at the mercy of the same parts suppliers and factories. The report also found that Apple customers had the highest repair satisfaction (in other words Apple solved the problem) and Apple was a significant step ahead of its nearest competitor, Lenovo. Laptop manufacturers are not at the mercy of the same help desks and this is where they delineate themselves. The useful and valid message that should be pulled from the Consumer Report article is that all laptops still have significantly higher failure rates compared to desktops and so you'd better have a good customer service org standing behind the product.

May 23, 2008 2:18 PM

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