This year Apple earned top honors in PC Magazineis 16th annual Readersi Choice Service and Reliability survey.
The feature presents the results from over 18,000 reader stories and surveys to give some insight into the reliability of various computer brands and how well the customer is taken care of when things do go awry.
PC Magazine declared Apple among the best in overall scoring in desktops, notebooks and servers even though it was "not on the charts last year because of its modest share among survey takers." On a scale from A+ to E, Apple was given an A+ for desktops and an A for notebooks and servers.
The top scores are as follows:
- Desktops: Apple (A+), Dell (A+), Sony (A), ABS (A)
- Notebooks: Apple (A), IBM (A), Toshiba (A)
- Servers: Apple (A), Dell (A)
Hardware quality usually has much to do with reliability but this year the magazine feels the stability of the operating systems caused an overall rise in satisfaction. From the survey:
The stability of Linux and Mac OS may have also helped with the rise of overall user satisfaction. These OSs, our readers say, crash even less often than Windows XP.
The data for the survey was compiled from only subscribers and readers of PC Magazine and the "report card" grades were calculated using 4 separate measures: overall satisfaction, satisfaction with reliability, units needing repair (or frequency of failure for servers), and willingness to buy the same brand again.
The entire survey can be read at PC Magazineis Web site.