Apple tops reliability survey


22 Feb 2010

Apple has come in at the No 1 spot for the third year in a row in an annual American survey of computer reliability, but Asus garnered notice with nearly 200pc growth.

Rescuecom is an American tech support company based in Syracuse, New York. It measured reliability by dividing each computer maker’s US market share, as measured by IDC, by the percentage of calls requesting Rescuecom’s service on each maker’s machines.

Although Apple had the highest score in Rescuecom’s 2010 report, its lead over its nearest competitor shrank from more than 200 points in 2008 to just 60 points this year.

“Apple finished the year with a higher score than Asus,” he wrote. “However it was Asus who won the spotlight with its impressive 190.7pc growth, year over year,” Rescuecom president Josh Kaplan said.

“Conversely, Dell’s negative growth and poor reliability scores led to an increased need for Dell customers to seek computer repair. This performance stopped Dell from reaching a Top 5 position.”

In its 2006 report, Rescuecom indicated that its survey was based on 20,000 calls to its 800 number. No comparable figure was provided in this year’s report. The figures don’t include computers that corporate IT departments repair or those handled by manufacturer-supplied service contracts, such as AppleCare.