November 24 2009
End of the line for IBM’s Cell
November 24 2009
Schiller’s spin on App Store issues ignores real complaints
November 24 2009
Schiller’s spin on App Store issues ignores real complaints
November 22 2009
Hacked Darwin kernel available for 10.6.2 on Atom netbooks
November 22 2009
Week in Apple: Developers leaving iPhone, Psystar screwed
November 20 2009
Apple fourth best among build quality study for portables
November 20 2009
Students get discounts on Exchange-compatible Office for Mac
November 20 2009
Chrome OS: Internet failing at PC > PC failing at Internet
November 20 2009
Apple Fourth Best Among Build Quality Study For Portables
SquareTrade, Inc., a company that offers extended warranties on all sorts of consumer electronics, has published a study on laptop longevity based on 30,000 costumer experiences. The numbers show that Apple is fourth in terms of reliability, as machines from the Cupertino company suffered a smidgen over 10 percent failure rate over a two-year period and an estimated 17.4 percent rate over three years. Asus, Toshiba, and Sony all had lower two-year and estimated three-year failure rates, with Asus taking the top spot at just under 10 percent over two years and an estimated 15.6 percent over three.
The statistics relevant to our interests are based on laptops that failed due to “natural causes”—not machines that were accidentally damaged. These numbers are broken up among nine different manufactures, all of which had a sample size of at least 1,000 units. Although Apple isn’t on top, it can at least look at Dell, Lenovo, Acer, Gateway, and HP as companies that provide inferior quality laptops. While Dell was less than one percentage point above Apple on the three-year estimated statistics, Hewlett Packard had an estimated failure rate over of over 25 percent over three years.
