Comments on: Apple Ranks a Lackluster Fourth in Notebook Reliability Study

By: monicauk

monicauk — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 07:48:30 +0000

Nice article. Thanks for sharing it.

By: r4 ds

r4 ds — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 11:10:37 +0000

I always like the Apple brand it has very high reputation in market its all product is very nice and with some high functionality.According to a new study by research firm Square-trade, Apple (s aapl) is fairly reliable, but not the most reliable …

By: New Study Says Apple is Most Reliable, Not Asus | The Apple Tech Blog

New Study Says Apple is Most Reliable, Not Asus | The Apple Tech Blog — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 13:16:40 +0000

[...] month, I reported the results of a study detailing notebook reliability numbers. Many commenters disagreed with the results of the study by U.S. warranty company SquareTrade, and [...]

By: New Study Says Apple is Most Reliable, Not Asus

New Study Says Apple is Most Reliable, Not Asus — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 16:32:27 +0000

[...] 08, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and No one has commented Last month, I reported the results of a study detailing notebook reliability numbers. Many commenters disagreed with the results of the study by U.S. warranty company SquareTrade, and [...]

By: SquareTrade Reports on Laptop Reliability: Asus and Toshiba come out on top « SquareTrade News

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 23:17:05 +0000

[...] coverage can also be found here: Gizmodo, Engadget, PCWorld, Electronista, ComputerWorld, the Apple Blog, The Business Journals, Laptop Magazine, 9 to 5 Mac, Tom’s Hardware Guide, Mac Blorge, [...]

By: Veit

Veit — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:31:38 +0000

The reporting was a bit unfortunate, since it left out a few very significant pieces of information:
- The dataset is based on SquareTrade’s extended warranty claims
- The dataset includes at least 1,000 claims per brand, even from Apple. While Apple might be under-represented, it’s not only a handful of Apple owners who reported issues.
- It does not include netbooks, only laptops, since netbooks have not been around for 24 months. But based on the 12 months of netbook data, netbook malfunctions track 20% higher than laptops
- Entry-level laptops have a higher failure rate than high-end laptops (first 12 months, no 2-year dataset available)

By: Dmitry

Dmitry — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:02:21 +0000

@John, low prices can be reached through different factors. It doesn’t mean they are cheap so they are not reliable.

By: John

John — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:28:07 +0000

Considering the low, low prices of Apple products, I think 4th is pretty snappy!

By: Joe Anonymous

Joe Anonymous — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:27:04 +0000

“This is study conducted by a company that sells extended warrantees. So much for credibility.”

The flaws with this study go way beyond that.

First, it’s internally self-consistent. They report that Netbooks are far more troubleprone than laptops – yet Asus (which sells more netbooks than anyone AFAIK) is at the top of the list. That should tell you something.

Basically, if you have a $300 netbook that’s 2 years old and it breaks, you probably trash it. If you have a 2-3 year old Dell or HP, it’s probably close to the end of its life, so you may or may not fix it. If you have a $2,000 MacBook Pro that’s 2 years old, it still has plenty of useful life, so you’re going to fix it. That alone negates the value of a survey based on warranty usage.

Then, consider the numbers. I don’t know a single Mac user who bought a third party warranty. Everyone I know uses Applecare. That guarantees that the sample is unrepresentative for Apple users (and probably too small to be of any value). Similarly, do you know ANYONE who bought a warranty for a cheapo Netbook? I sure don’t. So the majority of Netbook failures are not documented by this type of survey.

Consumer Reports is much closer to reality. They survey problem rates based on a sample of ALL computer purchasers. There may still be sampling errors, but at least CR doesn’t have the major flaws above.

I really expect more rational thinking from The Apple Blog. Why do you let garbage like that fake survey go through without comment?

By: Michael

Michael — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:26:49 +0000

Sorry, but the link works. It’s taking me to the start site where I can read information about extended warranties.