Macs now suddenly a lot less reliable? Not likely…
Whether or not Benjamin Disraeli actually said the words doesn’t particularly matter as their truth still echoes well over one hundred years later – “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.”
Rescuecom (via PRNewsWire) has published a report that states in the space of two quarters of Apple’s Macintosh computers have seen their reliability score roughly cut in half from 700 points to just 324. Over roughly the same period, Asus saw its score come from nowhere and rise to nearly 1,000 points.
So, what gives? How could Macintoshes suddenly become so unreliable and prone to failure? Moreover, given the importance of after service in Rescuecom’s survey, how could Apple fall so quickly given its perennially high customer service ratings, usually 80 or better, from Consumer Reports and other top ranking agencies?
The overwhelmingly likely answer here is that Rescuecom’s statistics and/or analysis are lacking. For example, in the company’s last report, they noted that their conclusions were based on more than 36,000 calls. Their most recent conclusions are however based on just 15,000 calls—that’s a huge decline, nearly 60 percent—which one would think might be of importance to their conclusions.
Still, rather than assuming Rescuecom’s service has degenerated to garbage quality, causing their business to shrink by more than half, perhaps it’s more logical to assume the flagging economy has something to do with it (ie like consumers buying huge numbers of cheap netbooks).
Asus sold a lot of netbooks, mostly to individuals that will the call manufacturer with any issues given that these products are (surprise) under warranty. Also, Apple did sell fewer computers last quarter, but if you take out netbooks their the company’s relative market share was about flat to slightly down versus hugely down according to Rescuecom, meaning their unit data is skewed toward Asus (a lot of new, under warranty product).
Further, Apple has a very long tail in Rescuecom’s service data—decades—whereas Asus had little to no history as a maker of complete computers in the US until the advent of the netbook.
So, honestly, do Asus’ netbooks really warrant an out of nowhere score of 970 versus a nearly 50 percent decline in reliability for the Macintosh? On that point I will defer to Mr Disraeli’s analysis…
What’s your take?
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March 26th, 2009
I have a netbook and never use it.
My wife has an Asus Laptop and it works great.
The speakers are weak but other then that it’s a very good laptop.
My HP laptop is good also.
If Apple would lower prices in this trouble economy then they may sell more.
People buy the netbooks because they are cheap. Also BMO sent out a lot of them. That’s how I got mine.
Apple needs to wake up and realize they can live on Rep alone. If they were cheaper I would give the OS another try.
March 26th, 2009
Apple has built a reputation on higher cost for higher quality in computer products. Without getting into a subjective discussion on which OS is better and which mfg has better hardware, it’s suffice to say Apple has never felt the need to venture into the perilous PC price wars.
Like it or not, Apple has been very successful in being the niche player, and with a $30+ billion war chest, who can argue with them. Apple is more than capable of riding out these economic times to maintain its core business practices. It feels no pressure to head towards cheap PCs & netbooks…a proposition that players like Asus have no choice but to embrace and succeed in.
March 28th, 2009
Apple has no business getting into a fight it has no prayer of winning. They are purposely ignoring high volume, low margin sectors like the enterprise IT market.
In spite of the babble about consumer driven IT, it’s hard to see them screwing around with lower cost models and blowing up a hugely successful program.
Apple took a hit a couple of years ago when they expanded their marketshare to people who didn’t worship Jobs as a Deity and found it difficult swallowing problems didn’t exist. Personally, I find most computers in the same price range are just as reliable if not as cute. It’s not like they are using special components.
iPods and iPhones are more than enough to get them through this. But the reliability is mostly in the minds of the fleeced.
April 2nd, 2009
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