ZDNet:
In the survey, almost 20 percent of respondents reported a breakdown in the first 3 years of use, most of them seriously affecting system use.
Apple, as in year’s past, has the most reliable notebooks by far – a 10 percent breakdown rate in the first 3 years – with Samsung and Gateway distant seconds at 16 percent, and the rest of the industry – including Acer, Lenovo, Toshiba, HP, Dell and Asus, at 18-19 percent.
Windows machines used more than 20 hours a week – average for Windows systems – have a higher break rate. Apple users report using their machines an average of 23 hours a week, 15 percent more. More hours, fewer breakdowns, what’s not to like?
The results of the Consumer Reports survey are predictable. While Macbooks aren’t perfect, they do tend to be significantly more reliable than their Windows counterparts. Good ammunition for those of you having the “Should I buy a Mac or a PC?” discussion with friends and relatives this holiday season.
Reliability encompasses software as well as hardware – I suggest that’s missing here in the survey questions.
From my (substantial) view over the years operationally across Mac and Windows systems, I see an ongoing litany of issues that Mac users just simply put up with (one example – the last 3 releases of OSX killed the WiFi on Macs for a huge proportion of users causing them to wire up to Ethernet – but they will NOT consider these reliability issues).
Now that’s great for Support – in one way – but it does mean a productivity hit.
Whereas Windows users complain readily and get things fixed (due to the humongous volume of fellow users and knowledge bases).
My point is: Apple users do not like to complain about their equipment not working, they feel it’s somehow against their faith if you will. Really. If you work in Support you will know what I’m saying,