PC Authority can tell you whether a product is worth buying. But only the tech-buying public can tell
you what various products are like to live with. Did a product break down the minute it got home? Did
a manufacturer wriggle out of a warranty? What were people's support experiences like? Did an online
shop steal someone's money? We wanted to know!
We hoped to break the 10,000 respondent barrier this year, which would have represented a 1500
increase on last year. But the final tally of 14,003 shows just how much this survey caught the
imagination of Australian (and Kiwi) tech buyers. Most responses came from PC Authority readers
but we're also grateful for support from the online communities at Overclockers Australia
, Whirlpool and Atomic.
This is the most comprehensive tech survey ever undertaken in Australia.
Over the following pages you'll see the results from this exhaustive survey. Respondents could
answer over 200 questions and took an average of 10-15mins doing so (answering everything took
half an hour!). Over 93,000 items of hardware were rated worth (at a conservative estimate) over
$50,000,000. Also, over 100,000 items of software were rated and these, combined with 14,000 ISP
ratings, added over $30,000,000 dollars to the overall total.
For a company to qualify for an award it needed to register 100 votes (if it attained 75-99 votes we display
its ratings only as a guide). With so many votes registered and with the competition so
fierce, you can rest assured that if a company won an award, it did something to deserve it. So
first read How We Test to see what the results mean, then turn over to find out which companies
you can trust, and which ones you can't.