This year 8939 PC buyers and 13,800 laptop buyers cast their votes and told
us about their experiences with support and reliability. Last year, Apple's Intel
Macbook proved the dark horse of the race, sneaking in to pip Dell and Asus to
score the coveted Best PC award. At the time, we were surprised by the results
- it was hard to imagine so many PC users and readers switching over so fast to
BootCamp and running Windows on their Mac.
Microsoft has reclaimed "I'm a PC"
as a badge of honour, encouraging
enthusiasts of Windows to do likewise.
Microsoft may think "I'm a PC" is the best
marketing slogan for them, but for the
second year running, our survey found
that the best PC is a Mac. Despite our
feature (Web ID 92605) outlining 32
reasons why PCs are superior to Macs,
it seems our readers don't agree.
Apple wasn't just the winner in
the Desktop PC category, it was the
runaway winner, with 81% satisfied by
customer support and an astonishing
96% satisfied with reliability. Even on
value for money – traditionally Apple's
weak point – 86% were satisfied. The
closest rivals, Dell and HP scored
around 75% on the equivalent factors.
Optima, though listed, is no longer
trading, and we've left it in out of
historical interest only. NEC is also
included, but had fewer than 100 votes.
The PC market is clearly consolidating,
based on our survey results.
Laptop takeover
While Mac muscled in on the PC
awards last year, for laptops the change
has been a little bit longer coming. The
MacBook was launched in July 2006
and its Windows-running Boot Camp
application launched in September
that year. Since then, Intel MacBooks
have increasingly been taken up by
enthusiasts and computer professionals.
Not only were the majority of laptops
Mac-based at the most recent IT
journalist conference we attended,
but at the recent Microsoft event with
Steve Ballmer, held in Sydney, the
presenter was chagrined to note that
the majority of browsers responding to
an in-house demonstration poll were
Safari. Mac has won over the digerati, it
seems, and our survey results show that
its survey win last year wasn't a onceoff.
Macs hold appeal that's enduring
and even growing. Mac market share in
Australia is up from 3.8% to 5.8% from
September 2007 to September 2008.
Satisfaction and style
Our survey results highlight that the
reason the Mac is ahead is its customer
support and reliability. For laptops,
some 91% of Apple users are very
satisfied or satisfied with its reliability,
and 76% with its support. That's not too far ahead of closest rival Asus, with
89% and 67% for the corresponding
factors, but when Apple users are
satisfied, they're really satisfied – some
48% said they were very satisfied with
support and a whopping 69% said they
were very satisfied with reliability, well
clear of Asus' 39% and 56% respectively.
Perhaps not surprisingly, with results
like that, some 95% of Apple laptop
owners would buy another laptop
from Apple. But we were surprised to
discover that Apple owners reported
more problems, on average, than
other laptop manufacturers – most
commonly with length of time for
delivery and repairs. Even so, the low
rate of problems in getting through to
support and understanding support no
doubt contributes to overall satisfaction.
As a whole, 34% of laptop
owners are very happy with their
manufacturer's support, and 49% with
reliability. Even with such low scores,
brand loyalty is high, with 87% opting
for the same manufacturer again.
MSI and Acer ranked lowest of the
laptops with at least 100 votes in our
survey. This doesn't mean that they
are the worst manufacturers, just
that they scored lowest of those we
have sufficient votes to rank. Both
scored well for value for money,
but had around 50-60% ratings for
reliability and support. Acer suffered in
particular from difficulties in servicing
its customers – 10% of Acer owners
reported repairs taking longer than
promised and 9% reported difficulties
getting through to a support contact.
