Average hardware failure rate is 5-7%.
This is truely surprising, because I had figured it would be the other way around. Thankfully I build my own.
Those poor Mac fanatics.
Maybe someone should make a TV commercial where that hip, twentysomething Apple kid approaches the conservative old PC guy (that's me) to ask him for help fixing the broken Mac.
I also have a single PC which I use just for Quick Books, as their is no Mac version as of yet. The PC has been fixed three times in the past year. It does burn CDs well, so fortunately, I have not lost anything.
Adding new software for the Mac is usually as easy as dragging a folder into the applications file. The PC makes me go through requests for notification of updates (usually telling me the software is out of date the moment I buy it.
MaximumPC (whose name implies some bias) attributes the overheating and failure of Macs to sloppy assembly -- specifically the overuse of thermal compound on the CPU heat sinks. They gave examples of two systems in their possession that were cured by redoing the heat sink compound.
mac ping
.................... do you really make swords? :-P
The Apple II I bought 28 years ago still works fine, and I have a bunch of antique Macs that still work. In general, Apple manufactures the best, most reliable computer systems for consumers.
If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.
That statistic is based on a scientific survey of preselected respondents... not what MacInTouch did. Gartner bases its statistic on all computer sold... or all Apple Mac G5s sold... not on a self-selected small group of person who may or may not have a Mac G5.
We thank MacInTouch readers who participated in our June 2006 Power Mac G5 reliability survey. More than 3,000 Power Macs were logged, with more than 1,300 insightful, informative comments.
Sorry, but MacInTouch's reader survey was not a scientific survey. MacInTouch is an online webblog that requested visitors to participate in its survey. Proof of model ownership was not required or possible. Anyone who went to their website could participate whether or not they had a G5 or not. It was a self selected survey of those MacInTouch readers who chose to participate.
I am a MacInTouch reader... I have a Mac G5... I chose not to participate. I have never participated in their surveys because they are always unscientific and produce distorted statistics. I have had no problems with my first year G5. I also do IT support for an office that has seven one year old iMac G5s, none of them have had problems... and none of them were included in the survey. I have several other clients with various aged G5s and not one of them has had a problem... and none participated in MacInTouch's skewed survey.
It is probable that those who HAVE had a problem with their G5 would be more likely to respond to a "reliability" survey than those who haven't.
Apple has consistently been on the top of reliability surveys where the surveying was done properly.
I had heard that Apple had moved a lot (if not all) manufacturing to to China. I'm sure they know the failure rates by plant of origin. They should immediately drop any plant that isn't performing to standard.
This isn't surprising to me...the G5 was both a dissapointment and the catylist for Apple to move to Intel processors. They always ran too hot, and IBM couldn't get their clock speed over 2.8 Gigs, nor fix the heat problem. On their Xserve rackmount servers, when they moved from the G4 to the G5, had to sacrifice a hard drive for extra fan and airflow space to keep the board from melting down. It was, to me, an embarrassing statement on IBM's engineering ability. Steve Jobs was increasingly unhappy with them, especially after he promised users a 3 Gig G5 4 years ago, and IBM couldn't deliver. It'll be largely moot though, as the last of the G5s are coming off the assembly line this fall, replaced with an Intel chip that will probably be a variant of the high end Xeon chips for the PowerMac replacement.