Posted on 12/11/2015 11:02:50 AM PST by Swordmaker
The Consumer Reports survey of 56,000 subscribers established, without a doubt, that MacBooks are more reliable than Windows machines. Is it because MacBooks cost more? I asked CR. Here's what they said.
Apple sold over $25 billion worth of Macs in their 2015 fiscal year, giving an average selling price of $1,237, quite a bit higher than the average Windows notebook price. Is that why MacBooks have half the rate of serious problems?
That average price includes a tiny percentage of Mac Pros, and a larger percentage of iMacs, but something like 75 percent of all Macs are MacBooks. Looking at MacBook retail prices, which range from $899 for the bottom of the line 11" MacBook Air to $3199 for a loaded 15" MacBook Pro, $1200 is probably close to the mark for an average MacBook price.
There are plenty of $500 Windows notebooks, but that is a price point where Apple doesn't compete. Looking at ultrabooks though, the pricing is similar to Apple's. So, is it the cost of the systems that determines their reliability?
Consumer Reports, in this particular survey, doesn't ask about price. But James McQueen of CR noted in an email response that:
. . . [W]e found that reliability isn't necessarily related to how much money you spend on a laptop. HP's premium ENVY line is near the bottom, with a 20 percent failure rate, while the company's less-costly Pavilion line fares better, at 16 percent.
Okay, so price ≠reliability. Gosh darn it! Life is so-o complicated!
But better (for MacBook buyers): the price you pay for MacBooks comes with a jumbo helping of reliability.
CR defines serious and catastrophic breakdowns in a way that, perhaps, long-time computer jocks like us may not. In a comment on the CR web site, Mary Elizabeth Bernal, who works at CR, noted that
. . . [O]ur laptop reliability survey is designed to capture the ownership experiences of "everyday" people, as they perceive it. . . . [T]his survey allows our organization to provide the general public with a holistic understanding of what they can expect from the laptops currently available for purchase on the US market. Furthermore, let us assure you that . . . we do define what we mean by "serious" and "catastrophic" breakdowns in the survey.
When I left Silicon Valley for the mountains of northern Arizona 10 years ago, I was startled at how differently "everyday" people saw computers. It's binary: work; or, not work.
They don't say - "oh it's a hardware problem, no bad on Microsoft." No, they say "my Windows notebook stinks 'cause it broke." CR is doing the absolute right thing.
For me, and I suspect for most people who lug them around, notebooks are a tool. And when it doesn't work it is a problem.
That's may be why at tech conferences I attend, MacBooks are way over-represented - typically 40-60 percent - among highly educated and sophisticated users. They are tools and they're good ones.
If I were running Microsoft's Windows customer sat group, I'd be on this like a dog on a bone. MS is only supplying the software, but their OEMs are killing the MS brand with reliability that is half of what Apple achieves.
Which has to be one of the reasons that Microsoft is getting into hardware like the Surface. They know what MacBook users like about their machines, and they know that their current OEMs are't providing it.
Advice to Microsoft: take a close look at Tim Cook, supply chain guy extraordinaire. Apple insists on quality and - this is key - they get it.
The Mac's growing sales in a declining PC market shows that customers do as well.
Comments welcome, of course. How would YOU advise Windows vendors to improve quality?
Look, both of you ASSHAT LIARS!
You've BOTH been told multiple times that I maintain the Apple/Mac/iPhone/iPad PING list on FR. . . which has more than 700 members who have all voluntarily JOINED and ASKED me to keep them up-to-date on things on those topics. That does NOT MAKE ME A "PAID SOCIAL MEDIA SHILL."
It makes me the person on FreeRepublic who keeps and maintains the Apple/Mac/iPhone/iPad Ping list. Are you that dense you fail to understand that? Apparently you and about a dozen other dedicated Apple Hate Brigade idiot members are that dense. They cannot comprehend simple English and simple concepts. There are also PING lists for Windows (maintained by dayglored), Android (maintained by ThunderSleeps), and general Tech issues (maintained by Shadow Ace) as well. I don't see either of you clamoring SOCIAL MEDIA SHILL in those threads!
NOW BOTH OF YOU, SHUT THE HELL UP AND STOP LYING ABOUT ME!
As I have said before, you have such an animosity about Apple, it makes YOU look like you are the paid Anit-Apple shills. You project what YOU do on others. If you do not like these threads, simply ignore them and GO READ AND COMMENT ON SOMETHING ELSE! Quit getting your little girlie easily offended panties in a wad about something YOU DO NOT USE!
LIAR! UNCIVIL ASSHAT!
You reference me in your lies about me in a post repeatedly and do not have the civility to ping me in the addressing. You are reprehensible.
So sorry to hear about your wife passing. I've been there. It's never easy.
Wiping the iPad Mini is extremely easy, Zeugma. It takes just a couple of minutes to return it to factory blank condition and it is completely clear, unlike the vast majority of Android tablets and phones which cannot be completely erased. Go into Settings, General, and scroll to the bottom to find "Reset" where you will select "Erase All Content and Settings." You will need to be able to put in the Apple ID associated with the iPad Mini to OK action. It will then take a few minutes to wipe everything and then reboots to a new iPad condition with nothing recoverable by the new owner/user.
As for sharing pictures and stuff with folks, Apple makes it easy to send even the largest photos or even videos via email regardless of the email capacity of the recipient's email boxes. Apple has a temporary cache system that holds the file and then puts a download link automatically into the email you send for the recipient to click which then automatically downloads the file, regardless of the size. It never hits their mailbox to choke it nor does it slow the downloading of their email.
Wish me luck. Picking up my 09 MacBook from repair in Austin this week. It’s a used screen, but if I can just get my pictures & bookmarks off of it, I’ll be happy. The price was right & they were reasonably fast.
REALLY? These others from unbiased sources disagree with your opinion:
Boy Genius Reports: Consumer Reports: Apple's MacBooks are the most reliable laptops
Digital Trends: WHICH LAPTOPS ARE THE MOST RELIABLE? -- Digital Trends, September 2015
Most reliable: AppleIf there's one thing that nearly everyone agrees on, it's that Apple laptops are the most reliable of the bunch. When you buy a Macbook, you know what to expect, and that rarely involves failures or returns. Part of this is due to Apple's solid design philosophy. The new MacBooks, Airs and Pros are consistently growing thinner and more powerful, but the overall design style remains the same. The all-together aluminum frame and tightly packed electronics no doubt also help reduce damage and failure rates.
It's also worth noting that Apple does many of the smaller things well, too. The keyboards are snappy, pleasant to use, and nigh unbreakable under usual circumstances. The battery life of MacBooks tends to be high and doesn't suffer from swift dropoff or fluctuation. Displays issues tend to be rare. In Consumer Reports, Apple beat out nine other laptop brands when it came to needing repairs within the first three years of ownership.
LapTop Magazine 2015 Ratings from March:
Laptop Magainze's Historical Ratings:
1st Place: AppleThe undisputed king of laptop brands for six years and counting, Apple retains the No. 1 spot in this year's survey. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company won 5 out of the 9 categories, including a perfect score for its laptop reviews. Its tech support score is also stellar, and the brand's keyboards and touchpads, audio quality and preloaded software can't be beat. Assuming you have the budget, Apple laptops are the way to go.
Techie Sense: 6 Best Laptop Brands for 2015 with Trusted Models & Reviews -- TechieSense.com
RANK #1 -- APPLEConsidered the best for almost 5 years now, Apple has proven to be the best for laptop users because of its high quality and gold class standard.
If you read the reviews of this brand, I am sure you will rarely see any negative statements against the prestigious Apple brand. The design, keyboard, display and audio are close to the heart of its users as well as its distinctive software. And the cherry on the cake is its flawless tech support.
Assuming that this one is affordable for you, this is one brand of laptops which can be apt for almost every purpose whether it is for studying or working on projects with heavy software demands.
This was just a quick sampling of articles on the reliability of Apple devices one can find searching on the Internet. While Apple's are not always the #1 most reliable they are always near the top and stay there. . . but usually they are #1.
YOU are the one, with your constant negative nastiness, who makes Freepers look ridiculous and bigoted. YOU, yourself, are ridiculous when you make claims counter to all the reports such as "Apple isn’t any more reliable than any other device," like you do without bothering to do any research or provide any evidence to the contrary except your ex cathedra pronouncements.
I've now provided SIX independent sources for my thesis, counting the original article and you've provided your unsupported DRIVEL, pulled from your nether regions. As it stands, you are standing in a puddle of what you've excreted, as that's all you've produced.
This is akin to the Angelina Joli approach to preventing Breast Cancer.
Since her mother and a couple of other female relatives all developed breast cancer fairly early in life and had to have radical mastectomies, Joli elected to do it before she developed breast cancer and had her breasts removed. No breasts, no breast cancer! Sounds logical, I guess.
She also had her ovaries removed because her mother died of ovarian cancer. . .
Good thing it wasn't brain cancer.
I see.
And you don’t recognize anything wrong with the following statement?
“That’s may be why at tech conferences I attend, MacBooks are way over-represented - typically 40-60 percent - among highly educated and sophisticated users.”
Actually, as I recall, Consumer Reports didn't. McDonald's Coffee rated higher than Starbucks and was rated a Best Buy as well. MickeyD's just didn't have as many options as Starbucks.
Consumer Reports DOES blind taste tests on such things as coffee. Those are things the bring in consumer tasting panels to do exactly that and reports the results of what that panel says. That doesn't mean those particular taster's tastes match yours or mine (I can't stand coffee, but my girlfriend can't start the day without at least two cups!) but it is a blind taste testing. The testers never see the brands.
Now, does this apply to Apple in this survey? I don't know. It may and it may not. But Apple has built their brand with the messaging of "it just works" and "better than Microsoft." If that was the core reason you bought something, you may be more inclined to believe it's true just like Starbucks' drinkers believe their coffee is delicious. It’s not backed by facts - it's backed by *messaging*.
The fact is that the vast majority of Mac users WERE ONCE Windows users and DO have experience with which they can compare their Mac experiences with. . . and when they report it is better with a Mac, it is an EDUCATED opinion. Unlike YOURS.
Consumer Reports used to not even test Apple Macs because the didn't run Windows and were, according to their engineer in charge, "not a serious computer."
Consumer Reports was also the organization that created the Antenna Gate by using the number of BARS showing on the screen as if it were an actual signal strength meter, not realizing that Apple was using a different algorithm than other phones AND their previous phones to determine when the number of bars changed. The iPhone 4s actually had BETTER signal reception than any other phone on the market at the time that Consumer Reports downgraded it because it dropped bars faster than other phones they were testing, even though they did note it retained connections where other phones dropped those same carriers. Made no sense, but they didn't like seeing only two bars where another make showed three. They were unaware that you could change settings and have the bars replaced with an actual number representing signal strength in dB . . . but they didn't ask.
So, this survey is noise without any actual data to back up what fails, when, and how that really compares in an Apples to apples sense. And, it can't be what people TELL you fails, because people will also tell you that the Earth is getting warmer, but the thermometers tell us something very different.
". . .noise. . ." sez you, without any evidence, except what you pull out of your nether regions, as you always do. The facts are that's what you ALWAYS do. Sample size ONE. Universe Size ONE. Degree of confidence: 100%.
It is obvious you know absolutely nothing about statistics which are used in almost every science there is.
What is wrong with it? Tell us what YOU think is wrong with it, bolobaby. Do you think it is a lie????
If you are needing to get your stuff off of it, connect it by using Target Drive. Connect a network cable and Hold down the T Key while booting.
Apple’s overall margin, across the enterprise was about 40% last quarter.
Honestly...I haven’t missed it. I thought I would. But I don’t.
Quack.
Beautiful post. Bump.
You cannot argue with facts - it’s not your opinion - these are quantifieable, measurable, observable and demonstratable facts.
No, I don’t. it is an observation. But it correlates with personal experience.
Liar.
The same can be said of every half-truth every proffered.
It's easy to make an assertion without providing any evidence that what I said is a "half-truth." You drive by anti-Apple Hate Brigade members are all the same. Throw out a comment like this and drive on. Now prove your assertion. Which of my points is false? Put up or shut up.
There is some logic to that. If you use good heardware, you're going to get better results. Microsoft has other problems IMO than just crappy hardware on a lot of systems sold with their operating systems. The fragile beast that is the registry is a good example of this. It's a mess, and has always been a mess. They stick with it because at this point they are locked in to using it, but that doesn't make it less a mess than it is.
I don't know what causes their software to be so unstable, but I do know that at the company where I work, they have regularly scheduled reboots for many servers because the systems will become unstable over time. Since we don't use Apple hardware for similar tasks, because Apple simply doesn't play in that space, there is no way to know from direct experience if you'd see similar issues. However, I do know that our Linux servers running on the exact same hardware as the Windows servers do not see the same stability issues. For most of our Linux boxes, the only time they get rebooted is when there is a kernel upgrade.
Granted, the enterprise space is vastly different than desktops, so it's not a true apples-to-apples (sorry) comparison, but I think it does point to there being an issue with MS-Windows itself.
So sorry to hear about your wife passing. I've been there. It's never easy.
Yup. Fortunately for us, we saw it coming. She battled cancers for over 5 years before it became too much to bear. The Lord takes care of us on the bad days, even more than the good. He has blessed us far more than we can ever comprehend.
Wiping the iPad Mini is extremely easy, Zeugma. It takes just a couple of minutes to return it to factory blank condition and it is completely clear, unlike the vast majority of Android tablets and phones which cannot be completely erased.
Oh, I'm fully aware of that. The reason I'm delaying doing a wipe of the device is because she was the person who managed the bills in our household. There is information on it that I'll be needing for a while. I'll probably not be wiping it until after tax season is over just in case I need something from it. My Mother-in-Law has taken over her MacBook, and we left WifeofZeugma's user on it, (which we had a fun time resetting the password for), for exactly the same reason.
I'm well aware of the difficulties of completely wiping android devices that weren't as well engineered as the iPad. When I finally dump the one I'm using I'll probably do so with a sledge hammer and a blowtorch. :-)
As for the file sharing stuff, it's not really that simple. I tend to share stuff in the family with DVD's and fobs because it tends to not really be a matter of a couple of files. Fobs are actually just about cheap enough for the amount of data that you can put on them these days, but they still can't beat a DVD for cheap media, that is fairly hardy for what it is.
It's a preference thing more than anything else. I'm turning more into an old curmudgeon as time passes. Don't like the 'cloud' so much.
Heck, I've started to get really annoyed with Linux distros over the past few years, as they've let systemd creep into, and take over subsystems in a way that I really don't particularly care for.
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