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gonnabuyamacbsh

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 24, 2010
324
0
500x_squaretrade3.jpg


hmm I really thought apple would have a much lower rate. My friend thinks this can be attributed to the white macbook line. They are apple's best seller and they are plagued with issues of cracking, and screen issues. what do you think?
 

Hellhammer

Moderator emeritus
Dec 10, 2008
22,164
582
Finland
This just tells that Apple is one manufacturer among the others. They all use the same hardware so at least I'm not surprised. People often think Macs are "special" and last longer but I would say that is a myth. It's not only the white MacBook, they all have their issues.
 

rdowns

macrumors Penryn
Jul 11, 2003
27,397
12,521
Meaningless chart. This is from Squaretrade. What they have under contract is likely not representative of the market.
 

tirnszw

macrumors member
Nov 17, 2010
59
0
This just tells that Apple is one manufacturer among the others. They all use the same hardware so at least I'm not surprised. People often think Macs are "special" and last longer but I would say that is a myth. It's not only the white MacBook, they all have their issues.

I can say what he says is true from my experience. My MBP had to be replaced several times for the past five years thanks to AppleCare. Apple does provide a decent warranty service for the price, however I've learned Apple product quality is nothing more than ordinary (aesthetically pleasing though). Thanks to China for lowering production cost for the price of reliability. All in all high-tech gadgets are designed to break down or to get obsolete after 5 years. Nothing surprising from Made in China.
 

GoCubsGo

macrumors Nehalem
Feb 19, 2005
35,741
153
Meaningless chart. This is from Squaretrade. What they have under contract is likely not representative of the market.

And you cannot really trust one source that likely doesn't ask a whole lot of questions when things suddenly "malfunction". I'd trust Apple's numbers more because they have stricter policies.
 

lilo777

macrumors 603
Nov 25, 2009
5,144
0
500x_squaretrade3.jpg


hmm I really thought apple would have a much lower rate. My friend thinks this can be attributed to the white macbook line. They are apple's best seller and they are plagued with issues of cracking, and screen issues. what do you think?

This is extremely poor performance on Apple's part. Probably the worst among all laptop makers. Keep in mind that all manufacturers with worse failure rates than Apple on this chart sell really cheap laptops which one would expect to perform worse than MacBook/Pro. Also, Macbooks are by far the most protected notebooks in the World (cases, skins, sleeves etc.)
 

rdowns

macrumors Penryn
Jul 11, 2003
27,397
12,521
This is extremely poor performance on Apple's part. Probably the worst among all laptop makers. Keep in mind that all manufacturers with worse failure rates than Apple on this chart sell really cheap laptops which one would expect to perform worse than MacBook/Pro. Also, Macbooks are by far the most protected notebooks in the World (cases, skins, sleeves etc.)

By far, huh? Any other evidence other than a post from you. :D

As for the bogus chart above, I refudiate it with this.
 

bruinsrme

macrumors 604
Oct 26, 2008
7,174
3,036
Does the chart reflect corporatemand consumer or just consumer?
I could see how HP, Lenovo and Dell would be higher if corporate customers were included. Not to many people take the same care of the business computer as they would their own.
 

rdowns

macrumors Penryn
Jul 11, 2003
27,397
12,521
I could put any brand tops customer satisfaction and get a bunch of links.

Where's the evidence that "Macbooks are by far the most protected notebooks in the World (cases, skins, sleeves etc.)"?

And then tell me what being covered has to do with malfunction rates?
 

uiop.

macrumors 68020
Jul 22, 2008
2,045
88
Grand Rapids, MI
Let's not be naive. Its still a computer. Still has moving parts, HDDs, takes abuse, etc. My MBP had had the logic board replaced twice within it's first year, among numerous other things.
 

lilo777

macrumors 603
Nov 25, 2009
5,144
0
Where's the evidence that "Macbooks are by far the most protected notebooks in the World (cases, skins, sleeves etc.)"?

And then tell me what being covered has to do with malfunction rates?

As MacRumors regular you should not need any evidence. There are hundreds of threads about laptop protection here. Show me any PC forum where people discuss laptop protection with such intensity.
 

rdowns

macrumors Penryn
Jul 11, 2003
27,397
12,521
As MacRumors regular you should not need any evidence. There are hundreds of threads about laptop protection here. Show me any PC forum where people discuss laptop protection with such intensity.

As a MacRumors regular, you should know that the people who inhabit this place are hardly representative of the buying public at large.
 

NT1440

macrumors G5
May 18, 2008
14,622
20,818
Do they even bother to mention what is considered a "malfunction"?

This is meaningless for any and all brands represented in the graph.
 

lilo777

macrumors 603
Nov 25, 2009
5,144
0
As a MacRumors regular, you should know that the people who inhabit this place are hardly representative of the buying public at large.

By the same token, if you admit that there are simply no PC forums where people discuss laptop protection, I'd say PC users just do not care about it. If you want more evidence, go to Amazon and search for "macbook case" in " › "macbook case"". You'll get 10,501 results. Similar search for VAIO returns 6,497 results. Keep in mind that Sony sells way more laptop models than Apple (including netbooks).
 

miles01110

macrumors Core
Jul 24, 2006
19,260
36
The Ivory Tower (I'm not coming down)
I'd trust Apple's numbers more because they have stricter policies.

Err... you'd trust a company reporting on their own malfunction rates?

As for the bogus chart above, I refudiate it with this.

How does a consumer satisfaction survey refute a malfunction rate? 50% of my computers can malfunction, but depending on the company I can be pleased or displeased with how they handle it. Apples to oranges.
 

neondrgns

macrumors regular
Jan 28, 2010
162
0
apple potentially has a higher malfunction rate than this chart. Apple takes care of their stuff in house (Genius etc.) If this is squaretrade as mentioned above, the rate of people buying square trade warranties should be much higher for dell hp sony etc. since their warranties are not that great. This means that dell,hp, sony etc. (given that the sample is large enough) should be representative of the whole. Apple's 1st year warranty, however, is pretty comprehensive, and its easy to buy extended warranties. The majority of failures will not even be reported to the public or third party companies as most people I feel get something replaced in the first year, and at that point the apple guys will fix whatever else you didn't notice. Apple is sneaky in that you think their products last longer, but they can artificially lower their failure rate due to their more convenient warranty. Also glaring problems like the 8600gt should be listed as part of the failure rate, but Apple covers them up.
 

Richard1028

macrumors 68000
Jan 8, 2009
1,577
0
All this silly-assed chart does is prove that Apple can market and sell affordable warranties and people obviously use them (AppleCare). Most mac owners are whiney arseholes on top of it. If one of their rubber feet has a blemish in it they demand replacements. (Mine are all missing :eek:)

Also, Macs cost more. People are going to get them fixed instead of just chucking them into the dumpster (like every Acer I bought) and this chart does not reflect that. (i.e., they never made it to the repair shop to be counted).

Finally... Gateway is still in business? :eek:
 

JustSomeDude

macrumors regular
Apr 10, 2010
104
0
Since this chart is supposed to excluding accidents, I'm pretty surprised by how high these 'malfunction' rates are. Even more so, that these aren't skewed significantly by the cheap laptops - the reports only claims about a couple percentage points difference between entry level and premium laptops.

Still, I have to think that people's (ab)use of their systems has some impact of these ratings.
 

neondrgns

macrumors regular
Jan 28, 2010
162
0
All this silly-assed chart does is prove that Apple can market and sell affordable warranties and people obviously use them (AppleCare). Most mac owners are whiney arseholes on top of it. If one of their rubber feet has a blemish in it they demand replacements. (Mine are all missing :eek:)

Also, Macs cost more. People are going to get them fixed instead of just chucking them into the dumpster (like every Acer I bought) and this chart does not reflect that. (i.e., they never made it to the repair shop to be counted).

Finally... Gateway is still in business? :eek:

your reasoning is lacking. If people "chuck them into the dumpster" why would they buy warranties from squaretrade? This is squaretrade's chart which means these are the computers that were brought in to them that were under warranty from them. If you had a warranty would you chuck it in the dumpster? No.

Also, Apple did not do well. In terms of price to reliability ratio they are probably the lowest on the that chart. Asus and Toshiba are surprising. Sony and Apple should have held the top along with traditonally lenovo. It is surprising to see Lenovo fall so hard after being touted as superbly reliable. No one expects a gateway/hp/dell to last.
 

ZebOfMac

macrumors regular
Feb 13, 2010
129
0
500x_squaretrade3.jpg


hmm I really thought apple would have a much lower rate. My friend thinks this can be attributed to the white macbook line. They are apple's best seller and they are plagued with issues of cracking, and screen issues. what do you think?

I would disagree with this report as well. The sample of the population in question is restricted to the owners of the squaretrade service.

I have personally had more problems with apple computers than non-apple. This said I do not have a choice in the computer I use as it is required by my school to be on a Macbook Pro.

Would like to see a similiar report from Consumer reports with data to stand up to the report.
 

hakuryuu

macrumors 6502
Sep 30, 2007
350
6
Lomita, CA
I would disagree with this report as well. The sample of the population in question is restricted to the owners of the squaretrade service.

I have personally had more problems with apple computers than non-apple. This said I do not have a choice in the computer I use as it is required by my school to be on a Macbook Pro.

Would like to see a similiar report from Consumer reports with data to stand up to the report.

And I work with HP laptops and desktops on a daily basis so I can tell you that their failure and glitch rate is absurd (this is just one brand, I know). We tested 5 of the new 17 inch Envys which are supposed to be high end for their consumer line and they all exhibited issues including BSODs, trackpad causing the cursor to jump randomly and often, and severe heat issues under light load. Oh and battery life was awful just browsing the web and stuff (I think we got 1.5 hours). We ended up ordering a maxed out 17" MBP for one guy and will boot camp it because it happens to be a reliable and powerful machine (he had one before, just needs more power) with decent battery life.

HP's non-workstation class desktops are equally bad and is why we only order workstation desktops even for HR and others that don't need the power. We do it for reliability.

We are considering Lenovo because the noteobooks they make that we do order quite a lot of (about 20 t410s in the past 2 months) have been excellent. So we are demoing their t701ds w/quadro 3800 to see if our engineers like them. And we may switch to their desktops as well if we think they can keep up with our volume.

Probably 70% of our (admittedly small for the size of the company and number of users) IT team uses Macs (mostly MBPs) for the hardware and about the same % of us that do use OS X.
 
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