DELL & Micron share the spotlight.
Sonki:
Here is a bit of good news for DELL along with Micron.Anybody notice CPQ is only 'Fair' in all three cartegories,not a single 'good' in any!
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IDG'S PC WORLD RELEASES RESULTS OF LATEST READER SURVEY ON PC
Reliability & Service
More Than 6,800 Readers Rate Their Work, Home, and Notebook PCs in November
Issue; Dell and Micron Share Spotlight, Ranking Highest in all Three Categories; Newcomers CyberMax and Sony Garner High Praise From Home PC Users;
Toshiba Earns Good Marks for Notebooks
SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Odds are, many people use
more than one PC-at the office, at home, and on the go. So, for the first time in its ongoing reader survey on the reliability and service of PC companies, PC World evaluated three distinct categories of machines: work PCs, home computers, and notebooks. The results are the subject of PC World's November cover story, "PC Reliability and Service: Who Can You Trust?" (Available online now at www.pcworld.com/nov98/service and on newsstands October 20th).
The big news? Buyers should consider how and where they plan to use their computers-before settling on a manufacturer. Because, the companies that make the best work PCs aren't always the best choice for the home office or the road. However-while none of the 17 companies surveyed received an "Outstanding" rating-Dell and Micron came closest, with a "Good" rating for all three types of PCs. Meanwhile, Acer was the only manufacturer to receive an "Unacceptable" rating for its troubled line of home systems and Fujitsu received low marks for its notebook reliability and support.
To rate each company's reliability, PC World measured the percentage of PCs that had at least one problem, did not work properly when first turned on, or arrived DOA. Also measured: PCs with failed components, the average number of problems per year, and the percentage of survey respondents who would buy again from the same manufacturer based on reliability. To rate each brand's service, PC World evaluated six benchmarks: phone support hold time, speed and effectiveness of problem resolution, knowledge and sincere effort of technicians, and whether users would purchase another PC from the manufacturer based on the service they received. Here are some highlights of the survey results:
* On average, work PC users are more satisfied with service they
receive than home PC users-partly due to extended service contracts and dedicated service departments. NEC's work PCs had the fewest problems with users reporting an average of only one problem every two years.
* An average of 48% of respondents with home PCs from rated companies reported problems that could be attributed to the manufacturer. The reason? Home systems are often more complex, with add-ons like joysticks and multimedia speakers.
* Based on service, nine out of 10 users surveyed would buy another notebook from Dell, Micron WinBook, Gateway, and Toshiba. The secret: knowledgeable tech support staff and quick problem resolution-in some cases, the product of special staffs dedicated to servicing notebooks.
PC World's Reliability and Service survey was conducted in
conjunction with San Jose, CA-based World Research and Mountain View, CA-based IDC Consulting. From March through May 1998, 33,775 verified, unduplicated PC World subscribers reported on the 81,613 PCs they use at work, home, and on the road. After filtering out reports on PCs that were more than three years old, PC World divided the remaining 61,052 reported PCs into groups based on manufacturer, type (desktop or notebook) and location of use (work or home), and whether or not tech support had ever been contacted. Any manufacturer with a sufficient number of respondents for a given type, location, and tech support usage segment was included in the study. From each of these segments, World Research drew a sample of up to 200 respondents. From May through June 1998, World Research e-mailed individuals who had reported on a PC and invited them to participate in its online survey. On average, 50 percent of each brand's invited respondents, or a total of 6,861 respondents, participated. The information the respondents provided is the basis for PC World's rankings.
NOVEMBER 1998 RELIABILITY & SERVICE RANKINGS*
WORK PCs HOME PCs NOTEBOOKS
OUTSTANDING OUTSTANDING OUTSTANDING
None None None
GOOD GOOD GOOD
Dell CyberMax Dell
Hewlett-Packard Dell Gateway
Micron IBM Micron
Micron Toshiba
Quantex
Sony
FAIR FAIR FAIR
Acer Compaq Acer
AST Gateway Compaq
Compaq Hewlett-Packard Hitachi
Gateway NEC IBM
IBM NEC
WinBook
POOR POOR POOR
Packard Bell AST Fujitsu
Packard Bell
UNACCEPTABLE UNACCEPTABLE UNACCEPTABLE
None Acer None
Source: PC World Reliability and Service survey, based on online
panelists' responses recorded between May 1998 and June 1998 by World Research of San Jose, CA. Results are based on responses from PC World subscribers and are not statistically projectable to the entire universe of PC users. Companies are listed alphabetically within categories.
SOURCE PC World Communications, Inc.
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