rescuecom

Computer repair company RESCUECOM puts out regular reports on computer reliability. Basically, the company analyzes the number of service calls it gets about computers from a particular company with the number of units shipped by that computer maker. Using this method, RESCUECOM concluded that Apple computers were the most reliable in 2008. But for the first quarter of 2009, Asus and Lenovo top the list, with Apple falling to second or third place depending on how you interpret RESCUECOM’s figures.

So what led to this shift? Netbooks. Asus began shipping huge numbers of Eee PC mini-laptops in 2008 and that led to a quick increase in overall market share. But RESCUECOM got a “disproportionately small” number of calls for support regarding these netbooks and other Asus products. This could mean that Asus notebooks really are more reliable. Or it could be that people who buy a $400 ultraportable don’t expect miracles from it and don’t bother to call for support if something goes wrong.

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16 replies on “Report: Asus takes most reliable computer title from Apple”

  1. My first ASUS, bought 7 years ago, handles windows 7 better than it did XP, which it came with.

  2. Just got one on Friday, I’m taken it back Monday! JUNK, JUNK, JUNK!

    1. Asus is definitely the best laptop made. I’ve owned many of them.

      1. I’ve owned 1 mac over 6 years and it is still 100% up-to-date with it’s OS. how’s your first Asus handling Windows 7?

  3. Gee. It might be a problem with Rescue’s marketing model. 😉

    I bet a “disproportional few” number of people who buy **low cost**
    machines want to pay for service. 😉

  4. Hurray! now go and release OS X drivers for all your hardware please.

    1. Wow, I didn’t know that, but you are absolutely right! My Macbook (late 2008 white model) is one of the highest quality machines I’ve ever run. Then again, my MSI Wind isn’t bad at all and runs Mac OS X almost as well as the Macbook does.

  5. My eeepc broke, the flash memory failed. It was not worth getting it fixed, so I bought another netbook for $250.

    Their netbooks aren’t more reliable, people just throw them away instead of fixing them.

  6. Another factor rendering this data useless is the likelihood that Asus machines are more likely to be bought by technologically-savvy people, as at least where I live, they have less distribution through the typical consumer retail channels than the big guys. Grandmothers are more likely to buy the HP deal-of-the-week at Wal-mart than typical Asus buyers who buy online from newegg.com or the like.

  7. Hang on, why should anyone with an in-warranty computer call an outfit like RESCUECOM for service? They will go to the warranty provider – the manufacturer. So how can computers shipped in the quarter being measured be at all relevant to the call stats? And the calls measured is not the total, but a sample of 15,000.

    Basically, this is meaningless drivel designed to grab press.

  8. My experience with four different Asus netbooks has been that they are of very high quality. I have personally handled the 701(linux) the 901(linux) the S101(xp) and the 1000h(xp)

    The most severe technical problem any of those machines have experienced to date was a non-seated keyboard on the S101. I removed the keyboard and found a little clear piece of rubber hose about 1/2″ long jammed under the keyboard. Once that was removed, no problems.

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