PC Reliability: Apple Falls; Asus & Lenovo Gain

Along with the automobile, the PC is something from which its owners demand reliability.

Based on data from computer repair and support company Rescuecom, there’s been a slight shuffle at which company produces the least troublesome computers.

At the end of 2008, Apple had secured the lead with the fewest number of service calls, but has since been overtaken by Asus and IBM/Lenovo (both companies were listed together, perhaps due overlap from older ThinkPads).

Asus and IBM/Lenovo shared the top spot, with the rest in ranked order being Apple, Toshiba, Acer and HP/Compaq.

Rescuecom calculated PC reliability scores based on a sample of over 15,000 servce calls throughout the quarter.

Rescuecom does note in its data that Asus started shipping a new version of its Eee netbook in September 2008, making its shipping numbers skyrocket in the last few months of the year, yet the repair company received a disproportionately small number of calls to its support line for help with this product.

"The results are in, and although Asus is the leader this quarter with a reliability score of 972, Asus's reliability score should be taken with a grain of salt, even though it was more than 600 points ahead of IBM/Lenovo. We look forward to seeing if Asus is able to maintain the same demand and reliability over the coming quarters," says David A. Milman, Rescuecom's founder and CEO.

Rescuecom's next report, which may reveal evidence of whether or not Asus sustains its reliability momentum, is due out next quarter.