Just Got back From The Apple Store...

[synth3tik]

For the past 5 years I have lived only 2 blocks away from an Apple Reseller, not an Apple store, but these guys were the only place to get a Mac locally through out the 80's. They have there own staff, but they are trained in right along side Apple's people, some times even trained more. I always have so much fun going there and usually walk out with something. I can't wait to move away. I swear if Apple was a restaurant I would be fatter then a Dell Laptop.

 

[Episteme]

If I am not mistaken, isn't it the same chinese manufacturer (Compal) building the MBP as the Dell laptops and a few other brands? There are only about 3 or so actual manufacturers of laptops out there for most brands.

Compal, Quanta, Asus, Foxconn and... I'm sure there's a fifth... and that accounts for over 80% of the laptops on the market today.

I believe Apple also use Quanta and Asus. I know they DID use Asus but I've not kept up.

 

[Episteme]

I got that issue... CR said Apple laptop's reliability is "undistinguished", while Apple Desktops were Top notch.

Thanks!

My memory was of "average" reliability, so pretty close

 

[Atomic-Ed]

Compal, Quanta, Asus, Foxconn and... I'm sure there's a fifth... and that accounts for over 80% of the laptops on the market today.

I believe Apple also use Quanta and Asus. I know they DID use Asus but I've not kept up.

Thanks for the details on it. I was not 100% sure if it was compal, but thats who I thought they were using. At any rate the majority of laptops coming from one of these few different factories in china, would explain the undistinguishable category rating people read. I think the real key is in the design given to these manufacturer to prooduce. Apple certainly appears to me to have a higher level of design than most. The build quality is what it is I suppose.

I was reading somewhere about a year ago, that these chinesee companies who get the contracts to produce the machines for the large OEMs were developing a copy cat strategy after having worked with so many generations of various computer designs handed to them for building. Were going to start building their own designs to eventually compete with the big guys at a much lower retail price. This is exactly what AMD did to intel many moons ago and it seems like it could really happen over time. Looking down the road for the future of American computer companies really makes me worry...

 

[Episteme]

Thanks for the details on it. I was not 100% sure if it was compal, but thats who I thought they were using. At any rate the majority of laptops coming from one of these few different factories in china, would explain the undistinguishable category rating people read. I think the real key is in the design given to these manufacturer to prooduce. Apple certainly appears to me to have a higher level of design than most. The build quality is what it is I suppose.

I agree. From what I've seen, if the design is solid (e.g. ThinkPad) then you'll see decent reliability. If not (e.g. cheap Compaq-HP/Dell/Acer) then you'll have problems...

One think I do like about Apple is AppleCare can be purchased any time inside a year of purchase of the hardware. Most other manufacturers seem to limit it to 30 days. Having said that, Dell's Gold support is waaaaay beyond what Apple offer... on-site, 48hr turnoaround, etc. Of course, their Business is even better, with people turning up at 6am with a replacement for a part that failed at 11pm the night before...

I was reading somewhere about a year ago, that these chinesee companies who get the contracts to produce the machines for the large OEMs were developing a copy cat strategy after having worked with so many generations of various computer designs handed to them for building. Were going to start building their own designs to eventually compete with the big guys at a much lower retail price. This is exactly what AMD did to intel many moons ago and it seems like it could really happen over time. Looking down the road for the future of American computer companies really makes me worry...

That's happened in many other markets... :/

 

[Atomic-Ed]

I agree. From what I've seen, if the design is solid (e.g. ThinkPad) then you'll see decent reliability. If not (e.g. cheap Compaq-HP/Dell/Acer) then you'll have problems...

One think I do like about Apple is AppleCare can be purchased any time inside a year of purchase of the hardware. Most other manufacturers seem to limit it to 30 days. Having said that, Dell's Gold support is waaaaay beyond what Apple offer... on-site, 48hr turnoaround, etc. Of course, their Business is even better, with people turning up at 6am with a replacement for a part that failed at 11pm the night before...



That's happened in many other markets... :/

At my business we unfortunately have to use Dell and we of course have the large corporate business accounts with them and Gold 24 hour service. Hoever we had gotten so many DOA machines new from the factory and have had horrible service under gold support. In fact one machine a Precision m90, which was very expensive, came in DOA out of the box. Dell support sent someone out after a three ring circus ofphone & email tag between us, but it was like a week later. They fixed the machine with a new mainboard, which consequently failes 2 hours after their repair guy left. He returned another week later to do it all over again. It failed again a few hours later. This repeated itself a few more times until I had to argue with gold support that we wanted that machine replaced. It then took them about 3 weeks to finally agree and sent us a new REFURB about a month later. All in all it took months and alot of work to finally get our 24 hour turn around gold service from Dell. I am not impressed with them to say the least. So many of our Dell computers come in brand new with flaky hardware issues that can never be resolved. Honestly the only positive experience I have had with service was under IBM with the thinkpads we used to use at our company. Not sure how it is now under Lenovo but it can not be worse than dell.

 

[Episteme]

At my business we unfortunately have to use Dell and we of course have the large corporate business accounts with them and Gold 24 hour service. Hoever we had gotten so many DOA machines new from the factory and have had horrible service under gold support. In fact one machine a Precision m90, which was very expensive, came in DOA out of the box. Dell support sent someone out after a three ring circus ofphone & email tag between us, but it was like a week later. They fixed the machine with a new mainboard, which consequently failes 2 hours after their repair guy left. He returned another week later to do it all over again. It failed again a few hours later. This repeated itself a few more times until I had to argue with gold support that we wanted that machine replaced. It then took them about 3 weeks to finally agree and sent us a new REFURB about a month later. All in all it took months and alot of work to finally get our 24 hour turn around gold service from Dell. I am not impressed with them to say the least. So many of our Dell computers come in brand new with flaky hardware issues that can never be resolved. Honestly the only positive experience I have had with service was under IBM with the thinkpads we used to use at our company. Not sure how it is now under Lenovo but it can not be worse than dell.

Yegods... abysmal.

I've only ever had good experiences with Dell support.

To be fair, I've no dealt with any of this in the last couple of years, but my friends and colleagues in the business certainly haven't recounted any horror stories to me that I can recall...

Some days I just wonder where we can go next for decent hardware support :/

 

[Atomic-Ed]

Yegods... abysmal.

I've only ever had good experiences with Dell support.

To be fair, I've no dealt with any of this in the last couple of years, but my friends and colleagues in the business certainly haven't recounted any horror stories to me that I can recall...

Some days I just wonder where we can go next for decent hardware support :/

I'm glad to hear you had good experiences with them because when you don't it is a real nightmare. Well heres hoping that Apple will treat me right if the need arises. Their apple store people today were very impressive in their knowledge and curteous interaction with me and all my questions. In fact I can not recall I had been served in a business with that level of professionalism in many many years now. A good start anyhow so lets see how it goes...