Apple's laptops rate 'Better than Average' in reliability study

I once had a Dell for work and it was th biggest pile of junk I had ever seen.  I currently have a 3+ year old HP for work and this thing is built like a tank, but I have had to have the wireless card replaced on it after it failed.  My 2 year old Macbook at home has had to have its palmrest replaced by Apple due to cracking in the plastic.

I tend to baby the Macbook whereas my HP (which work owns) is heavily abused.  Personnally I do not think the Macbook would hold up to the abuse I put my HP through, but I still prefer the Mac.

What the hell are you guys doing to your laptop that they are getting so BAD.  I had mine forever, NO issues.  I had my iMac forever with no issues.  I had my iphone/ipods forever, NO issues.  I think %75 of it is the USER.

I just can assure you that my old PowerBook G4 never failed and the other 3 since then had more and more problems every time. I have serviced this one 3 times already  so no matter where Apple stands they have been dropping the ball on reliability and quality, that is for sure.

I have never owned an HP, but know people who have or do, and they are appallingly constructed and often failing. HP are (or were) more than capable of producing great gear, but have eared on the plasticy of late.

While I am typing this on a so far so good 1 month or so old MacBook Pro 15" (2.53GHz), my prior MacBook White failed twice, the MacBook Black before it also failed twice (hard drive included - vendor issue, not Apple, but Apple chose the vendor), the Titanium PowerBook before them was very reliable, lasting 7 years - and the CPU still functions, although the display connector failed when the hinges broke. The PowerBook 5300ce (worst product Apple ever produced that cost them almost $1b in repair costs - yes really) also failed - and was then stolen after repair. Cannot remember how prior PowerBooks faired, but I recall them being better constructed. A colleagues MacBook Pro 15" is covered in dents after being bashed around, so I am not sure how tough the unibody is when knocked - as opposed to being flexed.

I'm in the business for allmost 20 years.
As a technician I had to do a lot of repair, both PC and Notebook.
My "the worst" list is led by
Aldi (german player)
Acer
Asus
Apple
NEC

My "the best" list
IBM
HP
Samsung

Personaly I own several Mac's. All are "infected" by bad vents.
Last year I tried to byu a MacBookPro.
I had to return each of 3 beceause of technical issues.
Broken keybord , defective LCD, issues while switching from Wireless to wired lan and vice versa.
And some minor issues.

Nobody can conivnce me about Apple's premium quailty.

Never more.

Is no one capable of logical thinking any more? First, this survey was done by an aftermarket warranty company. Anyone want to guess how representative that sample is? I don't know ANYONE who uses an aftermarket warranty company for Macs. Second, think about the results. They found that netbooks fail faster than other laptops - yet Asus is #1. It never occurred to anyone that this result is irrational (since a huge percentage of Asus systems are netbooks)? Consider also the price issue. If your Asus netbook that you paid $300 for fails after a year, are you going to jump through hoops to take advantage of the warranty? Not as likely as if your $2,000 MacBook Pro fails. Finally, consider the computer life. I've never had an Asus or Dell laptop that had ANY value after 2-3 years. If it failed in the third year, I'd throw it out. If a MacBook Pro failed in the third year, I'd probably get it fixed since the MacBook has a much longer useful life. This 'study' is just plain worthless.

Third best laptop i ever had was a HP NX7010.

Build quality deluxe. Still works great after 5-6-7 years.

(1st and 2nd place MBP and MB)

Taking this flawed survey at face value- Since when is a 17% malfunction rate seen as a good thing?  Imagine if 17% of all televisions, cars, and other expensive equipment failed?  These things cost well over $2,000 and they're only expected to last 3 yrs max?  Why isn't the gov't punishing these rip-off artists who hide behind "software issues" and "innovation" to excuse their poorly designed and manufactured computers? Apple prob has a much higher rate because everybody gets Apple care or relies on the oh so generous 1 yr warranty.  In my experience 100% of the 7 Apple MBPs I have bought have broken down after less than 3 years.  This is more research bunk to push  up the irrational stock price and justify the $2,500 pricetag.  I call BS.