Sam Oliver
The American Customer Satisfaction Index on Tuesday released its annual survey of the PC industry, and on the index's 100-point scale, Apple gained 2 percent to reach 86 — its highest score ever. 2010 marks the seventh straight year that Apple has topped the PC industry.
Apple is also 9 points ahead of its next-closest competitors: Dell, Acer and HP, in a three-way tie at 77. In fact, other PC makers, including Toshiba and Sony, also came in with a score of 77, suggesting customers view the rest of the PC industry's service equally.
Industry-wide improvements were seen as a positive consumer response to the release of Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system last year.
"Windows-based PC brands appear to have recovered from the problems associated with the Windows Vista software," said Claes Fornell, founder of ACSI. "Barely a year into the release of Windows 7, satisfaction with these brands has returned to, and in some cases even surpassed, the levels prior to the launch of Vista."
Though the PC industry has seen better customer service, according to users, in 2010, those who had to contact customer support are 8 percent less satisfied than those who had no post-purchase contact with the manufacturer or retailer.
Chart via CNN Money.
The index is updated each quarter and factors in scores from more than 225 companies in 45 industries and from government agencies. ACSI was founded at the University of Michigan.
Last year, Apple's ACSI score was 84, 12 points ahead of its nearest rival, Dell. This year's score of 86 bested Apple's previous best of 85 in 2008, which set a new all-time high for the PC industry.
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44 Comments
Well done Apple!
congrats Applehowever, this also states that the other companies are catching up, as is Windows with W7
well, if it leads to more improvements (in windows and OS X) i am happy
also i have to say, Dell must have improved sense i last bought anything from them.
i think this is good, as i thing this is due in part to the economy and making people want to keep buyimh from you is important, i hope if/when the economy gets better, this continues to rise, or at least not drop
Well done Apple!
Windows 7 seems to be some light shining in the dark of Windows World. But for now I think I keep on using apple for my main computing needs.
The dip after vista does not look as big as I expected. I guess PC makers handled it pretty well all things considered. Also of note that both Apple and Dells of the world have been steadily improving since the iMac introduction (although at a slower pace for PCs)
Windows 7 seems to be some light shining in the dark of Windows World. But for now I think I keep on using apple for my main computing needs.
I use both and yes 7 is better than Vista, to me it feels like XP only working a bit better. However, it is so far behind the pleasurable experience of OS X and for that matter iOS as to be a 'use only when really needed' for me. That is, only when needed is to check web work appears correctly on a PC (which it often doesn't even in 7) and that's about it!