Apple Macintosh continues to dominate in personal computer customer satisfaction

The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) is an independent national benchmark of customer satisfaction with the quality of products and services available to household consumers in the United States. Each year, 70,000 customers are surveyed about the products and services they use the most.

“The decline in popularity of desktop personal computers continues as consumers increasingly go mobile, looking to tablets and smartphones for computing needs ranging from Internet access to games and work productivity applications,” ACSI reports in their ACSI Household Appliance and Electronics Report 2013. “For the year, tablet sales are expected to be up by as much as 70%, while sales of PCs (desktops and laptops) are projected to fall by 10%. Global PC shipments dropped 11% in the second quarter, the fifth straight quarter of contraction.”

“Customer satisfaction with computing devices—including desktops, laptops, and tablets—also weakens, declining 1.3% to an ACSI benchmark of 79 (on a scale of 0 to 100). Consistent with the shift in consumer preferences, tablets (81) enjoy a small but significant lead over both desktops and laptops (tied at 79). Customer expectations of computer products are high, and the industry is under pressure to keep up with ever-growing demand for devices that are faster, more powerful, and offer innovative and improved features,” ACSI reports. “Apple maintains the strong lead it has held for a decade, inching up 1% to an ACSI score of 87.”

ACSI Household Appliance and Electronics Report 2013
Source: ACSI Household Appliance and Electronics Report 2013

 
“Unlike Apple, the vast majority of the computing products by Hewlett- Packard, Dell, and others are in the less gratifying desktop or laptop category. HP runs a distant second to Apple, gaining 1% to an ACSI benchmark of 80, followed by Dell, which drops 2% to 79,” ACSI reports. “Toshiba at 78 (+1%) and Acer at 77 (-3%) are just below the industry average. Microsoft’s revamped Windows 8 operating system, included in all new Windows-based PCs since its release last year, does not seem to have provided a bounce in sales or in customer satisfaction for these manufacturers. The aggregate of Windows and Android-based brands that have smaller U.S. market shares—such as Samsung, Lenovo, and Asus—is last, down 5% to an ACSI benchmark of 76.”

Source: ACSI Household Appliance and Electronics Report 2013

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13 Comments

  1. Macintosh? Haven’t heard that name in years. Well, except for apples and coats. Nope, haven’t actually heard it for them lately, either.

    Can’t even find the word on Apple’s website without a search for articles pre-2002.

    How many people out there didn’t know that Mac was short for Macintosh. Bet that number grows every year.

  2. iPhone 5S reservations almost sold out in Beijing, Hong Kong
    Reservations for most flavors of the 5S have already been snagged soon after going live, with only the 16GB “space gray” version still available. Obviously, next earning reports will be great. 🙂

  3. So, when the NEW Mac Pro starts shipping, will there be a new standard and will the others loose their rankings? Some times you see this in history. Planes we great until jets came along.

    Dell and the others, can you hear Steve Jobs now?

    1. We hope so. One suspects, however, that many users’ responses are primarily reactions to the OS and not the value, durability, or other long-term assessments. That makes it all the more shocking that Windows 8 didn’t push the satisfaction index on the PCs down below 50%.

      The way I look at it, Apple should be shooting for 100% satisfaction, not 80%.

      The realist in you should tempers optimistic hope with an inconvenient fact: Apple doesn’t have exclusive use of CPU or GPU chipsets, so the new Mac Pro will likely be soon challenged in terms of raw horsepower

      Finally, no matter how careful a poll can be, bias always creeps in. Consumers always over-rank the item they bought versus the more-expensive item they didn’t buy just to make themselve feel better. Imaginary perceived value. To this day, Apple continues to do a poor job advertising itself as the better long-term value. Pricing, as always, is a huge factor in consumer purchasing, and I suspect the difference (8%) in satisfaction between Apple and HP would widen dramatically if Apple would offer more promotions and advertising to prove to the world that it’s the better machine — and better investment — for most users.

      … finally, let’s hope Apple comes through with a comprehensive array of Thunderbolt peripherals. Without these, Mac Pro sales will indeed be hampered.

  4. Huh. Well, it looks like the advice I always gave is still correct.

    “Get a Mac. Seriously, get a Mac. But if you really, really, are set on staying with Windows, buy an HP. But c’mon buy a Mac. You’ll thank me later.”

    ——RM

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