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http://www.insanely-great.com/news.php?id=1831
Consumer Reports: One in Seven PCs Fail
By Remy Davison, Insanely Great Mac
March 17th 2003
PC software complexity, lack of ease of use keeps Mr & Mrs. Average away.
If your car was as advanced as your computer, it'd go like a Lamborghini. And crash
twice a day. That's the old axiom.
Consumer Reports, a US consumer watchdog has found that one in seven PCs fail inside a
month, for various reasons. Some is software related, some is hardware, reports The
Inquirer.
More importantly, the lack of ease-of-use of PCs persists. The artlcle notes that MS
tech support get an automatic message when Windows XP crashes. When it reboots, and
you revert to the system's prior state, MS's -presumably automated - bug check system
analyzes the problem and sends a message to the user, informing them of a 'driver
problem'.
As hardware and software has become more complex, upgrades have made the PC experience
more perilous. The very sophistication of the PC make it an object of fear, still, for
the proportion of the population who still constitute the Great Unwashed.
As The Inquirer says, "Perhaps if Microsoft and Intel spent a few of their spare
billions of dollars making the computer really workable, those unpersuaded by its
advantages might come over."
Apple doesn't come off too lightly either. Macs apparently are easier to use, but
still "bomb" every now and again.
Analysis: We've got to confess we haven't seen a 'bomb' in OS X - but we're dead sure
we know what they're talking about. On the question of hardware, a while ago we asked
Has Apple Quality Control Bitten the Dust? The answer was no, but the general
consensus seemed to be that Apple quality - and that of the PC industry more generally
- had fallen. In Apple's case this was from a fairly high standard (further to fall).
Perhaps the OS 10.2.4/battery issue attests to the fact that Cupertino hasn't mastered
perfection - yet.
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