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Tech Check
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Talk about timing: When it comes to a customer satisfaction survey comparing Apple's Macs with everyone else, the Forrester Research report out this morning could not have come at a better time. 
Forrester polled 4,600 consumers to come up with the Customer Experience Index for 113 firms in 12 different industries, and in PCs, "Apple dominates in customer experience." Overall, "there's no doubt about which company wins the customer experience battle among PC manufacturers: Apple. Apple's rating of 80 percent was 14 points higher than that of the next firm on the list, Gateway." Dell, by the way, brought up the rear with the lowest overall score and one of three firms rated "poor."
Apple also enjoyed double-digit gaps with all its competitors in categories like "easy-to-use," "useful," and "enjoyable."
Anything over 85 on this list is considered "excellent," and overall, Apple scored an 80. Gateway came in second at 66, Hewlett-Packard scored a 64, just missing the "Okay" category by a single point and relegated to "Poor," along with Compaq (63) and Dell (58.) In fact, in the "Enjoyable" category, Dell scored a 47, well below the "Very Poor" threshold of 55. Ouch.
The reason the timing of this report is so important: Microsoft has embarked on a significant ad campaign detailing the differences between Macs and PCs, focusing specifically on price. But it's these kinds of intangibles, above and beyond price, that make Mac a better buy. It's something the Mac faithful have been roaring about since those Microsoft ads began. And now it's something that no less a research authority than Forrester is validating.
Forrester isn't making purchase recommendations here. But it's clear that buying something as important and complex as a computer should be about a lot more than merely price. Couple that with design and overall experience and it isn't even a contest, even with the Apple tax that Steve Ballmer always carps about. There's tax, and taxing, and based on Mac sales these last couple of years, it appears consumers are buying that message. By the millions.
Questions? Comments?
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes