Here’s a question for you all…
Why is the apparent rate of hardware failure higher with Apple Mac products than with Microsoft Windows based products?
Homeland Secure IT’s typical client is a Windows based small or medium business, and a little less than 5% of those businesses and individuals have Apple Mac products that we support as well. A larger number have iPads and iPhones, but I won’t touch on those in this blog, I’ll focus on the Apple Mac desktops and notebooks.
So far this year, we have seen a higher rate of component failure in Mac products than we have in all the hundreds of PCs and Servers we support that are from various manufacturers such as Dell, HP, Lenovo, Toshiba, NexLink, etc.
We have had a slew of Macs with total hard drive failures. Western Digital (WD) seems to comprise the majority of those drives as I recall. Not just one model in particular, but notebooks and desktops.
We also have had Mac power supply and video card issues.
All these problems totally cripple the computer in all but a few cases, and labor is much more intensive on many of these products than they are on a typical Windows based PC.
For instance, you should try removing the power supply from a big G5 Mac. This is not a 15 minute procedure like it is on those Windows based computers. And have you priced one of these power supplies? We can get some outstanding power supplies for a typical PC for less than 60 dollars. Not the case with the Apple power supply at all.
A hard drive replacement in an HP desktop is physically accomplished in 10 minutes, and to reload Windows 7, patch it all up with updates, apply all support software like Adobe and Java products will take another 30-40 minutes.
On an Apple iMac 20″ with the black plastic back, you have to pull the front screen cover off with appropriate suction cups, take the LCD panel out, transfer mounting components and temp sensors to the new drive, load the OS and updates… We’re talking about nearly twice as long, and those who rush this job or attempt it at home end up scratching the screen covers, breaking LCD panels or damaging cables that go to them.
But I digress… Let’s get back to the original question. Why are Apple Mac products failing at a higher rate than inexpensive Windows based PCs? If only 5% of our business is comprised of Apple products, why are those 5% of machines exceeding the failure rate of the less expensive Windows alternative machines?
Scouring the forums and blogs results in finding people with the same experiences…
This has me curious enough to track it carefully going forward, so maybe I will post a follow-up, but until then, I would love to hear your input.
If you happen to be in the Greenville or Upstate SC area and require Apple Mac service, please give us a call at 864.990.4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com. We are less expensive than many alternatives and provide fast and reliable service!