There are even more reasons to be a Mac person instead of a dogmatic PC enthusiast thanks to an industry report which announced that Mac consumers have the highest level of satisfaction in the entire computing industry. In a landslide vote among consumers of all of the major manufacturers of computers including Apple, ASUS, Acer, Sony, Dell, Hewlett Packard, Toshiba, and Lenovo, our tree hugging friends from Northern California outshined the competition by far.
The report, conducted by ChangeWave Research, stated that Apple customers over the past 90 days reported the absolute highest level of satisfaction in their consumer surveys. A whopping 81% of Apple’s customers said they were “Highly Satisfied” with their product. The next highest ranking member of the survey was ASUS at only 67%. Lenovo ranked dead last with a rating of 50%, a full 31% below the market leader in Apple.
Does this mean that Apple’s recent earnings announcement coupled with the impressive customer satisfaction survey results make the luxury computer manufacturer bulletproof against the recession? Unfortunately, the same marketing research organization gives a definitive answer of “No.” ChangeWave found that consumers are now looking for low-end Netbook computers, ones that are stripped down to the basic functionality of doing web-only tasks such as email or updating critical Facebook statuses. These Netbooks run at a fraction of the cost of a MacBook Pro and well below Apple’s cheapest offering in the notebook category.
The report revealed a post-holiday market that has turned for the weaker, as just 6% of the respondents of the marketing survey say they plan to buy a laptop in the next 90 days, which was 2% lower than the November result. Because of shrinking income in many homes, consumers are saying they simply don’t have the money to invest in Apple’s line of computers right now. Will Apple respond in June with a product announcement fulfilling the wishes of consumer demand? Many industry experts do not believe so, worsening the outlook for Apple in 2009.
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