The News and Observer Covers the Inaugural Computer Reliability Report

Research Triangle Park-based Lenovo/IBM has been rated as the most reliable computer manufacturer by Rescuecom, a national computer repair and support company. Apple was a pretty close second. Far behind were, in order, HP/Compaq, Dell, Gateway and others.

Rescuecom based its rankings on a comparison of the 20,000 calls it received for laptop service and the manufacturers' market share.

Although hardware quality plays some role, the company pointed out that vendors' customer support could be a factor in its results. The idea: Customers who receive good customer support from their computers' manufacturers would be less likely to call a third-party repair operation.