Apple's Macintosh takes reliability prize according to Rescuecom

Reliability rankings are fairly subjective and there is always a wide variance on results in these studies.  That being said, Apple’s products (not necessarily their wireless network provider) usually end up on top.  That’s why it was a bit strange to find netbook manufacturer ASUS on top of Syracuse, N.Y.-based Rescuecom’s study earlier this year.

According to Computerworld, however, the stars are back in alignment and Apple is back on top.

Apple’s Macs, which led all rivals in Rescuecom’s rankings during 2007 and 2008, ceded first place to PCs sold by Asustek Computer (better known as Asus) in the first half of 2009, falling as low as third in the first quarter, behind both Asus and Lenovo. But Apple recaptured the top ranking for the third quarter with a reliability score of 374. Behind Apple were Lenovo and Asus with 320 and 166, respectively, followed by Toshiba and Hewlett-Packard in fourth and fifth place.

ASUS plummeted from a first-quarter high of 972 to 166 in the third quarter. 

SquareTrade last month also put Lenovo and Toshiba ahead of Apple’s laptops, which perennially are at the top of most reliability lists, illustrating the wide variance in these studies.