Trends & Strategies | 18 Sep 2006 :
Laptop failure rate higher than for PCs
BUSINESSES are increasingly
replacing desktop PCs with notebooks, but they should be aware that portable
products have a higher failure rate, with as many as 15% failing in the first
year.
A report from market research
group Gartner found reliability had improved for desktops and notebooks but
that, even so, laptops had a significantly higher failure rate than PCs. Only
5% of desktops failed in their first year, rising to 12% in the fourth year.
Computer manufacturers said
the higher failure rate of laptops was not surprising. "Notebooks endure
far more wear and tear," said Kevin Nolan, PSG category manager for HP
Ireland. He said HP had introduced technologies to protect hard drives from
shocks caused by knocks and drops.
Liam Halpin, channel sales
director at Fujitsu-Siemens Ireland, agreed the life expectancy of a laptop was
lower than for a PC and that the risk of damage was higher "because of the
fact it gets moved around".
But he argued that laptops
allowed executives to deliver “significantly more productivity to their company
than those using only deskbound systems.” In the main, he concluded, “the
return on investment is higher on a laptop than a PC."
The main requirement for
businesses was to ensure they had a service and support package that covered
life expectancy and damage risks.
Gartner said the main source
of failure in notebooks had changed from screen breakages to motherboard and
hard drive failures, which account for nearly 50% of all failures.