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Adrian Kingsley-Hughes
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Apple tops customer satisfaction index once again

By | September 20, 2011, 7:40am PDT

Summary: What is it about Apple that makes its customers more satisfied than those of other computer makers?

A poll of 70,000 consumers by the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) shows that Apple continues to hold on to a comfortable lead over computer OEMs when it comes to consumer satisfaction.

Here are the results:

This score puts Apple one point up on 2011, and it holds a nine point lead over the closest competitor.

Which begs the question … why does Apple hold such a commanding lead? Claes Fornell, founder of the ACSI, had this to say

“In the eight years that Apple has led the PC industry in customer satisfaction, its stock price has increased by 2,300%. Apple’s winning combination of innovation and product diversification—including spinning off technologies into entirely new directions—has kept the company consistently at the leading edge.”

This is an interesting point, but I’m not so sure that it’s innovation and diversification which makes the difference. Sure, there’s a halo around pretty much everything that Apple does, but I’m not sure that extends to people’s satisfaction with the company. No, I think people are giving Apple a high satisfaction rating based on two things:

  • Reliability
  • Customer service/support

PC OEMs need to take a serious look at this list and come up with ways to make their customers happier, because, as Apple has proved, happy customers come back!

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Topics

Apple Inc., Customer Satisfaction, Poll, Product Marketing, Marketing, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes is an internationally published technology author who has devoted over a decade to helping users get the most from technology.

Disclosure

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

All opinions expressed on Hardware 2.0 are those of Adrian Kingsley-Hughes. Every effort is made to ensure that the information posted is accurate. If you have any comments, queries or corrections, please contact Adrian via the email link here. Any possible conflicts of interest will be posted below. [Updated: February 23, 2010] - Adrian Kingsley-Hughes has no business relationships, affiliations, investments, or other actual/potential conflicts of interest relating to the content posted so far on this blog.

Biography

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes is an internationally published technology author who has devoted over a decade to helping users get the most from technology -- whether that be by learning to program, building a PC from a pile of parts, or helping them get the most from their new MP3 player or digital camera.

Adrian has authored/co-authored technical books on a variety of topics, ranging from programming to building and maintaining PCs. His most recent books include "Build the Ultimate Custom PC", "Beginning Programming" and "The PC Doctor's Fix It Yourself Guide". He has also written training manuals that have been used by a number of Fortune 500 companies.

Adrian also runs a popular blog under the name The PC Doctor, where he covers a range of computer-related topics -- from security to repairing and upgrading.

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RE: Apple tops customer satisfaction index once again
msalzberg 21st Sep
@athynz

No, toddybottom is correct. Drawing a chart like this leads to a false conclusion, as the length of the bars don't match up with the data.
View in thread
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RE: Apple tops customer satisfaction index once again
Rick_Kl 20th Sep
My best guess is that Apple does not make budget hardware. Meaning that you will not find cheaply made $300 computers made by Apple. It is the large number of these that are made by the other OEMs that bring their numbers down. If you were to eliminate the low end garbage, I am sure the other OEMs numbers would be closer to Apple???s numbers.
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RE: Apple tops customer satisfaction index once again
bobiroc 20th Sep
@Rick_Kl

I have been saying that for years. In over 20 years working in IT I find that most people complaining about their PC purchased a budget unit and when competition got more fierce to get prices down we saw more budget uints and brands focused entirely on budget come out. They used cheaper parts to keep costs down while many of them offered model lines of higher quality.

That being said every brand has had their share of lemons and manufacturing issues. Also a considerable amount of blame on a "bad" computer falls on the end user. I cannot tell you how many I still see today that users smoke around, eat around and generally treat like crap. I constantly have to yell at my teachers and students that just toss laptops on desks and slam lids down.

The only thing I will agree with is that many brands have had terrible phone support. They outsource to the lowest bidders and train monkeys to read from a screen. Add in the translation factor to a not so savvy computer user and it ends up being a big mess. I think Apple trains their employees better on the human factor and they know how to talk to people in need of support. That makes a huge difference.
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RE: Apple tops customer satisfaction index once again
Rick_Kl 20th Sep
@bobiroc It was the great race to the bottom that is responsible for the lower consumer satisfaction rating. When you use crap to make a product, then the end product will mostly be crap. grin
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And then their sales share would drop by 95%
Bruizer 20th Sep
@Rick_Kl

The other manufactures mostly have only low end garbage. Dell has their AlienWare line that makes some pretty high-end (but plenty heavy) transportable laptops.

Acer? HP (They used to make some nice consumer stuff)? Compaq (Remember when they used to be cat's meow?)

What you are saying is "If the other manufactures actually concentrated on making quality hardware, their customer satisfaction would match Apple's" Ya think?
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So what's the alternative?
toddybottom 20th Sep
@Bruizer
All computers should cost more than $1,000 and all cars should cost more than $100,000 and all houses should cost more than $1,000,000?

Computers have become as popular and as useful as they are because they have been made available at affordable prices to so many people. Yes, there are tradeoffs. Of course there are. In the end though, Apple has benefited from the popularity of the affordable home PC. A large majority of Apple's profits come from people with inexpensive Windows PCs buying Apple iPods, iPhones, and iPads. Many of those sales would never have happened if all computers cost more than $1,000.

You could come back and say that the iPad is a $500 computer and I wouldn't even disagree with you. The iPad only came out a couple years ago though. Before then, if you wanted a $500 computer, you couldn't buy it from Apple.
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Yet more lies and obfuscation?
Bruizer 20th Sep
@toddybottom

"All computers should cost more than $1,000"

Is that all you have to offer?

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_mac/family/mac_mini

They started out at $499 a few years ago.
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Who is the liar? You are.
toddybottom Updated - 20th Sep
@Bruizer
They start at $599. With no monitor. No keyboard. No mouse.

Try again.

Edited based on msalzberg's comment:
Who is the liar? You are.
They started at $499. With no monitor. No keyboard. No mouse.

Try again.
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RE: Apple tops customer satisfaction index once again
Peter Perry 20th Sep
@Bruizer actually, they typically have 3 different tiers of quality but too many Americans are buying the special made for Walmart models and those are crap.
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RE: Apple tops customer satisfaction index once again
msalzberg Updated - 20th Sep
@toddybottom

Please note the tense Bruizer used in his comment, which matches the tense in your last sentence.

Your inability to understand correct usage of the English language does not make him a liar.
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RE: Apple tops customer satisfaction index once again
CowLauncher 20th Sep
@Rick_Kl iPads are less expensive then many competitors offerings, so your theory may be shite to some degree. It may be closer to the truth to say that Apple's numbers are higher because they control every aspect of their products and services.
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Good point
toddybottom 20th Sep
@CowLauncher
Apple also sells mice for less than $100 and that is way less than many competitors offerings, including netbooks.

So you just made an excellent point.
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RE: Apple tops customer satisfaction index once again
partman1969@... 20th Sep
@toddybottom
My favorite mouse for my PC is a Logitech MX costing around 100 retail. Your point about the Apple Mouse retailing for 69.00 is what? I generally agree you get what you pay for and also Apple's in house tech has a lot to do with their reliability and customer satisfaction. I use and am happy with both PC and Apple, the only nuisances are you biased Windows users.
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Yes and no...
olePigeon Updated - 20th Sep
Yes and no. I would agree that the experience would be better with higher end equipment (less component failures), but even in the high end market Apple is tough to beat. There is not a single company out there that makes their desktop PCs out of 1/4" sheet of solid aluminum, every component socketed (from the fans to the HDDs), and almost no visible wires. The Mac Pro is a gorgeous machine.

In any event, even if the majority of OEMs were able to produce products of similar quality, they still have the problem with tech support.

I've been in IT for about 15 years, and I can say that if Dell's customer support for everyone else was as good as their Business support, Dell would easily top the charts in customer support. Unfortunately, their business and regular support are as different as night and day.
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RE: Apple tops customer satisfaction index once again
Peter Perry 20th Sep
@Rick_Kl That seems reasonable and should show up if broken out based on sales per model.
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RE: Apple tops customer satisfaction index once again
partman1969@... 20th Sep
@Rick_Kl
Yet the same complaint is always used that Apple is too expensive. Are these same people buying the junk that makes PC look bad?
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Innovation and diversification and budget hardware?
William Farrell 20th Sep
@Rick_Kl
Don't forget a big reason why Apple scores higher - they're the only consumer electronics company with actual Apple repair centers (Apple stores) accesable to the end user to walk into.

Dell needs to schedule techs after the end user techs it out, as do all the others mentioned, and all of it with phone support.

I'm surprised that even with that massive advantage that they're only 9 points above 2nd place HP.
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RE: Apple tops customer satisfaction index once again
bobiroc 20th Sep
@William Farrell

Or they bring it back to Best Buy where they bought it from and some teenage member of Geek Squad who knows just enough about computers to be dangerous screws it up more. I have taken in so many post-geek squad repairs over the past few years to know they are clueless just like many of the mindless drones they put on phone support.
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Have you ever seen irrational attachment to an HP?
BillDem 20th Sep
I have a Mac, an iPad 2, and an iPhone. I think the industrial designs of the products are great, but I've had trouble with all three and my Apple store experiences have been annoying at best. If I had been asked about satisfaction, my answer would have been quite different than most entrenched Apple owners.

I suspect the reason Apple's customer satisfaction is so high has nothing to do with the reliability of the products or even the support. My Windows desktops have been more trouble-free than any of my Apple products. My observation, from personal experience and watching the irrational comments on this site alone, is that the cult-like zealotry bestowed upon the owners of the products by a master salesman in a black turtleneck is skewing the reported satisfaction. In other words, the members of the elitist club don't want outsiders to know what it's really like inside because they don't want to hurt the ongoing recruitment efforts.

For example, I have talked with acquaintances who are Mac users and they immediately say they've never had trouble with their Macs. Then I ask them if they've ever had a kernel panic. The answer is almost always "yes." Then I ask if they ever get the twirling beach ball that never goes away. Again, "yes." I point out that those are system and application crashes. Their eyes glaze over and they say, "I don't think so. I thought only Windows had those." Nice sales job, there.
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Odd that...
James Quinn 20th Sep
@BillDem ... I can understand "one" device going bad or being bad cause yes even Apple is made up of imperfect human beings (In fact given that as a basis I'm actually shocked Apple does as well as it does). Still to have two separate and distinctive Apple devices that has given you problems odds wise begins to boggle. Oh I've been in the computer repair/support field all my adult life and this month I turn 49:). Now to "think" you've had problems with not two but three separate Apple devices or any manufacturer I've know and this includes the likes of Packard Bell mind you is amazing and trully mind boggling to be frank it is mathematically or statistically hard to believe.

Pagan jim
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RE: Apple tops customer satisfaction index once again
partman1969@... Updated - 20th Sep
@James Quinn
Perverse how the nature of people who use PC only have so many Apple products, isn't it? I own PCs and Apple and funny my custom built rigs don't give me many issues, the oems unless you buy extremely high end are almost always garbage, and my Powerbook G4 runs 10 years before I finally trade it for a functional iPod Touch which unless I drop it will probably also surpass my expectations. I know and understand how Apple garners such high praises.
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See how this works?
Axsimulate Updated - 20th Sep
@BillDem

I have a PC, xbox and an Win7 Phone. I think the industrial designs of the products are great, but I've had trouble with all three and my Microsoft store experiences have been annoying at best. If I had been asked about satisfaction, my answer would have been quite different than most entrenched Microsoft owners.

I suspect the reason Microsoft's customer satisfaction is so high has nothing to do with the reliability of the products or even the support. My Mac desktops have been more trouble-free than any of my Microsoft products. My observation, from personal experience and watching the irrational comments on this site alone, is that the cult-like zealotry bestowed upon the owners of the products by a master salesman running around like a monkey is skewing the reported satisfaction. In other words, the members of the elitist club don't want outsiders to know what it's really like inside because they don't want to hurt the ongoing Borg like efforts.

For example, I have talked with acquaintances who are PC users and they immediately say they've never had trouble with their PCs. Then I ask them if they've ever had a BSOD. The answer is almost always "yes." Then I ask if they ever get the twirling hourglass that never goes away. Again, "yes." I point out that those are system and application crashes. Their eyes glaze over and they say, "I don't think so. I thought only Macs had those." Nice sales job, there.
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Good one.
Bruizer 20th Sep
@Axsimulate

+1.
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Are you lying?
toddybottom 20th Sep
@Axsimulate
Just curious.
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Yawn
Robert Hahn 20th Sep
@BillDem
Ah yes, the old "my anecdote trumps your data on 70,000 consumers" trick. Plus the "everyone who disagrees with me is a hypnotized robot" trick.

I can't tell you how credible those tricks are. And how new and shiny!
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RE: Apple tops customer satisfaction index once again
CowLauncher 20th Sep
@BillDem stick to the facts Bill. Anecdotes are worth jack squat around here.
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RE: Apple tops customer satisfaction index once again
bobiroc 20th Sep
@BillDem

I have been using both for years and have had Windows PCs run virtually trouble free for many years as well as apple products. I have also seen both come DOA or break down right away.

My current iPhone 4 has an issue with the home button sticking or not clicking right and my wife has my old iPhone 3G that works even though it is a bit slow with iOS4. My last two PCs have not had a hardware failure and I even handed down the one I built 7 years ago and aside from the reformat to refresh it when I gave it away never needed anything before. No BSODs or crashes.

My point is the same I mentioned above. Technology can and will fail and it is how the company treats their customers is the difference. While I have run into a few smug apple geniuses that make a person feel like a lower life form I find that when I have had to call support for Apple they have been helpful on most occasions. The only issue I have with them is trying to get parts out of them directly. They seem to want you to be "authorized" to work on an Apple computer so I generally go third party for my parts.

On the other side I have had good experiences with Dell too both personally and professionally. The main difference I found is that the consumer support reps of Dell and other OEMs were not very people oriented. They sounded like robots reading from a screen. Apple seems to focus on people skills as when I call them they talk to you like you are a human being for the most part outside of a few that I have come across.
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RE: Apple tops customer satisfaction index once again
Peter Perry 20th Sep
@BillDem You know Bill, I am the last guy on here to defend Apple but generally I haven't had any real issues with either their hardware or software.

I am not saying it doesn't happens as Olga K from you tube had 6 failures on the same machine.

Also, there were several earlier iMac models that had video or display problems.
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RE: Apple tops customer satisfaction index once again
dhmccoy 20th Sep
@BillDem

I have only PCs, but own an iPhone(3GS, 4), iPod Touch 2nd Gen and iPad. No problems at all on the Mac stuff. Windows registry issues alone are the stuff of legends. Factor in AV, strange drivers for devices, DLL issues and Windows are almost never trouble-free, certainly not for extended periods.

Why are you so unlucky, do you think? I mean, it is acknowledge nearly universally that Apple stuff work better because they have far few permutations while PCs have a near infinite variety of hardware and software. Yet, you your FrankenPC is more trouble free than an iPad?!?! A devices that runs sandbox apps and loads no drivers of which to speak.

And just for laughs, all the lack of trouble on a mac JUST HAPPENS to be because Mac Zealots are lying to everyone and themselves.

Sure.
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The iPhone ALSO won JD Powers 6 Times in a Row
Davewrite Updated - 20th Sep
Apple also won the JD Powers Customer Satisfaction poll of thousands of users 6 times in a row beating all the other phones (Androids, Blackberries etc) some by a wide margin. It also won for the iP4 (see antennagate fud?)

They have also won similar surveys by Changewave etc.

Haters always say this is due to Fanboy Fanaticism (i.e they are fanboys and not objective) BUT facts are :

according to Apple 50% of Mac purchases are new to Apple (mac market share has climbed from 2 to 10% in U.S) and OBVIOUSLY MANY PEOPLE WHO BOUGHT IPHONES ETC (which is much larger than the mac market) are NEW to Apple.

So the only way the fanboy theory is true is that when a (new) customer buys an apple product they instantly become a fanboy! Ask yourself why is that?

Also the customer satisfaction ratings have been CLIMBING since the 90s when Apple was dying and only fanboys were buying apple stuff so why is it that when this old fanboy base is DILUTED by new buyers the customer satisfaction ranking actually go UP?

the really weird thing is now Apple fanboyism but the fact that there are so many haters and people who want to shave off a few bucks (today very few bucks) and get cheaply built products with inferior parts (yeah they have cheap fans, controllers, keyboards etc) wracked by malware issues and poor customer support.

Apple has thousands of 'genius' staff which provide free face to face support: how many PC companies do that? (when I buy a PC the big box store asks me to ship back to the manufacturer if I have a problem, or charge me huge bucks to look at it, then they'll tell me its not a hardware issue but Microsofts OS, then Msft will tell me it's a Software App issue and the software guy will blame the hardware, and the hardware says I got a virus .... Done it before. Gone Mac.)
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RE: Apple tops customer satisfaction index once again
Deb0atl Updated - 20th Sep
@Davewrite, I have an EVO and a Iphone. My new job required me to have an iphone. It's a physically beautiful device, but once I began using it, I was turned off by the severely limited configuration and customization capabilities of the iphone. I can see why the average user loves them so much; it makes alot of decisions for them.

I'll take a droid based phone over an iphone anyday, realizing that the iphone was not engineered or marketed towards users like myself that value choice.
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RE: Apple tops customer satisfaction index once again
dhmccoy 20th Sep
@Deb0atl

Disagree. I value choice, quality and top notch performance. Perhaps we value different choice. I'm not interested in sideloading or rooting.

I am interested in having a wide array of software, having no concerns about malware, best battery life, the widest array of 3rd party case and device support, vendor supported timely OS upgrades and patches.

That's what you get with iOS.
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RE: Apple tops customer satisfaction index once again
Deb0atl 20th Sep
@Davewrite, thx for illustrating why Apple products are marketed towards idiots. If you need a face to face 'genius' to service your phone, there's something very wrong with that picture.

You left out the fact that Apple doesn't have 10% of the applications available on the PC platform.
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RE: Apple tops customer satisfaction index once again
partman1969@... Updated - 20th Sep
@Deb0atl
All Dave stated was that the idiots servicing PCs were off premises. What's so hard to understand about that. Funny If and when you guys get a high mark anywhere, all of a sudden your sh** don't stink. I do agree there are more applications for PC but then again I use both anyhow and without complaints.
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RE: Apple tops customer satisfaction index once again
dhmccoy 20th Sep
@Deb0atl

Right. If you drop your phone, should be able to patch the glass yourself kike Deb0atl. I mean, I sure this guys grows his own food, drops his own transmission, sets his own bones, wires his own home, services his own STB...
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I'm a very satisfied Apple customer
toddybottom 20th Sep
It doesn't surprise me, my Apple products have all been rock solid.

I am very surprised though to see that Apple satisfaction bars are twice as high as the satisfaction bars of all the other vendors. I suppose that means that Apple's satisfaction index is twice that of all the others?
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RE: Apple tops customer satisfaction index once again
msalzberg 20th Sep
@toddybottom

Good catch.

As always, I'd suggest reading "How to Lie with Statistics" by Darrel Huff.
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RE: Apple tops customer satisfaction index once again
Deb0atl 20th Sep
@toddybottom, apparently the average user doesn't care about expanding memory or changing batteries.
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RE: Apple tops customer satisfaction index once again
partman1969@... 20th Sep
@Deb0atl
Not when 4gigs and a battery that lasts say 6 hours or so in a notebook seems like enough.
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You didn't understand
toddybottom Updated - 20th Sep
@Deb0atl
Apple's satisfaction index is not twice that of all the others. AKH zoomed in on the graph to exaggerate Apple's lead. While Apple does in fact lead the others, it isn't by quite as much as what the graph would suggest. The real graph would look more like this:
|
|*
|******
|******
|******
|******
|******
|******
|******
|******

Like I said, I'm a very satisfied Apple customer so it doesn't surprise me that Apple is leading here. However, the other companies aren't doing as poorly as AKH would like you to believe.
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RE: Apple tops customer satisfaction index once again
Pete "athynz" Athens 20th Sep
@toddybottom Take a closer look at that graph - it zoomed in on all of the manufacturers and it still shows a 9 point lead over Apple's closest competitor just as the article AKH wrote and the article he linked to. So no the lead was not exaggerated at all nor was the graph.
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RE: Apple tops customer satisfaction index once again
msalzberg 21st Sep
@athynz

No, toddybottom is correct. Drawing a chart like this leads to a false conclusion, as the length of the bars don't match up with the data.
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Toy vs Computer
Deb0atl Updated - 20th Sep
The apple devices, and computers are toys; their uses predominantly appropriate for consumer, entertainment, web browsing, email checking, etc...

The other vendors listed sell solutions that are viable (and pervasive) in the consumer, enterprise, corporate and industrial markets.

Because of the target use, it's a bit disingenuous to compare satisfaction indexes. Toys are far more enjoyable than tools of work.
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RE: Apple tops customer satisfaction index once again
partman1969@... Updated - 20th Sep
@Deb0atl
Seriously I think you yank your tool. Why do you let these ratings bother you. I mean people are biased all over the place for everything they personally own or endorse. When I build a pc with 8 gigs my friend automatically purchases 16. Big deal, next year both are obsolete anyhow.
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RE: Apple tops customer satisfaction index once again
Rick_Kl 20th Sep
@Deb0atl Any proof to back up your assertion? Or are you just repeating the lies of the last two decades? The simple fact is that Apple did not join the race to the bottom of the barrel. When you use bargain bin parts, the end product is often the sum of those parts. There is an old sating Crap in, crap out.
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RE: Apple tops customer satisfaction index once again
Pete "athynz" Athens 20th Sep
@Deb0atl What I find quite interesting about some ABAer claiming that Apple products are toys is that there are tons of productivity apps for the iOS platform, Microsoft Office was originally created for use on a Mac not a Windows computer, and there is a reason why hard core PC gamers use Windows based computers.

I use my Windows based PC for work and play just as I do my iPhone. In other words your characterization of Apple products as "toys" shows not only a narrow minded viewpoint but also displays ignorance - willful or otherwise.
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How about people speaking the language of the caller?
pyrdek 20th Sep
I have had a few times I had to have Applecare service. This may have been five or six times over the past 8 or 9 years and supporting around 200 Apples of various makes and models. Each time I got a person at the other end who spoke the same American English I do. They were helpful to an extreme. When I put a web support call in and specify "Call me immediately, my phone rings with Apple on line in less than a minute.

Add in when I have to ship something back they provide all packaging and shipping FedEx Overnight and the repaired system is back in four or five days AND IT WORKS RIGHT!

Now the last time I had to call one of the other OEMs on the list and get their service dept. I got to listen to that "nice" fill music with the occasional "Your Call is Important" message for 15 or 20 minutes. Then I finally get "Peggy" (or at least someone who must have graduated from the "Peggy School of Customer Service") with a thick Indian accent. And he didn't even help solve the problem. Yea! Why is Apple on top of the list? Gee, I wonder!
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RE: Apple tops customer satisfaction index once again
Rick_Kl 20th Sep
@pyrdek [I got to listen to that "nice" fill music with the occasional "Your Call is Important" message for 15 or 20 minutes. Then I finally get "Peggy" (or at least someone who must have graduated from the "Peggy School of Customer Service") with a thick Indian accent. And he didn't even help solve the problem.] I had to call Microsoft, due to a Windows 7 issue (it hosed the notebook), and got to speak to Rama, the Indian who started off the conversation with a lie, and was told that I could pay $145 for professional support. I was upset because I should never have to pay for Microsoft???s mistakes. Rama told me that I should call the hardware vendor to fix the problem with a failed inlace upgrade from Windows Vista to Windows 7. Why the person chose that route I will never know. My main grievance is that Microsoft sold the person the product, the product was crap, and then Microsoft wanted to charge for professional service?
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RE: Apple tops customer satisfaction index once again
jarchca 20th Sep
I think Apple may take a hit customer satisfaction wise with the latest Lion release. I have both a Windows 7 PC at home and an iMac; my wife and I use both. The recent LION upgrade reminds me of going from XP to Vista; reliability has suffered a bit, and I realize now I should have waited until SP1 (or equivalent) from Apple with LION like we got used to doing with Windows!

Apple's greatest strength IMO is its excellent mobile device technology (iPhone, iPad, ...) which are simply "best in class" for user interaction / chores.
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Customer Satisfaction costs money
Ken_z 20th Sep
When OEMs went super cheap they had to strip money out of the customer service departments. Or move them to some 3rd party overseas. That was a major gift to Apple in competitive ratings.

A very large number of people using computers (maybe the majority) have no ida what a command line is and has no desire to learn. Apple is simply the best at understanding these customers and they take the best care of them.
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Interesting that you would write this
toddybottom Updated - 20th Sep
@Ken_z
I agree with your first paragraph by the way. By staying in the high margin, high price computer market, Apple was able to invest money in other areas like customer service while letting people too poor to afford Macs bother the Dells of the world. It probably would have been better for everyone to simply not sell inexpensive systems and then only the wealthy could have afforded computers.

But I did find your second paragraph interesting because you wrote it on the same day that this came out:
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hardware/mac-os-x-lion-flaw-allows-unauthorized-password-changes/14883
"So, what can you do to protect your system until Apple patches this? A temporarily solution offered is to limit standard access to the dscl utility as follows:

$ sudo chmod 100 /usr/bin/dscl"

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