Quote:
Originally Posted by 100_Percent_Juice
I don't really think its a matter a company having decent quality control. I would think that malfunction/failure rates with most portable electronics like cell phones are higher than fixed electronics like a home line or desktop PC. How many people of that 10% like to put the laptop on their lap completely blocking off the fan or drop it in and out of a case or leave it in the car during the heat of the day?
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True, but most appliances are designed with the actual end-use in mind. It used to be people accepted that owning a car, for example, involved regular mechanical maintenance. Now people demand a car be get-in-and-driveable for at least 100,000 miles regardless of weather, basic abuse, and without much thought. Similarly, portable electronics are so mainstream now that you should expect your phone to work as an afterthought... it should be tossed around, splashed with a little water, and generally abused lightly without a glitch in operation.
Perhaps devices like netbooks & laptops aren't quite there yet, but ironically as the prices come down and adoption goes up, people will expect more and more that their portable computing devices become dead reliable appliances more than high maintenance cutting-edge tools.