Many Apple supporters will claim that other OEM's have failures too and point people at the complaints in Dell's forums, or elsewhere. This argument superficially has some weight, but tells only part of the story. Firstly, Apple blatantly market themselves as the reliable alternative to a world of defective PC's imploring PC users to switch with slogans such as The Mac ... It just works, It doesn't crash, Bid [the blue screen of death] a fond farewell and We think you owe it to yourself to experience a Macintosh first-hand . Now, that's all fine and dandy, but Apple has then consciously raised the expectations for their machines and prices them accordingly. I therefore have every right to expect better from Apple than I do from a budget PC OEM. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, with PC hardware (whether from Dell or anywhere else) I can readily obtain new parts and fix problems myself if I choose. With Apple, I am locked into their parts and their repair service and the need to spend additional money on AppleCare if I want reasonable repair costs outside of the initial warranty period. Now, if their hardware is as reliable as they claim, that's not an issue but with four major repairs in as many months on a brand-new machine, I'm not convinced.
