If It Prints, I'll Let You Know

Most Reliable Tech Brands for 2009

If there is one thing that consumers will want to have from a gadget purchase, it will have to be reliability. Why would anyone want to buy something that will conk out after a couple of months or so?

PC World asked 45,000 readers about the various tech brands that won them over in 2009; we are sharing the survey results with you in the hope that the knowledge will help you with the tech purchase decisions that you may make in 2010.

Since our main interest, after all, is in printers, we first take a look at the printer manufacturers that emerged as winners. Canon and Brother emerged as top seed as far as printers were concerned; on the other end of the spectrum is HP, which was seen by a majority of respondents as least reliable.

Canon dominated in more than just printers, emerging as a crowd favorite among digital cameras as well. In the PC arena, Apple was deemed as the best choice for both desktops and laptops, accompanied by Sony for the former and Toshiba for the latter.

Being a big-time manufacturer did not do much for HP, as they were in the losing end not just in printers but for both laptops and desktops as well. Dell was also not a favorite among laptop users, while CyberPower and Gateway desktops also did not receive rave reviews.

PC World asked the vice president of HP’s American customer support operations, Jodi Schilling, about the company’s performance in the survey. Schilling gave the following statement: “We’re trying to move to a leadership position in service and support, and that’s taking a large investment and some time.”