In the last two years the failure rate of desktop PCs and notebooks dropped about 25 percent, but there's still room for improvement, a research firm reported this week.
In releasing the figures, Gartner Inc. saw good and bad news in the numbers. The good news was the decline; the bad news was that the annual failure rates of notebooks still ranged from 15 percent for machines bought today to a projected 20 percent in three years.
Three years ago, the AFRs for laptops averaged 20 percent the first year, climbing to 28 percent in the third year. Desktops today had far lower AFRs, ranging from 5 percent in year one to a projected 12 percent four years from now. Four years ago, the range was 7 percent to 15 percent.
