[csmuk]

Long post. This should cover it. Family of 5 history of Apple and Lenovo/IBM kit:

2010 MacBook Pro (DEAD 2011 - caught fire after water spillage next to it - WTF). 2006 MacBook Pro (DEAD 2008 - logic board failure). 2007 MacBook (DEAD 2010 - logic board failure). 2006 Intel iMac (DEAD 2008 - backlight). 2007 Mac Mini (sold 2009 - worked fine at the time).

2005 IBM T43 (ALIVE - sister's daily driver). 2006 Lenovo T61 (ALIVE - backup machine - stopped using it in 2012). 2007 Lenovo T400 (ALIVE - bought 2012 second hand. My daily driver). 2008 Lenovo X200 (ALIVE - mail server because it's cheap to run).

All of the above have lived a HARD life.

The only Apple kit I have that is still alive is a 2008 iPod Nano that barely works (to be expected here). Two iPad 2's (one barely manages 2 hours on battery - replacing that will be fun!) and a brand new iPad Mini Retina.

Apple kit stinks from my experience.

I don't want to hear the favourite defence of "anecdote" to this post. Once probability. Twice coincidence. Thrice certainty.

[modfodder]

I've had just the opposite experience. Every IBM and Lenovo laptop I've used has died or had to be replaced within a year (2 IBM and 2 Lenovo). I've had decent experience with Windows towers, but not laptops.

Now my Apple experience, having laptops going back to the Duo 280c, I've had to have two faulty batteries replaced and one screen replacement, all which were fixed within a week. That's 8 laptops over 20 years, each were passed to family members when I was finished and each worked when they were given to family friends or donated to charity.

And as you say, once probability, twice coincidence, thrice certainty. That's why I stopped buying Lenovo in 2009 and finally decided Windows and its grief was not necessary in my life.

[r00fus]

It's s wonder you keep buying Apple kit - my experience has been almost polar opposite - still have a 2003 iBook, 2006 MB with SSD that is decent at browsing, 2008 MB Unibody running Mavericks, 2010 MB Air that's still quite snappy, a 2010 MBP with SSD upgrade running great and a Mac Mini that I just recently donated to a disadvantaged friend after upgrading to SSD.

Only failure I had was a 2004 iMac G5 that died in 2007 - that SOB was heavy, and was not missed. Personally moved to all-laptops after that.