Apple has placed fourth in the latest Computer Reliability Report from RESCUECOM (http://www.rescuecom.com), which provides computer repair and support, though its "reliability score" was actually higher than last year, when it ranked third with a score of 124. In prior years, Apple has often ranked first or second on the list.

RESCUECOM defines reliability as the "physical reliability of the computers plus the after the sale computer support of the manufacturers." The Computer Repair Share Score is calculated by taking the U.S. Computer Market Share of the manufacturer, dividing it by the percentage of calls RESCUECOM receives for service of the manufacturers and multiplying by 100. By considering the number of service calls as a function of each manufacturer's market strength, RESCUECOM says it's able to determine and score the reliability of computer manufacturers.

The most reliable computer manufacturers (in order of reliability), along with the data which was used to calculate reliability scores, are:

° Lenovo/IBM, 7.4% US market share; 2.6% of service calls to RESCUECOM, overall reliability score of 281;

° Toshiba, 10.3% US market share; 5.4% of service calls to RESCUECOM, overall reliability score of 190;

° Samsung, 1.7% US market share; 1.1% of service calls to RESCUECOM, overall reliability score of 156;

° Apple, 11% US market share; 7.3% of service calls to RESCUECOM, overall reliability score of 151;

° Asus, 3.8% US market share; 3% of service calls to RESCUECOM, overall reliability score of 126;

° HP/Compaq, 23.2% US market share; 23.3% of service calls to RESCUECOM, overall reliability score of 100;

° Dell, 22.6% US market share; 33.2% of service calls to RESCUECOM, overall reliability score of 68;

° Sony, 2.2% US market share; 3.4% of service calls to RESCUECOM, overall reliability score of 64;

° Acer, 8.2% US market share; 20.7% of service calls to RESCUECOM, overall reliability score of 40.