A company called SquareTrade provides after-sale warranties for laptop (and netbook) computers. They recently published a study of the failure rates of the major brands which provides some interesting data, especially if you’re thinking about making a new laptop purchase. The original study can be found here (PDF file).

A quick look at this data shows that about 1 in 3 laptops fail over 3 years:

Also, it’s interesting to note that lower priced models of each brand failed more often than the higher end models and the new-kid-on-the-block netbooks fare even worse:

Thinking about the failures I’ve seen throughout my career at ESG, I’d say these numbers seem just about right. We not only buy an onsite service warranty against manufacturer’s defects, we also purchase accidental damage coverage and, in my opinion, it’s paid for itself. We even provide “rentals,” as we call them, to users while their machine is being repaired. And, oh yes, I could tell some hilarious tales and name some names, but we won’t go there… yet. The point is, our users travel a lot, carry their machines practically everywhere, (and I do mean everywhere), and accidents just plain happen. At ESG, as in any business, downtime equals lost revenue.

Read the whole study for yourself and if you’re in the market for a new machine, you might think twice about not only that low priced ‘basic’ machine (or slick new netbook) on sale, but also the salesperson asking “would you like to purchase the extended warranty?” This is especially important if you’re going to be depending on this purchase for business.

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