Apple outscored both Dell and Hewlett-Packard in overall satisfaction with tech support by phone, though its problem-resolution rates took a bit of a hit in a study released today by consumer feedback firm Vocal Laboratories. Based on interviews with customers from July 2009 to December 2010, Apple's lead in phone support over Dell and HP dipped a bit in the second half of last year compared with the first half, according to the study from Vocal Laboratories (Vocalabs). But Apple customers seeking tech support still proved the happiest, with 66 percent saying they were "very satisfied" with the call itself, compared to 51 percent for HP's customers and 49 percent for Dell's. Further, 76 percent of Apple users said they were very satisfied with the representative who helped them on the call, though that too was down a bit from 82 percent in the first half of the year. Satisfaction over actually fixing the problem also dipped slightly for Apple, with 60 percent of those polled saying the … [Read more...] about Study finds Apple tops in call center tech support
Call center pricing model
Sun to expand unusual pricing model
After being promoted to the No. 2 job at Sun Microsystems, Jonathan Schwartz has begun spreading his unusual pricing plans from the software group to the rest of the company. Schwartz, in his previous job as head of Sun's software group, introduced pricing plans by which a customer could use as much of Sun's server or desktop software as it wanted, paying according to how many employees it had. On Tuesday in Shanghai, China, the company announced similarly unconventional schemes for storage and services in the midst of many other quarterly announcements. In the case of storage, the company will sell customers access to a top-end StorEdge 9980 system, operated and owned by Sun, for $1.95 per gigabyte per month for a three-year subscription commitment. The price includes storage management software and support services and increases by $1.50 for better management or $2 for a mirror-image storage system. In the case of services, Sun will sell a collection of more than 100 services … [Read more...] about Sun to expand unusual pricing model
McNealy knocks Oracle for pricing plans
SAN FRANCISCO--Sun Microsystems Chief Executive Scott McNealy on Wednesday took some potshots at a major business partner, database giant Oracle, for its software pricing policy. The brash McNealy twice criticized a significant detail of how Oracle sells its software based on how many processors a server has. And he didn't pick an out-of-the-way venue: he spoke to thousands at a keynote speech at Oracle's own OpenWorld conference here. IBM, Sun, Intel, Advanced Micro Devices and others have begun a move to dual-core chips--designs with two processing engines on the same slice of silicon--and are headed down a path for even more cores. That has triggered a pricing debate for software companies: Should the charge be per chip socket or per processor core? Oracle has selected the latter approach, meaning that a customer upgrading a Sun server using single-core UltraSparc III chips to dual-core UltraSparc IV chips will get a major Oracle price increase to go along with the performance … [Read more...] about McNealy knocks Oracle for pricing plans
Utility’s last snag: The price tag
Moviemaking is a risky business by any measure, so it makes sense for film studios to avoid spending money on production and equipment whenever they can. That's exactly why animation studio Threshold Digital Research Labs signed up IBM to handle the labor-intensive job of computer-rendering animation images. Instead of Threshold doing the work in-house, Big Blue does it using up to 2,000 server processors at its data center in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Under the deal, Santa Monica, Calif.-based Threshold pays only for the computing power it uses. This means the studio can get access to extra computing power during peak times, rather than being restricted by the number of machines it has on premises--saving the company valuable production time and lowering the risk carried by the financiers bankrolling its feature-length movies. News.contextWhat's new: Bottom line: For more info:Track the players "To do all the processing on a local basis just doesn't make sense," said George Johnsen, … [Read more...] about Utility’s last snag: The price tag
Toyota Launches, Prices 2012 Plug-in Prius
Toyota officially launched its plug-in Prius hybrid on Friday, which the carmaker estimates will offer the equivalent of 87 miles per gallon in electric mode. Two models will be available: the Plug-in Hybrid base model, for $32,000 MSRP; and the Plug-in Hybrid Advanced, with premium features, for $39,525 MSRP. Both are expected to qualify for the $2,500 federal tax credit. The Prius Plug-in will only be initially available in 14 launch states, however, beginning in October: they include California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia. The vehicles themselves will be delivered in spring 2012. A national rollout of the Prius Plug-in, however, will have to wait until 2013, Toyota said. The Prius plug-in the third member of the Prius family, which includes the Prius and the Prius v, a larger hybrid crossover. That model, available in three tiers - the Two ($26,400 MSRP) the … [Read more...] about Toyota Launches, Prices 2012 Plug-in Prius