PCWorld has published the results of its latest survey of online and retail technology stores, naming Apple the “clear winner” overall. Anne Kandra writes in the article accompanying the news that “63 percent of survey respondents who had visited the [brick-and-mortar] Apple Store rated the overall quality of its buying advice a 6 or 7.” She goes on to say that almost 70 percent gave it the same score for ease of locating buying advice and over 70 percent felt the same way about the information it provided for making buying decisions. While visiting one of the stores, Kandra noted that “in contrast to the cluttered warehouse feel of many tech superstores, The Apple Store had a Zen-like simplicity.”
The Apple Store picked up an Excellent overall rating while the other four retailers included in the survey — Best Buy, Staples, CompUSA and Circuit City — all rated Poor, with none of them reaching 50 percent of respondents who granted them a 6 or a 7 in any category.
The Apple Store’s online counterpart also received high marks, picking up 69 percent of shoppers who gave its technical information a 6 or a 7 and almost 60 percent who scored the site a 6 or a 7 for providing enough information to make buying decisions. While Apple’s overall rating was Excellent, Dell.com also scooped up the highest rating and was competitive with Apple in every category. HPshopping.com was Very Good overall and BestBuy.com. CDW.com, CircuitCity.com, CompUSA.com, Gateway.com, SonyStyle.com and Staples.com all rated Good, Fair or Poor.
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