WebProNews

Google of course won the eBusiness sector in the recently released American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). No surprise there.

Apple won in the personal computers category, which really isn't all that shocking either.

Apple posted its largest gain in the index to date, jumping to 85, which also happens to be the all-time high for the whole personal computer industry category (the company came in at 79 last year). Dell, the closest runner-up came in considerably lower at 74.

"It's hard not to be impressed with Apple," says Professor Claes Fornell, producer of the ACSI at the University of Michigan. "This is product extension at its best where the new products, iPod and iPhone, are helping bring new customers to existing computer products. The fact that Apple is not dependent on the Windows Vista operating system hasn't hurt either."

There's definitely something to that. Dissatisfaction seems to have radiated from Microsoft ever since Vista was introduced. Why else would so many people still be using XP?

Even people that were using Vista are migrating back to XP. I'm afraid Microsoft is going to have to correct some major issues with the next incarnation of its operating system if it doesn't want to continue to lose customers to Apple.

Insert obligatory Linux endorsement.

The ACSI isn't exactly the final word in a company's success, but Apple has to be pleased with the results nevertheless. Microsoft is probably not so thrilled. They came in just under "all others" in the Internet Portals/Search Engines category.