Apple continues 'unstoppable' winning streak in customer satisfaction

Apple's score in 2011 was up 1 percent to 87, placing the company a comfortable 9 points ahead of its nearest competitor. The average score in the personal computer business was tracked at 78 points on the 0-to-100 scale.

"In the eight years that Apple has led the PC industry in customer satisfaction, its stock price has increased by 2,300%," said Claes Fornell, ACSI founder. "Apples winning combination of innovation and product diversification—including spinning off technologies into entirely new directions—has kept the company consistently at the leading edge."

The ACSI said that Apple's dominance in computer satisfaction appears to be "unstoppable," as competing PC makers topped out in 2011 with scores in the 70s. HP was the best of the lot with a score of 78, while Dell and Acer sat at 77.

The ACSI numbers com from interviews with about 70,000 customers rating more than 225 companies in 47 industries and 10 economic sectors. The latest report released on Tuesday covers consumer satisfaction with PC makers, as well as major appliances and electronics.

Apple's score of 87 in 2011 marks its highest tally yet, besting last year's result of 86 points. HP also improved by one point over last year's score of 77.

Competing PC makers have slightly narrowed the gap against Apple in recent years. In 2009, the Mac maker was 12 points ahead of its nearest rival, Dell, with Apple posting a score of 84 percent.