How much do consumers love Apple? A lot, it turns out--and not just for cool music.

The latest rankings from the American Customer Satisfaction Index show that Apple has dramatically outpaced its rival computer makers in the hearts of US consumers. In fact, the gulf between Apple's consumer satisfaction ranking and that of the industry's No. 2 player is one of the widest margins ever seen in any industry studied by the University of Michigan's National Quality Research Center.

• Thirteen Apple innovations: Past, present and future
• The next Steve Jobs?

The American Consumer Satisfaction Index, developed by academics at the University of Michigan, tracks the happiness of U.S. households with everything from cars to Web sites. Five years ago, Apple earned itself an ACSI score of 77 for the second quarter of the year, second to Dell, which got a 78 at the time. (The scale goes up to 100.)

In pictures:
Seven thin laptops

Apple has since leapt to gold. The ACSI report for the second quarter of 2008 ranks Apple at 85, indisputably above silver medalist Dell, at 75. Apple scored 11 points above the computer-maker industry average, which slipped 1% during the quarter to 74. Apple's rating is also an all-time high for the computer industry.

Rivals continue to struggle with consumer dissatisfaction over the Microsoft Vista upgrade. But spurred by the popularity of its iPhone and iPod, Apple is winning over more users than ever before in its history.

• 11 ways to lose laptop backaches
• Seven affordable laptops for small businesses

Between fiscal years 1998 and 2002, Apple computer sales grew at an average annual rate of 1.6 per cent. Between 2003 and 2007, that figure shot up to 23.6 per cent.

"This is product extension at its best, where the new products, iPod and iPhone, are helping bring new customers to existing computer products," writes Michigan professor Claes Fornell in the latest ACSI report. "The fact that Apple is not dependent on the Windows Vista operating system hasn't hurt, either."

Tech critics labeled the new Microsoft Windows operating system, released early last year, a major flop. Vista, widely lambasted for its sluggish operating speed, has been so unpopular with buyers that up until June, Dell allowed consumers who chose any of half a dozen of its most popular desktop and laptop models to opt for Vista's predecessor, Windows XP.

Meanwhile, the dollar sales of Apple's Macintosh line (desktop and portable personal computers) rose 48% during the nine months ending in June compared with the same period a year ago.

Apple's stock has responded accordingly. Like most of the market, Apple was down in January. But the last six months have been sweet: Apple's price per share is up 41 per cent since February. By contrast, Silicon Valley golden child Google is roughly flat with its early February value.

On Aug. 13, Apple had another personal best: Its market value briefly eclipsed Google's--$158.8 billion for Apple vs. $157.1 billion for Google. (Google even topped Apple on the day the Internet company went public, ending the day at $175 billion cap to Apple's mere $132 billion.) Apple closed on Monday a bit lower ($155.4 billion to Google's $156.7 billion).

Besides Apple and Dell, other PC manufacturers listed on the most recent ACSI included Hewlett-Packard with 73; Gateway at 72; HP-Compaq at 70; and "all others," a composite of Acer, IBM/Lenovo, Sony and Toshiba, at 72.

And getting that far ahead of the competition is something that Michael Phelps would surely understand.