“Apple Computer seems to be suffering from a lot of problems with quality control lately: IPods are riddled with Windows viruses, laptop batteries are bursting into flames, and MacBooks are randomly shutting down,” Leander Kahney reports for Wired News.
“Every few days, there are fresh reports of battery recalls, mooing MacBooks or iPods that scratch too easily,” Kahney reports. “But is Apple’s reputation for quality really slipping?”
“It’s my impression that Apple’s quality control is no better or worse than before — we’re just hearing about it more,” Kahney reports.
“This past year, Apple sold more than 39 million iPods and 5.3 million Macs, all while switching to a brand new architecture based on Intel chips. If 99 percent of these Macs and iPods are in good working order, and 1 percent were defective, there would be 53,000 malfunctioning Macs out there and about 390,000 dodgy iPods,” Kahney reports. “That’s almost 450,000 upset Apple customers, all making a stink on forums and websites. I don’t think there’s anything like that number, or even half that, or half that.”
Full article here.
It’s always nice to read some common sense from time to time.
Related articles:
Apple again leads Consumer Reports’ survey for notebook, desktop computer tech support, value, more – October 16, 2006
Apple Mac desktops, notebooks top PC Magazine’s Annual Reader Satisfaction survey – again – August 22, 2006
Apple far outscores all other PC makers in Consumer Reports Computer Tech Support Survey – May 05, 2006
Apple Mac desktops, portables top PC Magazine’s 2005 Reader Satisfaction survey – August 24, 2005
Apple Computer products top PC Magazine’s annual ‘Best of the Year’ survey – December 16, 2004
Apple Macs top PC Magazine’s ’17th Annual Reader Satisfaction Survey’ – August 10, 2004
Apple leads PC Magazine’s 16th annual Service and Reliability Survey – July 10, 2003
Yup. Peterson, take note.
I completely agree, all these lawsuits are bogus just because a small fraction of the products have defects, you dont see a group of windows users grouping together to sue microsoft because their operationg system is unstable, and insecure.
I don’t recall hearing about an Apple notebook bursting into flames because of the defective batteries. Apple still replaced the batteries free of charge, regardless. When it comes to their warranty: service is prompt, shipping is fast, and the quality is unsurpassed.
I don’t understand the lawsuits – the items are under warranty and Apple repairs them at no cost – where is there a legal issue?
The downside to Apple’s high speed pace of change/innovation has been some dodgy software via software updates and even paid OS upgrades. When I switched from a G5 PowerMac to a Core Duo iMac I decided to try the migration assistant. What a mistake. It moved he files, but made a total mess of preferences, keychain and other stuff. After numerous bug killing sessions and Apple online support (no help), I wiped the HD and reinstalled and did a good old fashioned external HD file transfer.
At this late date in the 10.4x cycle, there are still a lot of bug in the Intel build. It’s good , but not good enough.
How many of you have had to had your macs replaced or repaired after buying them? Be honest.
My last 3 macs have broken on me–powerbook, imac, and macbook, two of them to the point that they need to be completely replaced. That’s a pretty big coincidence if it’s only 1% of the total macs, or .25% as this writer predicts. In fact, assuming that the chance of getting a broken mac is 1/400 (.25%), then the odds of buying three broken ones in a row is 1/64,000,000. I should get a prize or something! Or perhaps just way more macs than that are flawed quality-wise.
What an interesting way to put it….
Better than “Yo, all you whiners and whingeers, STFU!!”
Which really wouldn’t make for good press.
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To the extent (MDN) that it would even get picked up. 😀
My MacBook Pro is in the shop right now, thanks to what seems to be a faulty AirPort card or antenna, a warped chassis and a squeaky space bar!
I still love my Macs – after all, it’s the OS, stupid. But it is quite a pain to have all these hardware issues. Plus, it’s embarrassing when my wife’s iBook surfs ten times as fast as my shiny new MacBook Pro!
That being said, my AppleCare rep was very nice and responsive. And their delivery deal with DHL is second-to-none (my prepaid mailer arrived a day after I asked for it, I boxed up my laptop and sent it out yesterday and it’s already at AppleCare today.)
Super tim, I got my first Mac in October, 1984. To date, I’ve had 2 hardware issues. The first was in a Mac Plus that finally gave up the ghost after about 1 years of service. The second was the Super Drive in my last iMac went out. When the Super Drive went out, I called AppleCare and they sent a tech out to my house the next day. He replaced the drive, and it’s been working fine ever since. I’ve also never had a problem with other Apple products, from iPods to printers.
As I’ve mentioned before in this forum, we can’t rely on anecdotal evidence – positive or negative. For every guy like you that has multiple hardware failures, you have someone like myself who has had virtually no issues. I think that the article’s author makes some good points about this issue.
If you are one of the millions of Mac or iPod owners that have no problems, you probably don’t go to a forum and ask “Why am I not having any problems?” It’s usually only the people with problems that post in discussion forums.
Does Apple have more quality control issues? Probably since they are experinecing phenomonal growth. That is expected. Do they help ease the pain by have good customer service and in the case of one Mac that broke on me, an extended warranty? You betcha.
The question people are overlooking here is how Apple compares to others in this situation. In my opinion….damn good.
So Super Tim….don’t walk under ladders or cross paths with a Black cat cause you just ain’t lucky. Or better still, buy a lottery ticket. Its a 1/64,000,000 chance you may win but hey….it happens right?
Laptops tend to have more problems due to size contraints that make manufacture more difficult, the presence of moving parts such as hinges and mobility that increases the chance of jarring. Apple has had major problems of quality control with parts manufacturers – bateries and motherboards come to mind. I have had problems with 2 of three laptops, but none of ~12 desktops. The floppy drive on my SE gave me problems after 4 international moves, but even that seems to have fixed itself now, as it worked fine the last time we dusted it off and fired it up.
By the way, customer support with the affected laptops has been brilliant.
super tim, you should get a prize. Even if 1% are as defective as you’ve exprienced you’re one in a million. Given the number of Macs sold in the time frame you’ve probably outlined there are maybe 15-20 people on the entire planet with your kind of exprience.
As a counterpoint to you, I own Macs personally and buy them for the businesses where I work. I’ve probably purchased a few hundred Macs in the general time frame you describe. Other than _ONE_ Quad G5 which had it’s front USB port die, I’ve yet to experience a “broken Mac” in the first year. (Periferals, yes, such as a few Mighty Mouses that have failed. But only one Mac.) In over 20 years of buying Macs I’ve yet to get one that is DOA.
I’m sure my exprerience is as much an anomaly on the positive side as yours is on the negative side. I could go online and start a blog claiming, based upon my personal experience, that Macs are virtually failure proof.
This is the point of the article. When either of the extreme cases starts thinking they are having a typical experience and start loudly proclaiming it as so — and goes to the extent of filing class action lawsuits — then a voice of reason needs to shout even more loudly.
Shit happens.
I just happens less with Apple.
Take one look at the stinking pile over at Microsoft and you can see a huge difference.
Apple has a great rep for customer service and product quality, there have been numerous articles about it here on MDN. Apple gets a lot of publicity for everything it does both in terms of its own message and that of its user base, the impact they have on the media and internet is vastly greater than it’s market share. You just need to take a look at a site like Digg to see that people are very vocal and interested in Apple and Apple related stories, both good and bad.
Apart from the industry wide battery problem you don’t generally hear much about problems from other companies. Does that mean they have great customer service and make 100% reliable products? Of course it doesn’t, it means that no-one cares or doesn’t expect any better.
Are apple perfect? Of course not, manufacturing lines have glitches, human error occurs and so on and so forth. Are they still of a high standard across the board? Yes.
Super Tim:
Bad luck on you. I’ve being instal more than 50 Macs on 3 sites of one of my clients.
Issues? Well: two 8-year-old monitors with bad color, some keyboards (extensive use), maybe some mouses and ONE damaged (not to dead) hard drive. Some minor problems with the migration assistant (in fact, just in one case with a corrupted plist. Oh, and two iMacs with high voltage board damaged (6 year old each).
By the other hand: one of the two PC they bought against my advice, in less than a year cannot run for more than 3 hours: it turned off and they must wait for 4 to 6 hours before try to turn it on again. They have to replace the whole motherboard and the power source. It never worked well again.
We are in Monterrey, Mexico and my VAR is a very good one. I say this because we are not in the USA, with Apple at hand. However, the few waranties we need are solved really fast.
You know what our problem is, Mac users?
Very few of us who post here have ever been long-time purchasers of machines from the Dark Side. Yes, we Apple supporters do have our share of hardware-related issues, I suppose, but GAWD! Find a friend or business associate who buys exclusively from Dell, Compaq, Acer, Alienware, and that ilk, and interview them about THEIR experiences.
You will hear horror stories about quality control that will curl your hair!
Indeed, we do have the occasional QC problems on our side, but NOTHING like what my friends experience on a daily basis on THEIRS. Nothing.
Let’s all grow up a bit and realize that the grass is NOT greener anywhere else.
Super Tim, like Jimbo, I bought my first Mac as soon as they came out in 1984. I turn them over at least every two years just to get the latest, and, to date, I’ve had to have Apple repair only two: one Powerbook had a lid that did not shut properly and another I caused a problem with the hard disk by dropping the Powerbook. Apple’s repair service was quick and satisfactory. Likewise, my company has had literally dozens of Macs since 1984, with practically no hardware problems. I’ve used migration assistant on several of our company computers recently, and it worked absolutely perfectly!
super tim,
I have never had a mac break on me.. this includes
– Macintosh SE (1987)
– Macintosh IIci (1990)
– Powerbook 140 (1992)
– Powerbook 5300 (1995)
– Blue and White G3 (1997)
– Powerbook G4 17″ (2002)
– Powerbook G5 15″ (2005)
– Macbook Pro 15″ (last friday)
I still own most of these machines, and they still work great. (I still boot up the Mac SE every once in a wihle to take a look at System 6)
So 8 machines in ~20 years and not a single hardware problem. Therefore I must conclude that no one actually has hardware problems and that everyone that says they are having problems are lying.
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Honestly, I’ve never had a single problem with any of my four Macs. Still even using a beige g3 500 mhz machine alongside my newer computers.
Was forced to buy a windows machine three years ago– went with a toshiba laptop. Hate it. Broke within six months and was repaired. Now, the thing just feels clunkier and clunkier. It rattles. The case is loose. The screen wobbly. I never even take the thing anywhere!
No machine is perfect, but Apple is better than most. Just like all the Toyotas I’ve owned. They’re not infallible, just damn good.
Uh, zero. Not a single service call, repair or tech support call in over 4 years. That was when I switched from the Windows-based world. Only reboots I’ve ever done were from updates that required such.
I had an HP PC and in less than 2 years and in that time, I had to reformat its hard drive 4 times.
No FUD. Real experience. Why I’m a switcher for life.
MW: “issue”. Not a single memorable issue in more than 4 years.
Midlothian:
With one of my customers whos knowledge is poor on computers have experienced very few problemas on the hardware basically thanks that almost all of it is Mac hardware.
Sometimes he thinks that with the Dark Side is the same thing (“All the hardware is the same”) but he has noticed bad problems on the PC side of things and he thinks that it is just bad luck.
However, I can percieve quality. And Apple has a lot.
MW Act…
THE MOST FRUSTRATING THING IS….
When someone has problems with their Mac, its automatically “because its a Mac.”
Can’t get on the internet? Oh, its probably a network compatability issue with the Mac.
Cant’ get mail? Its probably a Mac problem.
Windows machines screw up all the time, but people are used to that so its just another day in the Windows World.
Super Tim –
to date I’ve owned 13 macs, and currently take care of 3 desktops and 3 laptops for the family. I’ve had one repair issue with my son’s old dual 800hz G4 having a bad power supply. Apple replaced the whole computer the second time I took it in and upgraded him to a dual 1gig.
Apple’s customer service ROCKS. Like it’s been posted above, shit happens, it just happens a lot less with Apple. And when it does, I’ve found that they work hard at taking care of it.
I gotta admit…I love Macs, but our family has had the most craptacular luck. Consider:
Out of five iBooks (one G3 and four G4s), every single one had logic board failure in under three years (one only lasted nine months). Sure, one was covered by AppleCare and the other was recalled and repaired, but even so…
My Dad’s old Powerbooks, before he got a Lombard, were disasters. He had two spectacular failures in the mid-nineties on the way to meetings. Both died completely, without a hope of rescusitating them (one spent over a year and half bouncing between repair techs).
Our G4 iMac just decided to stop working. Granted it’s nearing four years in age, but it hasn’t been used particularly hard over that period. Just crumped and went to some kind of BSOD (never seen that one before).
Toss in my sister’s new MacBook, which had all the problems that were reported andhad some kind of mysterious HD failure within four months of purchase…it’s enough to make me wonder.
Again, maybe I’m the exception, like they say, but our family’s problems aren’t limited to recent computers…or even this decade.
Super Tim,
My list is also pretty good, I have an iMac and iBook from 2000 that have never failed and still work fine. A sunflower G4 iMac, used everyday since 2003, a G5 iMac (refurbished purchase from Apple online), and a week 13 MacBookPro, and all are in continuous use by myself and members of my family. I have had one failure, a Titanium Powerbook which has had a failure on the motherboard – after month 60 of good use!
I think you ought to buy a lottery ticket, you’re one exceptionally ‘lucky’ person.