“My first computer, purchased by my parents after nearly a year of begging, was an Apple II+. That was 1982. I was a Windows user for the next 20 years, but went back to Mac when they switched to Intel chips a couple of years ago. Since then I’ve bought seven Macs for myself, as well as at least one of every iPod and both iPhones. A lot of these were test devices that I’ve passed on to friends and family,” Michael Arrington writes for TechCrunch.
“My obvious enthusiasm for Apple products is fairly evident to readers of this blog. But recently I’ve had a string of bad apples come my way, so to speak. It’s time for Apple to stop screwing around and start paying attention to product quality,” Arrington pontificates.
According to Arrington, his “Mac Mini [sic], Macbook Air, Macbook Pro and Macbook ‘all failed.'”
Full article, in which Arrington also wrongly claims that MobileMe issues “are affecting everyone,” despite the fact that MobileMe (.Mac) only has about 2 million subscribers, Think Before You Click™, here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Lee in Oregon” for the heads up.]
First of all, Michael, stay away from Vegas, highways, and anything else involving luck and/or risk because if what you write is actually true, your luck sucks worse than Windows Vista and the Zune combined.
Second of all, Arrington seems to think, like a four-year-old, that his anecdotal evidence scales right on up to the population as a whole. Sorry, Mikey, good try, but that’s just not how it works. Nobody cares about your specific issues, be they real or imaginary, nor should they.
For proof, we need only to offer up today’s news: ACSI: Customer satisfaction rockets for Apple’s Mac; rest of Windows PC industry drops again: “The personal computer industry suffers a second consecutive drop in satisfaction, falling 1% to 74 and losing all gains made since 2005. Apple defies the industry by moving in the opposite direction and posting its largest gain ever to 85, a new all-time high for the industry. The 8% leap puts 10 points between Apple and its nearest rival, one of the largest gaps between first and second in any industry measured by ACSI. As Apple’s satisfaction improves, so too have its sales, market share, net income, and stock price.”
Must we really go to his website and drive his traffic up?
I can say that my old G4s, G5, and PowerBook were flawless. However, my MacBook Pro has had lots of small issues. The super drive has never worked properly despite being looked at a number of times. The Power cord stopped working and the battery would work for only about ten minutes after about a month.
The first week, the tilde key popped off as well (not exactly a highly used key), also, the hook that keeps the top closed doesn’t latch properly and some of the seams between the metal and the rubber are separated a bit (this was right from the beginning, not over time).
All that being said, it is still a brilliant performer overall, and I would still buy another.
My last 2 macs also failed and Apple’s customer service was terrible. My iBook freezes whenever it gets remotely warm or it’s the least bit jostled. My brand new iMac shipped with a defective Superdrive. I took it to an Apple Store 3 times and they kept breaking it even more. The only person I know with an iPhone got a defective one. Half the screen wasn’t touch sensitive.
Writing complaint columns is the laziest journalism possible. It is so easy to find a gripe and harp on it for couple of hundred words. In fact, I could go on and on about what lame article Arrington has written. But I am even lazier than Arrington, so will let the rest of you take over.
The internet is a great place to disseminate information. Unfortunately, there are some that will use it to spread exaggerated tales of woe.
Compare Arrington’s supposed experiences with this:
“Apple defies the industry by moving in the opposite direction and posting its largest gain ever to 85, a new all-time high for the industry. The 8% leap puts 10 points between Apple and its nearest rival, one of the largest gaps between first and second in any industry measured by ACSI. As Apple’s satisfaction improves, so too have its sales, market share, net income, and stock price.
“It’s hard not to be impressed with Apple,” said Prof. Fornell. “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.”
It’s fun to bitch.
Cry, and you cry alone.
Laugh, and the world laughs with you.
I have a mac mini MBP and an iphone and have had numerous issues with all of them… good to hear im not the only one that apple hates
So he’s one of those guys that believes 90% of the planet is exactly like him, lives like him, has the same set up as he does, has the same issues……
I’ve got issues….
you guys read some of the comments. I dunno. It seems that just because a few Macs may be a little faulty these dweebs think Macs suck.
One idiot said that Macs are poor build quality. I’m guessing half of them just had faulty hard drives or a bad stick of RAM here and there. Both these items are made by other people (not Apple) and will take a system down pretty fast.
Maybe some of us should gently put them straight about these facts. What do you think guys?
The only issue I can think of right now is with my MacBook Pro. The down scroll arrow “sticks” and the page zooms to the bottom. A slight annoyance but an annoyance.
Oh, the drive in my iMac is noisy.
Other than that I’ve had great “luck” with 10 years of Mac use.
Any one know how to fix the scroll arrow annoyance?
My issue isn’t with the hardware, I just think leopard is glitchy and sucks. I’ve gone back to Tiger one one machine and may do so on another. I hate giving up coverflow in the Finder and Spaces, but the headaches I’ve had make this choice easy.
“MDN Take: For proof, we need only to offer up today’s news: ACSI: Customer satisfaction rockets for Apple’s Mac; rest of Windows PC industry drops again: “
————————————-
Yes, but unlike other PC manufacturers Apple’s customer satisfaction survey results are without a doubt skewed.. Why? Because of all the die hard Apple apologists who refuse to admit an issue when there is one..
I have to laugh when an issue is posted on these forums and then read user comments like (STFU, stop whining, deal with it, etc, etc.)
I use and love Apple products, but I do believe their quality control has slipped as part of their resurgence… Maybe it’s growing pains, who knows.
Just a few recent examples.
Mobile Me – some improvements but still not 100%
MacBook Air core shut down issue – Major issue still unresolved.
Aluminum iMac graphic glitch and firewire issue (now resolved.)
iPhone 3g reception issues – resolved with new update?
2008 Mac Pro restart/sleep issue -(now resolved)
Major new products, major new issues. Apple is not perfect.
I’ve had issues with each of my Macs and my iPod, but these problems were resolved quickly and completely thanks to AppleCare, and there’s no comparison between the issues I have and the issues my parents have with their Windows PCs. They get no support, every vendor points the finger at another vendor, and nobody can fix it.
There will always be lemons and issues with technology; what matters is how often it happens and how quickly it is resolved. Apple blows away the competition in these regards.
@Original Shiva
Don’t scroll
@Ryan – I agree.
You can be an Apple fan and still recognize that problems exist.
To add to your list :
First gen MacBook Pro overheating issues
Leopard installation issues
I like Apple products, recommend them, and continue to buy. But let’s get real. Early adopters have had issues recently. That’s why I will no longer buy a new product in the first three months.
All my Macs work find, but the Quality issue does seem to be true. My wife’s MacBook has already been to the Apple Store once and her battery didn’t last even a year and a half with very light usage. So even though the Fan Boiz want to cover their ears, Apple is producing a lot more Macs then ever before. I am sure that by shear percentages more people will be having problems.
“Cry, and you cry alone.
Laugh, and the world laughs with you.”
Laugh and cry hysterically at the same time
and the courts will give you some alone time.
@Ryan
Apple is not perfect.
That’s it. I’m selling my APPL, computers and iPhone and going VISTA !
Got a MacBook for 3 months already and find that the plastic casing seems pretty fragile. Pressing in the side give ‘squeak sounds’.
Anecdotal evidence on teh interwebs are not worth the bandwidth they take … one cannot confirm the expertise of the one reporting it (there’s this old support cliché to check if the power cord is plugged in …).
Arrington disqualifies himself in the way he reports: “The black MacBook had some sort of hardware problem.” WTF does this mean? HD failure? Power supply? Battery? What? What did he do at the time of failure? To me, this sentence reads like: “I’m too stupid and too lazy to find out. WAAA. It’s all Apple’s fault. MAMAAAAA!”. Hey, my MacBook froze in the middle of a meeting, too. Why? I had to open two Word docs, one Excel file and one PowerPoint file, with Office 2008 since they contained Excel graphs iWork cannot decode properly. It’s not testament of Apple’s problems, more showing the suckiness of Office 2008.
It takes just one writer to stir up some stink on teh interwebs. The hundred satisfied users are silent. I remember reading one thread on an Apple support forum that some dork quoted to prove “Macs fail, too.” I counted the actual problems there. About thirty posts, of twenty people. How many problems were there? JUST THE ONE, of the OP. Which may or may not have been User Stupidity. But reading all the comments of the “I agree” and “Mac sucks” type made things look far worse than they are.
MDN’s take is right on the money. Yeah, the survey may be skewed.
It’s still better than to rely on interweb anecdotes.
This would be a great Onion headline.
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I just have to wonder at all these supposed problems with Apple products. My company has operated Macs since 1984. We’ve used dozens of Macs during that time. We installed Leopard on the first day it came out, and it’s worked extremely well. I’d say 90% of our Macs have worked almost flawlessly. My current MacBook Pro is as close to perfection as a computer can get. It’s a year old and there is nothing wrong with it, nor has there been. I’ve just not seen all these problems!
“One idiot said that Macs are poor build quality. I’m guessing half of them just had faulty hard drives or a bad stick of RAM here and there. Both these items are made by other people (not Apple) and will take a system down pretty fast.”
I just quoted another idiot who thinks even if it’s not Apple’s hardware that its not their problem. Guess who puts it all together and puts their name on it? APPLE.
It’s called quality assurance… Don’t pass the blame.