“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.”
My iMac 2.8 works great. Two iPods work great. My two iPhone 3Gs work great. Fast sync. NO problems.
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My Apple 2e worked great also.
My ex did have a problem with her Dell notebook with a Nvidia chip…
It’s all about percentages. The more you sell in volume proportionately the larger that percentage of issue grows in relation.
There are many people who have problems with their systems that are legitimate. Still others are user related. You can put together a great item be it car or computer or whatever but in the end the user of that device is partially responsible for it as well.
I can’t tell you how many computers I see (mac and pc) that are “trashed”. That is they been dropped, shoved into book bags, bent, spilled on and so forth but the “issues” they have are not because of what they did to the machine but the item itself. It was always buggy, or not working right or failing. My beating it up didn’t effect it…
I am not defending Apple, they make some buggy items like any manufacturer. But if the pc world had a similar setup as apple does in effect that all manufacturers had a store location regardless of brand to bring in their laptops and towers and so on and all their users where as vocal as Apple users can sometimes be, I think you would see about the same level proportionately of failure among them as well.
Given the statistics mentioned by some of the sites however show that Apple’s rates are of failures are lower overall then PCs have less to do with build quality then not having windows on it and all the varying flavors of PCs it has to support.
People complain about Apple because it gets them “hits” and notice. The real point they are complaining about and that frustrates them so much usually is if they wrote about that “HP Pavillion” or “Dell Inspiron” and so on, nobody would notice much less care overall.
It’s always easier to gripe and point out the failures of others. What have the guys who devote so much time to doing so accomplished?
My 1st gen. G5 is a beast, and has run flawlessly for years.
My MacBook (1st gen. Mactel) on the other hand, has sucked. I am glad I rarely use it as it’s so buggy, slow, and crashes all the time.
Will I buy another Mac? OF COURSE.
Will I buy another 1st gen…. not so sure…
@Jeff the Trader:
Despite my one-year-old MacBook having some “side squeeky sounds”, it still looks pretty pristine. Except for the dirt in the corners.
All other laptops I had (HP, Acer, Toshiba, Dell) showed serious usage signs after this time. Cracks, discoloration, broken support pieces.
Does our two stories say anything about the quality of workmanship of these companies?
i have to say that my experience with my intel macbook pro and maybe leopard in general has been less than ideal, i think there is enough anecdotal evidence that quality control has slipped a notch, i found the the very first OSX more stable than this current one, i only started getting those ‘restart your comp’ messages with this latest combo.
My sympathy to Michael, but it does sound like he is one of the unfortunate statistics that have more than average problems. Perhaps some of it is due to his “tinkering” and switching parts as mentioned in his article.
I’ve been with Mac since the original Mac 128k, although there are several PCs in the house (wife due to work, daughter due to school and her employer). There have been issues, but it seems to me that some recent and present issues are due to increasing complexity in computers, software and what we try to do with them. I’ve had a stable experience, but it may be due to my reading of directions, and following “normal use” practices as recommended by Apple. I guess I’m not an expert, but one of the “rest of us” who just want reliability and cost effectiveness. My worst experience is still having a house full of old, outdated Macs that “still work”.
My experience with PCs is different. The problems increase to a point where the repair shops just can’t fix them anymore, and everyone says “buy a new PC” (and new periferals) to eliminate the many hassles. So there are no old PCs in my house.
Michael Arrington states right from the beginning that, “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.”
My question is. “How does one spend 20 years from 1982 using Windows go back to a product that wasn’t even available till 1984?”
’99 – iMac: zero problems, still runs but retired
’99 – iBook: zero problems, still runs OS-9 for sentimentality
’02 – TiBook: 1 problem, my daughter fried the motherboard in ’06, replaced and still running Tiger quite happily.
’05 – iMac 17: zero problems
’06 – (week 13 build!) MBP: battery replaced by Apple twice.
That’s a minimum of 15 years of computing.
And don’t tell me I have all the luck – most of the people I have switched since 2000 have had the same experience as me.
Perhaps the anecdotal complaints of some Apple users are due to “perfectionist” issues, in that they feel they “paid more” and therefore have a right to complain and expect Rolls Royce perfection.
Also, I have sometimes complained about Apple products, because the Apple store most often listens, investigates and fixes the problem…usually for free. Apple corporate is also (I feel justly) famous for listening to its customers and responding promptly with timely updates and fixes. So, complain because it produces results.
Perhaps the PC crowd is used to living with their problems as a part of their platform choice…or maybe it’s because PC manufactures and software produces famously don’t listen, and don’t address customer problems as promptly (Microsoft). So, don’t complain because it is a waste of time.
@Macaday
I thought it was
“cry and you wet your face” ?!
Let’s face it. We’re here because
Mac/OSX vs PC/Windows =
Occasional issues vs Everyday heartache.
Apple lets me use computers and software for work and play in the modern world with far less frustration and much, much more enjoyment. Period.
You probably have a piece of snack food in your keyboard that’s causing the key to stick.
Seriously, dirt happens, even on almost sterile assembly lines.
Shut down your computer and vacuum your keyboard with a special keyboard vacuum attachment or blow it clean with an aerosol can of compressed air.
@FreddyThePig:
That reminds me of my own experience: My MacBook kept dropping wireless. Now, I know where my ‘AirPort’ is (it’s actually a Buffalo AirStation router).
Then I kept noticing that whenever the connection failed, my neighbor lady downstairs was on the phone (she keeps talking on the back porch with a wireless phone, so I can hear her. Not really understanding, but I hear someone talking). So, I figured that her phone transmits on the same channel as my Buffalo, and my Buffalo has trouble re-connecting to a free channel (a well-known bug, as I learned later). Switching my router to a free channel, and everything’s fine and dandy
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There are tons of trouble that can fail the wireless. Don’t be quick to blame.
FTP
That reminds me of the time I was helping a friend load some stuff in the back of his pickup.
He had a bedliner to keep the bed from getting scratched.
He also has a rubber mat over the bed to keep the liner form getting scratched.
Then he got upset when what we loaded scratched the rubber mat.
“Hey” I told him, “it a Goddam truck!”
Like my grandfather always said (when he broke something, not when I did….) “If you don’t want it broke, don’t use it”.
@Original Shiva
Use two finger scrolling. Why use the button?
The Mac Pro I bought 5 months ago works fine.
But then, my 5-year-old HP laptop and my 4-year-old HP desktop work fine as well. My 4-year-old Buick works just fine.
Guess I’m just one of those lucky people for whom mechanical devices work without a glitch.
I have heard of people so unlucky with mechanical devices that they can’t wear a wristwatch for more than a few weeks before that stops working. Bad vibes, or bad juju I guess.
Neither I nor my family have ever had any problem with Apple support – They usually bend over backwards to help and many time replace stuff that is out of warranty. I think that these people who have problems with Apple support are just plain and simply ASSHOLES. You know if you treat support like crap they deserve to not go out of their way for you. I have around 25 Macs I am responsible to keep running and the only things that have ever happened is a Hard Drive or two failed and I had to replace.
I think what he was saying was that Apple needs to focus more attention on quality, and they have been slipping somewhat in this aspect.
I couldn’t agree more!
I love my MBP, but AppleCare has it right now for the third time in two years! It’s an awesome product, but the build quality is not the same as my old powerbook.
You can always count on this site to go all “Leave Brittany ALONE!!!” when anyone points out that Macs aren’t perfect.
My mid 2007 Aluminum iMac is back in the shop for the second time for a superdrive to be replaced. The first time the logic board and the hard drive were replaced. I’ve run Macs since 1989 and currently have four in the house, Blue & White 500 MHz (G4 upgrade) and Radeon 9200 Mac edition, 2002 Quick Silver with Dual 1.8 GHz CPU upgrade, 2003 iBook 800 MHz G3, and the iMac is the only one I’ve had problems with. I plan on getting rid of the iMac ASAP,
I’ve talked with Apple customer service and the rep told to contact them as the first sign of another failure and they will probable replace it with a refurbished unit or a comparable unit. The closest Apple store is in Denver, a 200 mile round trip. The closest Apple certified repair center is a 110 mile round trip, they took 4 weeks to replace the logic board and hard drive on the first failure, but claim to have lowered their turn around time to 12 days and the iMac is currently at their store waiting on the superdrive to be replace. Next stop replacement or a lawyer if I have to take it that far.
Arrington offers none (zip, nada, zilch) information about his ‘failed’ computers to make a strong point against Apple.
MacBook Air: It has to be younger than seven months. It’s under warranty. Apple says there’s nothing wrong with it, so there’s another problem for the wireless connectivity. But Arrington dismantles it. Lazy ass bastard. Sent it to me instead of wasting $1800.
MacBook: “Some hardware problem”. WTF does that mean?
Mac mini: “bricks itself”. Pal, computers don’t just brick themselves. Power supply? Harddrive? I had a Hitchi HD failing in my MacBook. In the middle of work, it just stops getting/giving data. That doesn’t mean the MacBook ‘bricked”. One HD change and Time Machine restore for 30 min, I was up and running again. Hitachi replaced the HD under warranty.
MacBook Pro: What happened to the keyboard exactly? Never mind, Apple fixed it, and the machine has never stopped working. Hardly ‘failure’.
I know that the Hitachi 160 GB HDs Apple used had some serious problem. I know three drives that failed personally (one was mine). That’s not Apple’s problem. It’s Hitachi’s. And they replaced them. For free, without hassle (except for shipping times). And I did not lose any data, thanks to a good backup protocol (why would Apple make something like Time Machine when they “just work”?
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I posted this elsewhere, but it fits here too…
As an investor I don’t much care about the details of your personal iPhone (or Mac) travails. When you are dealing with millions of complex electronic items in the hands of the public it is a surety that there will be those who are just unlucky, don’t have a clue, seriously abuse, or seriously misunderstand the capabilities of their units. I learned in business a long time ago that there are those customers you can’t afford to do business with. These are the ones that live to find something to complain about, are looking to scam the merchant, or simply derive great personal pleasure from garnering extra attention by presenting a very special problem. Most of these people are indeed special…in the short bus sense.
The guy that wrote this is obviously a bit of an idiot. A classic “smart guy” that can’t see his own failings to save his life because he is hung up on his own assessment of himself as “smart.”
The big things that stuck out to me in his narrative were:
– (as described above) he never actually gets into any detail about what actually went wrong with these devices and pretty much never even tries to fix them.
– his response in all cases is to immediately dismantle the device into it’s component parts. WTF?
If I had to read between the lines, I would say this guy is a hard core “tinkerer” and that might even be behind the failures he experienced. His attitude is exactly the same as the type of guy that over-clocks his computer because he knows how, or that other guy we all know who pulls out a screwdriver and takes apart his computers before he even turns them on.
Given the lack of details in his account I am going to assume he is full of sh*t and the source of most of his own problems.
Computers are only as good as the carbon-based life force telling it what to do.
Macs of course can and do have issues.
They have FAR fewer issues though than the cheap Wintel boxes.
The internet is filled with spoiled and stupid brats with more money that knowledge.
You should have to get a license to own/run a computer.
I’m not joking.
As the corporate world tries to save money by hiring dumber (cheaper) staff, the rest of us pay.
As every moron with money goes to an Apple Store, we pay for said morons not knowing how to use their new gear.
I rarely see 95% of the issues I read about online.
Why?
You guess.
Sh*t Breaks! Who do I complain to?
Please Folks, cut Arrington some slack
I know him and his family from the old Neighborhood
His parents seemed to take great pleasure in watching him beg for that year before they bought him that Apple II+
But, in fairness to them, Michael, the lazy bastard, was 34 and still living at home.
He just recently moved out and this is his first job.
The family is very proud of him, has great hope he will make a success of this endeavor and not have to move back in with Mom and Dad before he starts collecting Social Security.
BC
Glad the 50+ Macs I currently care for (and 100+ in all my past years of Mac usage and care) have had few problems.
And what few problems I’ve had, AppleCare has fixed–for free–95% of them. Some were just too old and way out of AppleCarre range to fix, 5 to 8 years old.
He must have bad MacKarma. Ballmer must have put a curse on him for switching.