This subject was addressed by us in a MacDailyNews Take on the Monday before Christmas and also last October.
Of concern is the quality of Apple’s operating systems, software, and services.
In case you missed it, we post them here, combined as an open letter and with certain additions, subtractions, and language adjustments, to Apple CEO Tim Cook:
Dear Mr. Cook,
“It just works.” That’s getting tougher and tougher for us OS X and iOS users to say with straight faces lately.
Apple, while certainly still the best when it comes to desktop and mobile operating systems, needs to do better. Our expectations, some of us as users of Apple products since the early 1980s, are not being met when it comes to the quality and reliability of operating systems, software, and services. Used to be, you could pretty confidently install brand new operating systems from Apple. Recently, we’re more inclined to wait for a few point releases than not. It’s downright Microsoftian. Lately, for the past couple of years, your software seems rushed. Is “rush job” really the impression you want to give your customers?
Slow down! Getting it right is far more important than getting it out.
Frankly, we don’t need a new Mac or iPhone/iPad operating system every year and Apple Inc. doesn’t need it, either. Annual OS releases shouldn’t be mandated. What we all really need, customers and Apple Inc., are operating systems that are rock solid and do what they’re supposed to do when they’re supposed to do it. Why not just add new features/services to existing OSes with continued point releases that refine and extend the experiences and services you want to deliver? Why not just release new operating systems only when they are rock solid and ready?
In other words, take a step back, take a deep breath, and focus on making sure that what you have now just works. Because too much of it doesn’t (Wi-Fi connectivity for one ongoing, glaring, vexing example). Getting it right is far more important than having two “new” free OSes to release each year. Seriously, nobody outside of Cupertino very much cares. We do, however, care very much that Apple’s software and services work as flawlessly as possible.
We occasionally hear things about the company from Apple employees.
Some of those things lead us to wonder if perhaps you should rethink some aspects of the culture at Apple? Specifically, what really should constitute a badge of honor at Apple? Working all day, all weekend and all night in order to squat out iOS 8.0.1 and then have to turn around and do it all over again, in a panic, to get iOS 8.0.2 out the door in order to clean up the mess? Or taking the time necessary to do the job correctly the first time?
People with proper sleep and lower stress levels do better work. Many major medical studies prove these facts. Shouldn’t quality, not quantity, of hours worked be the utmost badge of honor at Apple?
Working long hours simply for the sake of working long hours is counterproductive. It really doesn’t prove anything except that you have no life and that, despite all of their work on Apple Watch, Apple executives still do not understand basic human health requirements and are incapable of properly staffing their departments so that they can function without requiring sleep-deprived, mistake-prone employees who feel that it’s a job requirement to be able to reply to emails from managers at 2:00 am. That’s idiocy.
Driving too hard, too fast, and for too long leads to accidents.
We speak from experience, albeit at a far, far smaller level than yours. We’ve tried and been exposed to several methods as both managers and employees in the television, financial, and online media industries. Regardless of the size of your department or company, people are people. You can push people to a point that’s very productive, but when you exceed that point, it’s all downhill for everyone involved. It’s not a badge of honor. It’s not an “I love this company!” statement. It’s simply mismanagement. It’s verifiably unhealthy and it leads directly to diminished quality, increased turnover, and productivity declines. And customer satisfaction ultimately suffers. Hence this letter.
Bottom line: We long to again be able to confidently say of our Macs, iPhones, and iPads: “It just works.”
Sincerely,
MacDailyNews
I have been using Macs since 1988. We have seven Mac computers and six iPhones in our family. We basically use only the standard software that comes on the computers and we usually only buy software through the Apple Store. None of us have bluetooth, WiFi or any other performance issues at all using Yosemite and iOS 8.
Could it be that all the problems stem from the use of third party products that modify the systems in some way? Perhaps it’s not Apple that is rushing their products to market. Perhaps it’s the third party developers that are rushing their products, not testing them properly and pushing the limits of what OS X and iOS are capable of handling? There are millions of apps, so Apple cannot possibly check how each one functions and what kind of conflicts they create. It’s up to the developers to make certain that their products do not conflict with Apple’s software and cause problems that are then blamed on Apple.
We’re careful of what goes onto our thirteen devices and we have no problems at all.
Arnold, you ask a very reasonable question. I think your own use may in fact reflect a large number of users. But Apple computers have long been used for serious professional use and most of the time, Apple software simply won’t do the job. In audio it’s going to be Pro Tools or Nuendo. In imaging it’s likely to be something from Adobe. Serious spreadsheets will be based on Excel, etc. These are just examples: the field is really much larger.
I think we’re long past the time that most third-party software tries to sneak around the O/S and cheat. I think instead that Apple is failing to imagine how their own system will host other software. Apple’s own engineers will do things a certain way, and other engineers are likely to do something differently. It’s all within the “rules”, but imaginative testing is required to really stress a system and whip it into something robust. This is where Apple is falling down. They need a larger team inhouse, empowered to beat the heck out of the system and eliminate weak points. I think Apple really is a little too trusting of themselves. These weak points in the system WILL be discovered and I’d rather Apple discover them than leave it to me.
Sorry I was tied up all day and not able to join this discussion in the beginning.
I don’t have much to add except the obvious – IT IS VERY SATISFYING TO SEE MDN AND SO MANY OTHERS AGREE WITH WHAT I’VE BEEN SAYING FOR AT LEAST A YEAR.
Tim Cook has run the company off the track of excellence which I thought was the essence of the company. Deeply imbedded in its DNA. That is no longer the case.
Prediction – iCal this – nothing is going to change as long as Tim Cook is CEO. He is not capable of following the very good advice in MDN’s open letter – I’m not sure he even understands it.
We are where we are and there is only one reason for it – his name is Tim Cook!
Jay, very sorry to say but I am ever so slowly coming to the conclusion you may be right about Cook, after all.
What bothers me is Activist Apple, at the expense of Clean Code Apple.
Fingers crossed they get it right.
I don’t agree with “slow down and get it right”, I would change that to “get it right”, they’re already slow. Their cloud services are awful and have been this way for many years. Why haven’t they gotten it right yet when there are companies a tenth of their size that have more complicated services that run perfectly. Their maps are still a mess, and they’ve had more than enough time to get those right, they should have just bought Waze and called it a day. Their watch should have been out already. I don’t see anything more complicated about their watch than what their competitors have put out in a quarter the time with more functionality. The iPhone 6 is long overdue, they lost so much marketshare because they took so long. Apple is already taking their time, they are just making tons of mistakes. My guess is that their culture of extreme secrecy is causing them to hire internally for many new projects instead of hiring outside experts or doing big acquisitions. That being said, their product lineup right now is really the best I’ve seen in years, they just need to get the software working properly and not break it again.
I agree 1000% with this open letter, I love my Apple products but lately it’s been hard to say “it just works!”
Thanks guys!
That was amazing and 100% agree with you. Thanks for writing that for all our behalf.
Agree 100%, MDN!! Read you daily, and your articles are well thought out and clear.
My thoughts exactly..and I fear “Apple” is losing their touch, talent, and senses!! Ever see a company this size crash and burn? Their loyal customers are!!
And what were they (he) thinking when introducing “softer tones”?? I can’t read the bloody minuscule letters in iTunes!! Light gray on white? Elegant? Noooooo..crossed eyes and eye-strain!! NOT elegant. Idiotic!! Leave well enough alone!! You ARE going to lose your trusty loyal apple eaters, if you don’t fix it, and NOW!!
Thanks..I needed that. 😜
Love your critique on pretentious elegance negating common sense use ability.
> … customer satisfaction suffers …
As a measure of customer loyalty towards Apple operating systems software: a Net Promoter® score for Yosemite was around sixty-six percent lower than the NPS for Mavericks.
https://imgur.com/a/aH7ul places those two versions of OS X on a radar chart alongside two prior points of reference, and iOS 8.x.
Figures were based on results from polls in MacRumors Forums. Those results should not be treated as conclusive, so there’s a shared wish for better measurements. Amongst my efforts to realise that wish: https://twitter.com/grahamperrin/status/546068394307780608
If MacDailyNews can host a reasonably well-attended poll – or steer me towards a willing publisher with polling capabilities – I’ll be most grateful.
This ain’t 1984, everything is a lot more complex these days, you got be on the move these days or get left behind.
Yes there a few bugs here and there, but how does it compare to other tech companies.
Thanks for the great open letter. It clearly expresses the need to get it right.
The missing item which MacDailyNews is very quiet about is the list of more than 30,000 signatures of people with Mac Book Pros made in 2011 with a known graphics card defect.
I have bought many Apple products for my family over the last 7 years and this is the first time I have felt angry about an Apple product. As everyone knows it is a global problem not just one isolated court case in the US.
So MacDailyNews …. How about some push from you to help all us loyal Mac owners?
When they finish their space ship headquarters and are able to start using those alien binart programers, then everything will be working smooth again. 😉
The great OS upgrade cycle is part of the hardware replacement strategy that drives Apple sales.
Gradually they pull up the minimum spec for hardware – although too many times it appears to be a result of bloat in the software department.
I have been using an iPad 1st Gen since initial release and eventually stopped upgrading the software at v 5.1. Since when it has until recently continued to work just fine. But now the App upgrade cycle has left me behind. And some old apps won’t work anymore. Even the BBC iPlayer app no longer functions and I have to load from a web page. This then crashes too often. So I’m being forced to upgrade even though the device is working perfectly well, the battery life is still very good and the tasks I’m using it for have not changed one iota.
Bottom line is the OS change is part of the policy to force you to re- purchase the capability you already own every few years.
And, for God’s sake, don’t let Jony Ives anywhere near software and GUI development! He does do beautiful hardware, though.
Marco’s overly hyped retort adds to this well written piece.
Still waiting for the Apple Remote App to work with iOS 8 on Apple TV, but hey, it used to Just Work, so good enough apple! Take another year to make it Just Work, ios 9 will be out by then. And if the Apple TV is possibly going to be the hub for home kit, eh, we’ll just continue to use the little silver remote that takes forever to enter emails and passwords on instead of using our iOS devices that speed that process right up when they actually Just Work!
Should Apple concentrate on making sure software releases are rock solid and as bug free as possible? Yes of course. The same needs to be done for hardware as well. And firmly believe they do this.
But I completely disagree that quality control is slipping. I’ve been a long time user of Apple products and I have to say, today’s operating systems (all of them) are much, much more stable than they’ve EVER BEEN.
I think what’s happening is that Apple’s user base is an order of magnitude larger than it used to be, which means there are more people noticing more issues and bugs and reporting them.
Couldn’t agree more. The last few updates have been on a decline for me. I’ve been a long time (8 year) Apple fan and always backing their products and recommending them. Now I don’t. I complain about the products more than boost about them now. Such a major let down recently. I didn’t want a bigger phone like Samsung. I wanted an iPhone like apple.
spot on!
I did a similar blog in march 2014.
http://markryder.com/the-little-things-are-still-your-biggest-asset-apple-rant/
Nice to finally see MDN validate what I’ve been saying for a couple years now, much to the chagrin of the brainless apologists and fanboys who think that Apple can do no wrong. There is much that needs to be fixed. Apple has all the resources it needs to maintain the world’s best software quality, but Apple lacks the technical leadership to do it right.
I highly doubt that Tim Cook ever bothered to read this. There’s a lot that I like about Tim Cook, but his total lack of acknowledgement of customer complaints is not one of them.
Great letter to Mr. Cook but I doubt he even read it. I sent an e-mail letter to him expressing the same feeling regards Apples loss of direction, customer support and focus. The company cares more about generating profits then providing quality products. My wife and I have been Apple customers since 1980. Apple once had a stable platform, quality products and that went to hell in a hand basket ten years back. Yosemite is by far the worse release to date and I include 10.10.2 in that statement. I doubt Apple ever fixes the WiFi problem.
every time someone complains about apple Tim cook is going to remove a port from a device. See what you did?