Apple's Confidentiality Is Hurting Quality
With the recent crop of problems the Macbook is having, hasn't it occured to apple to just test the damn thing. Why in the world is apple the only manufacturer that faces such embarassing problems. Recently no computer manufacturer has had any problems with computer cases discoloring. Or any other company has never had any problems with the whine, overheating because of the thermal conductor. A simple solution to this is to just give a bunch of advanced users at least 100 computers to test for around 4 months. This way people like us on the appleinsider will test the computers and make sure stupid mistakes that are killing apple's image can be prevented. Who cares if the computer is known before launch. I think apple is taking its secrecy to stupid levels. Imagine if in the future they actually start testing this things with people like us. No more problems.
Comments
Originally posted by antartican
Why in the world is apple the only manufacturer that faces such embarassing problems.
They are?
Recently no computer manufacturer has had any problems with computer cases discoloring.
What makes you think that?
Or any other company has never had any problems with the whine, overheating because of the thermal conductor.
Really?
I'd love to live in your world. Because in mine, I have to suffer wonderful things such as:
1) Gericom laptops' display connectors frequently breaking
2) A replacement key for a Dell laptop keyboard costing over 300 Euros
3) Sony Vaio laptop shells cracking
Apple the only manufacturer with problems? That's just crazy talk.
Has Apple recently suffered quality problems? Absolutely. Do they need to work on them? Yes. Is this Apple-specific? No!
A simple solution to this is to just give a bunch of advanced users at least 100 computers to test for around 4 months. This way people like us on the appleinsider will test the computers and make sure stupid mistakes that are killing apple's image can be prevented.
4 months? At the rate of Intel accelleration the machines will be obsolete b4 market
Apple's quality control is among the best in the industry. I've seen discoloration myself on Avertec white laptops. That's the danger of having such a finicky color.
Apple does generate a lot of press and the people that have issues are a vocal and necessary lot but the reality is things are generally going pretty well for such a large transition.
I've had no problems with my mini <knock on wood>
but if you look at issues concerned with durability of components, durability in terms of cosmetic factors as well as longevity of use, there are many many more issues with apple products than with beige boxes.
i never wait for a 2nd generation to buy any apple product. and there are ALWAYS issues with apple 1st generation products.
however i dont attribute these problems to lack of beta testing by a larger open community (since the issues are not compatability issues). the problems are being caused by inadequate in-house resources being dedicated to control of development at the vendor's location. inferior injection molding (mac Cube), cases that warp (aluminium Powerbook), screens that have spots (aluminium Powerbook), are all problems that would be considered as show-stoppers at beige box makers.
i can tell that apple is actually picking up all these problems before a product launch since the timing of corrective action is very very soon from the start of production, so they are doing running corrections, knowingly shipping inferior product for the first few runs.
i always buy an apple when i need it, and never wait. the reason why this works for me is that apple has the absolute best product repair attititude in the business. flexible, fair, quick, really consumer friendly. so when there are problems they fix them for you.
however, to grow market share apple needs to attend to these issues. mission-proof reliability is not apple's strong suit. they need to work on this in order to ultimately capture the business market.
Originally posted by G_Warren
We need to bear in mind that a lot of the current Apple line-up is 1st gen products, and by their very nature, 1st gen products are always the worst. Hopefully MacBook Rev 2 etc will see a return to better quality.
#1 hmurchison hit this nail on the head. WTF is this topic doing in future hardware?
#2 First Generation products are not always the worst. I have bought many first gen products from Apple, and I have not been one the few that have had a defect. I hope to continue this because I am buying a first gen Mac Pro, or whatever they call it.
#3 Defects are not something that can be completely routed out unless it was designed defective. Then you get a recall.
#4 the reason you hear so much whining abut Mac Defectives is that there are only a handful 3.5% of computer users that are Mac users. There are only a handful of places that Mac users go online to whine. Generally speaking that also gives PC users 96.5% more probable developers of websites to handle situations, and sites to complain, and no one goes to all of them to read all the complaints. So many get ignored. Being that there are only a handful of sites available for complaining. With so few resources typically any given Mac user will post their complaint on every single board they can that they are aware of. You will often see the same guy posting the same problem in various places, and with the lack of places to spread it out to it gives the illusion that there is a massive fault in any given situation. The best place to look is Apples hosted user forums. There you can accurately count the users that have the complaint. At least the ones that use boards to do their complaining on.
Then there is the problem of the first case: I was told by Apple that a certain problem did not exist with my computer because there was no record of a previous incident. The problem was with a newly released product that I was one of the first recipient of, and therefore it would be difficult to have a previous incident. Catch-22.
I have had too many product failures (2 DOA machines, seven replaced motherboards, three replaced power supplies, three overheating machines just to get started; indeed, 80% of my past ten machines have had problems within the first year of purchase) over the past few years for someone to simply say they have there problems like everyone else but are still best in the industry. In the same period, the 50-odd Dells at work have had zero, I repeat, zero hardware problems.
Originally posted by Bergermeister
Apple has a serious quality control problem which cannot be denied, but they enjoy doing so, as do many people here. Quite simply, they do not test products sufficiently before sending them to market; they are interested inthe quick buck as opposed to long-term gain.
Then there is the problem of the first case: I was told by Apple that a certain problem did not exist with my computer because there was no record of a previous incident. The problem was with a newly released product that I was one of the first recipient of, and therefore it would be difficult to have a previous incident. Catch-22.
I have had too many product failures (2 DOA machines, seven replaced motherboards, three replaced power supplies, three overheating machines just to get started; indeed, 80% of my past ten machines have had problems within the first year of purchase) over the past few years for someone to simply say they have there problems like everyone else but are still best in the industry. In the same period, the 50-odd Dells at work have had zero, I repeat, zero hardware problems.
Ladies and gentlemen say hello to Michael Dell.
I also did not mention that my first Mac, a Mac Plus, worked great for thirteen years with no problems at all. Apple USED to make quality machines, until they started getting puopular.
And no, my name is not Del; it is funny that anyone who criticizes Apple here is quickly labled the enemyl. I am a dedicated (though quite frustrated) Mac user who is disappointed in the lack of quality and service by Apple. The only machine I have had from Apple in the past three years that has not had a problem is a replacement machine for one they tried to fix three times; I told them that I would not put up with another problem and had them check the replacement before shipping it; by this time, I was dealing with the manager of the call center as the other twirps were so incompetent and rude that I could not put up with them.
Apple staff (at least here in Japan) also do not know the history of their company and its products. For example, the manager of the Apple Store (Japan) call center was not aware that a Mac Plus was an Apple product.
Originally posted by Bergermeister
And no, my name is not Del; it is funny that anyone who criticizes Apple here is quickly labled the enemyl.
Fanboism runs deep here.
Originally posted by Bergermeister
I did not mention the software problems we had with the Dells... they would make anyone want to switch to Macs even with their problems.
I also did not mention that my first Mac, a Mac Plus, worked great for thirteen years with no problems at all. Apple USED to make quality machines, until they started getting puopular.
And no, my name is not Del; it is funny that anyone who criticizes Apple here is quickly labled the enemyl. I am a dedicated (though quite frustrated) Mac user who is disappointed in the lack of quality and service by Apple. The only machine I have had from Apple in the past three years that has not had a problem is a replacement machine for one they tried to fix three times; I told them that I would not put up with another problem and had them check the replacement before shipping it; by this time, I was dealing with the manager of the call center as the other twirps were so incompetent and rude that I could not put up with them.
Apple staff (at least here in Japan) also do not know the history of their company and its products. For example, the manager of the Apple Store (Japan) call center was not aware that a Mac Plus was an Apple product.
I just have a hard time believing that 8 out of your 10 Macs were behaving that badly. You are undoubtedly the unluckiest man on earth, or you have no idea how to self administrate, or maintain your machine what so ever.
Originally posted by Gene Clean
Fanboism runs deep here.
so does idiocy
from my perspective the qualitative differences between Macs and PCs is hard to decipher.
Certainly Apple is no worse than any other company. There is a difference in culture however. PC users are just more intune with contacting the vendor versus looking to messageboards for help/counsel.
And yes I'm in the latter group, of course who knows my computer could just die tomorrow but whats bitching on the net going to do... the anwser? Nothing!
I'll just take and get it repaired and hope that all the problems have been worked out so I can keep enjoying Mac OSX!!
By the way I switched 2 months ago
Originally posted by Chucker
2) A replacement key for a Dell laptop keyboard costing over 300 Euros
Um, what?
http://computers.listings.ebay.com/K...istingItemList