New MacBooks, MacBook Pros Rev A?
Hey to all,
As I will be purchasing a Mac or the first time when the new ones come out, I am interested to know Apple's history with Revision A's of their product lines. Since the refreshed notebooks will have new hardware, cases, etc., they will be Rev A (1.0) models right? Do Apple's Macs (or other products) have a history of higher than average failure or defect rates than later iterations? Does history have any correlation with whether or not these notebooks will likely have significant problems?
As I will be purchasing a Mac or the first time when the new ones come out, I am interested to know Apple's history with Revision A's of their product lines. Since the refreshed notebooks will have new hardware, cases, etc., they will be Rev A (1.0) models right? Do Apple's Macs (or other products) have a history of higher than average failure or defect rates than later iterations? Does history have any correlation with whether or not these notebooks will likely have significant problems?
Comments
Certainly from anecdotal evidence, you'd have to say "yes, Apple do have problems with Rev As".
The problem lies in the fact is that all we have to go on is complaints posted to boards like this and to Apple's own discussions. Without hard data on how many devices have been sold and how many complaints are genuine (i.e. not just outright lies or a case of PEBKAC), it's difficult to tell how serious or wide-spread a problem is.
What we do know is if there's a genuine problem, Apple will fix it.
The most famous example is when the 15" Aluminium PowerBook G4 first launched, it developed white spots on the display after a few weeks of use. Apple eventually figured out what the problem was and replaced all affected displays that were brought in to them.
My personal take on rev. A Apple products is:
Be prepared for something to go wrong, but expect Apple to replace anything defective. In other words don't be afraid to buy a rev. A if you're willing to put up with the hassle of getting things replaced.
Alternatively, you could wait a couple of months from launch and see if there's any reports of wide-spread problems.
No one? Was this a stupid question or something? Or just boring, I guess...
I also had a similar concern but I don't know how to answer it... but if it helps, I know that people who bought iPhone before they did a revamp to it back when it first came out did get some sort of Apple Store merchandise credit or something. Also, those people who got a MacBook with the 'Tiger' version of OS X within a certain time period soon before the new OS X was released were eligible to get the new 'Leopard' at a discounted price.
So, what I will do is get the MacBook the first day of September (which is when I need it) and if the new one is released hopefully they'll be giving away some sort of compensation to those who bought JUST before the new line is released. That's what I'm hoping for. And if not, I'll just be happy that I got the latest version of the MacBook because I'm assuming it's had most of the bugs (from complaints in the past few years) fixed
I also had a similar concern but I don't know how to answer it
It would seem that actually your concern is somewhat different.
So, what I will do is get the MacBook the first day of September (which is when I need it) and if the new one is released hopefully they'll be giving away some sort of compensation to those who bought JUST before the new line is released. That's what I'm hoping for.
Don't count on it. No-one's holding a gun to your head forcing you to buy the current model. It's well-known that computers develop at breakneck speeds and the computer you buy today will be out of date tomorrow. Don't expect any compensation for that out of Apple. What you could do is pay a re-stocking fee and buy the new one if it turns out to have features you feel you really can't live without.
Apple doesn't produce these things with the intent that they are going to fail and have massive widespread issues. And the millions of people who ARE happy that they bought a Rev A are not posting about it on forums. If that were to happen, don't you think you would be siding with the millions of happy posts versus the 1000 unfortunate posts?
In the end, the decision lies with whether you are willing to wait for a few reviews and such to come out for the new computer a few days to weeks after the release. Some people are leaving for school and need one right away. If you can wait, then wait. But don't spend your life waiting forever.
Here's the truth of the matter. There's no question that Rev A's have had problems in the past. But the issue is blown way out of proportion when users start posting on the internet about it. If the company sells a million units and 1000 people have problems with the things melting on them, that's like 0.1% of the total units having problems. It only takes a few people to express their discontent with the model on a couple of forum posts and then Digg users make it the top story of the day! The internet allows for one person's misfortune to be broadcast and seen by millions of people.
Apple doesn't produce these things with the intent that they are going to fail and have massive widespread issues. And the millions of people who ARE happy that they bought a Rev A are not posting about it on forums. If that were to happen, don't you think you would be siding with the millions of happy posts versus the 1000 unfortunate posts?
In the end, the decision lies with whether you are willing to wait for a few reviews and such to come out for the new computer a few days to weeks after the release. Some people are leaving for school and need one right away. If you can wait, then wait. But don't spend your life waiting forever.
MobleMe. Plain and simple. While only 1% or some number like that of Mobileme Accounts were having issues, it got way blown out of proportion. To the point where Steve had to apologize for it. Correct me if I'm wrong, but if 1% of MobileME users had complaints, then 99% of users were happy with it. 99% is a good number, in any case. Not as good as 100%, mind you, but better than Microsoft's average 60%.
In my experience, Apple Rev As have generally been pretty solid. my First Gen Macbook only started having issues when my Friend spilled Grape soda on it two months ago, and my First-Gen Mac Pro is chugging along like the day I first got it.
If you are gun shy about Rev A products, and that is a perfectly reasonable stance to have, especially for expensive and/or large purchases, then hold off for a few extra weeks. Any potential kinks will be uncovered by then, and the product will likely be fixed in manufacturing.
Hey to all,
As I will be purchasing a Mac or the first time when the new ones come out, I am interested to know Apple's history with Revision A's of their product lines. Since the refreshed notebooks will have new hardware, cases, etc., they will be Rev A (1.0) models right? Do Apple's Macs (or other products) have a history of higher than average failure or defect rates than later iterations? Does history have any correlation with whether or not these notebooks will likely have significant problems?
The problem in answering the question is that it's hard to pin down exactly what a "Rev A" really is. Just about every spec change in an Apple computer involves changes under the hood. Just because there's a belief that Apple will make case changes in their next revision shouldn't mean they carry any kind of Rev A stigma. The kind of change you might want to sit on is when they make a total change in architecture; the last time being PowerPC --> x86. Personally, I don't think there's any reason to suspect that the next revision would have significantly more chance of systemic problems than the current.
A friend and I both bought the first revision Black Macbook at the same time.. pretty much on the same day. I got mine out, started messing with it, and everything was perfect. In fact, I can't said that I've had a problem yet that wasn't caused by me.
My friend however, same laptop, same time period, returned three Macbooks to the store until he was satisfied. He mostly complained of little things though... for example, a crappy trackpad button (which admittedly mine wasn't spectacular). On another laptop he got there was a big white dot on the left side of the display... which would be quite annoying.
Anyway... in this example you have two people buying Rev. As at the same time. One had minor issues, the other had little to no issues. In either case, Apple was ready and willing to accomodate for customer complaints.
Hope this helps
That said, I'm a machead because I've never had any real issues with the products or service. I admit I might be lucky but everything I've purchased worked as advertised or at the very least, as I expected. If I did have a problem, a bad screen on a 15" TiBook comes to mind, the apple store took one look at it and handed me a new laptop on the spot.
So go for it but don't count on anything back if they release a new version a couple weeks later, the iPhone was the exception to the rule...not the rule.