QC at apple - it's doing pretty well
I haven't had a chance to closely read this whole thing, but I wanted to post this to get a little discussion going.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2006497,00.asp
This is the part I was struck by:
With the often frequent moaning about apple's quality control on this board, I think it's important to realize that it is, in fact, pretty good. It can always be better and we should always press apple to improve it's quality control, but it looks like the grass is probably greener on this side of the fence.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2006497,00.asp
This is the part I was struck by:
Quote:
Look no further than Apple, the leader of the pack, whose overall score holds steady at 9.1. Last year, Apple's score on units needing repair was an impressive 11 percent?well below that of any other company in the survey. But according to readers, the company has managed to cut repair rates even further over the past 12 months. This year, Apple's score on units needing repair drops to 8 percent. Among first-year systems, it's only 5 percent. That's nothing less than astonishing.
Look no further than Apple, the leader of the pack, whose overall score holds steady at 9.1. Last year, Apple's score on units needing repair was an impressive 11 percent?well below that of any other company in the survey. But according to readers, the company has managed to cut repair rates even further over the past 12 months. This year, Apple's score on units needing repair drops to 8 percent. Among first-year systems, it's only 5 percent. That's nothing less than astonishing.
With the often frequent moaning about apple's quality control on this board, I think it's important to realize that it is, in fact, pretty good. It can always be better and we should always press apple to improve it's quality control, but it looks like the grass is probably greener on this side of the fence.
Comments
With the often frequent moaning about apple's quality control on this board, I think it's important to realize that it is, in fact, pretty good. It can always be better and we should always press apple to improve it's quality control, but it looks like the grass is probably greener on this side of the fence.
I agree, good post.
It's the same with anything really. If you don't get to see the bigger picture then you base everything on your own experience. That's the big problem though. Nobody cares if 95% of Mac users don't need to send their machine for repair. If you personally have to return Macbook after Macbook for logic board failure then that's all that will matter to you. Someone I know is having delivery problems with his imac. Tracking number shows no information and it's been over two weeks now. We have a big job on and the frustration is mounting.
Couple that with the slow Mac Mini we got, the new powerbook with the broken slot drive and the G5 imac where the plug falls out the back. But generally we're content as we get the jobs done and the machines tend to be reliable overall. Plus the PCs get similar problems.
Time was the odd logic board failure would be an issue for the unfortunate owner and that owner's immediate circle of friends, and the all-over quality figures would be all we would hear about, if that.
Now, even a few failures get posted about, picked up by other sites, discussed, the discussion gets discussed, etc.
If you frequent Mac centric sites it's easy to get the impression that every other MacBook, for instance, is a grossly discolored, overheating, "paint flaking", component failing cobbled together POS.
The above referenced paint flaking "problem", which apparently was never more than one guy who posted hastily about something that wasn't actually happening, tells you all to need to know about how this phenomena works. It only tooks seconds for the Mac web community to light up with people yelling "OMFG, Apple can't even put paint on a laptop right, they've totally jumped the shark!"
Which is not to say that real problems don't sometimes crop up, but generally Apple is pretty good about addressing those as they arise (yes, I know there are a certain number of people who feel like that got reamed over some repair issue, but that doesn't make for a pattern of deliberate misbehavior on Apple's part).