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.
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.
I’ll excuse the one hour of battery life I seem to be able to get out of my iPhone. An arrangement of extra power cords (USB, car, wall) and external batteries gets me through the day. I’ll also excuse the fact that iTunes seems hell bent on not syncing applications from my desktop to my iPhone, and inexplicably removing apps from my phone without any notice. I love that damn phone, and it will take a lot more than lost apps and dropped calls to get it out of my hands.
But I don’t have the same blind dedication to other Apple products, and a string of costly problems has left me more than frustrated.
Mac Mini, Macbook Air, Macbook Pro and Macbook, All Failed
I was pretty excited about my Macbook Air, which packs a ton of hardware into a slim and elegant case. But it was unable to stay connected to Wifi for more than a minute or so, even on the brand new Apple Time Capsule router we’re using at the office. I took it into the Apple store - they kept it for a few days and said nothing was wrong. I argued with them and they did nothing. And since I waited more than two weeks after buying it to bring it back in, I couldn’t simply return it. That $1,800 piece of hardware has now been dismantled for parts for a project we’re working on here.
A high end black Macbook made it through one meeting before having some sort of hardware problem that shut it down for good. I still have a few days left to return it for a refund.
The one year old Mac Mini I was using to drive my living room television failed a month ago. It turned itself into a brick. Parts of it are on my coffee table.
My main travel computer, a seven month old Macbook Pro, had a keyboard failure two weeks ago. Apple repaired it and I’m using it now.
That leaves three other Macs in good working order. One is a Macbook pro that my dad now uses. The other two are iMacs that have never had any problems.
But having major issues with four out of seven computers is, um, unacceptable.
MobileMe Has Screwed Up My Work Ecosystem
I have Macs in my main office and my bedroom, as well as my travel computer. I have spent years getting .Mac, which syncs calendar, contact and email data across machines and in the cloud, working properly. It tended to break a lot, but if you kept the OS constantly up to date and were willing to tinker with it, it was a great way to keep synced across any number of computers. I didn’t really care which one I picked up to access email, write a post, etc.
Then came MobileMe and the Apple’s automatic transfer of .Mac customers over to that ridiculously broken new service. I had a suspicion it wouldn’t work at first given how touchy .Mac was, and so I didn’t touch anything on my old computers. But I have never gotten it working on the new Macs I purchased, and now .Mac has failed on all of the synced machines. No more calendar access, contacts syncing, etc.
Apple keeps giving customers free time on the service as a way to apologize for the problems. But that isn’t good enough. I’m not price sensitive to the $99/year they’re charging for the service. But I need it to work, and I need it to work right now.
The failed computers could just be a coincidence, although the wifi problem with the Macbook Air is well documented. The MobileMe debacle, though, is affecting everyone. Apple shouldn’t have merged the services, at least old .Mac customers wouldn’t be enraged today. They need to get their house in order or they risk alienating all these new customers they’ve added over the last few years. The new buyers aren’t Apple fanatics and won’t sit quietly as they try to access broken services via failing hardware.
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My Macbook pro lost keyboard and track pad and I had to take an afternoon of work (not paid). I got the apple store to be met with why havn’t you made an appointment by a apple employee (hello I am there because your machine broke on me). My service from there on in was bad tbh, I told them to email me and I would ring them back and they just called anyway and spoke to my wife. I told them what was wrong with my machine and only bothered to check 2 things out of my shopping list of complaints with the machine. My battery was shot and they didn’t have any to replace it, then when I pick up the machine I am told no your battery is fine. They did not tell me what they had fixed even when I asked twice. My apple shop was Exeter, uk btw.
The problem is the staff in my book. There is the apple way to look at it and they are always right so screw the customer. I had to buy apple care for my mbp because I do not trust the machine will last another 2 and a bit years without serious issue.
One thing they need is a clear complaint form on their website.
Mike,
I’m with you man, but for a different reason. Ya, my iPhone has iBricked a few times. I’ll tell you what pisses me off though:
Crippling the iPhone. I had Qik installed and streaming live video from my jailbroken iPhone, and it was AWESOME.
Makes me really mad that Apple has crippled their product for unknown reasons. I’m sure this can be chalked up to some marketing ploy, waiting for the holiday season to release the “new” video recording feature…
THE IPHONE IS A PERFECTLY GOOD VIDEO CAMERA BUT APPLE DOESNT WANT US USING IT AS ONE, YET.
Waiting on 2.0.02 crack…
Apple provides the only quality based computer system in the world. The rest are just in it to make money.
Apple’s are designed for those who appreciate the detail. Those who see failure around them encounter failure themselves.
Tough luck. Learn how to use a computer properly and maybe you won’t have these problems.
In the 20+ years that Apple has been in existence, a few misfires are bound to happen. While you mention the MacBook Air, Mac Mini, and Apple Time Capsule, the brilliantly designed but poorly constructed Cube is a better example. Building a “green computer” using the basic principles of thermosiphoning (best seen in chimneys) was an excellent idea, but the use of lexan in a rounded cube subject to repeated heating and cooling was perhaps not Apple’s best idea.
Sony has been around longer than Apple, and has a longer history of high concepts that failed. Betamax was certainly a better format than VHS. The debate of Blu-Ray over HD-DVD lingers on although HD-DVD has long since left the battlefield.
For Apple’s emphasis on aesthetics, usability, and quality, Apple should be commended. Trying to time MobileMe with the release of the iPhone 3G was simply an act of trying to do too much at the same time.
I can’t really argue with anything you said here. I’m holding off buying an iPhone simply because I’ve yet to hear anybody not follow “I love my iPhone” with “… but… it’s broken / slow / fragile / …”
I’ve also had a keyboard failure in a MBP too (which was my second MBP in 6 months, after the case warped beyond usability on the first), and one of my friends has had 2 keyboard failures on his MBP. Upon complaining about being without my computer for a week for a second time, the manager of the Apple Store decided that the best thing he could do to help me was to recommend a good USB keyboard… No, really.
I feel for you. I work in an all-mac office and we have so many problems with the macbook pros. Mine just turned into a brick last week and is currently with apple (10 months old). Of the 7 in the office 6 have bricked in the last year - which is a fairly shocking statistic. It’s frustrating because it’s such an awesome product otherwise.
Speaking as a third-person, one who resides outside the apple clouds and only gets what information is available through mainstream media and otherwise, i have to agree with this blog post.
I love apple’s PR and marketing tactics; their innovation; their pizzaz (mind the spellings). They have successfully turned everything they launched in recent years into gold, solely through their business practices and their ability to listen to the needs of the people.
But there is only so much your loyal followers will take. In my opinion they have shifted focus too much on antics rather than keep a firm focus on delivering quality, as was their forte.
Guys, innovation is very good but you cant shift focus when your basics are going haywire.
Fix your products for you run a risk of losing the tremendous ground you guys have won over the likes of Microsoft and Nokia.
My first Apple was an original Apple ][ from the late 70’s, bought in a bike shop next to Altairs. It still works. Ditto with a PowerMac 8500 I recently sloughed off.
Since iCEO returned, however, build quality has gone significantly downhill. Our first iBook, the 500MHz G3 was terrific. It still works! Each subsequent iBook (2 more after that) started losing the paint on the keys. The keyboard quality deteriorated, with the plastic getting thinner and cheaper with each speed bump (this was documented in a piece I wrote for TUAW ages ago).
And yeah, the MobileMe service is completely unacceptable now.
Apple is spreading very thin, they gotta circle up and work on quality instead of whiz-bang quantity of features. Thanks for writing this Mike!
Finally changed over to Mac in May this year after a 10 year absence. Bought a nice shiny MacBook Pro and promply 6 weeks later it had a hardware failure. After banging my head against the wall trying to convince the Genius Bar Technician I actually had a problem in the end it needed to have £700 (in warranty) worth of repairs. Has made me wonder if I should buy an Apple Computer again as I never had a problem with my old Sony VAIO.
Mr. Arrington’s case study of one cluster can’t be considered an accurate study or sample, but I will say that his computing environment is demanding, and we should take note.
I’ve worked through a few minor Apple hardware issues, but nothing that brought down the business. I am an ex Apple developer from the late 80’s era, way past out the business, and have been a PC man since. Until….
The office here took delivery of 7 Lenovos with Vista pre-installed. As a professional writer, I should have documented and blogged the debacle, but I am (after a year plus) still so upset over what happened, that I can’t get my hands to stop shaking. That Vista meltdown sent me running to Apple. So far so good.
I am a case study of one site, and we are not TechCrunch. Still, these Mac Minis have been running just about 24×7x365. They have been cracked open like an Otter splits open muscles (for upgrades). We did not buy Apple Care, and have never needed more than Google to get the fix it know how.
I will someday write a post of how Apple saved the bacon (oooh, kosher boy, how could you?), of this struggling product management contracting consultancy - when I can. Until then:
I have to find a couple of putty knives to crack open this Mini for a CPU upgrade.
I have recommended macbooks to a lot of basic users over the past few years and I’m continually sorry I did. Almost every single on has had some problem. These days,, if they can’t afford to get a Pro, I’m not sure what to tell them. As for the 3g iPhone, the reception is laughably bad. I don’t see why anyone would put up with it. I’ve been in groups of people with nothing but iPhones and when suddenly no one can get a signal to get a address we are looking for we have to start asking around for anyone who has a usable phone. Terible.
I also thought the Air was a disturbing return to the bad old days of apple nothing-but-status products. I don’t need a lightweight laptop for a 5 minute trip to the coffee shop. I do however for international travel but in many places, such as china (outside the big cities), you aren’t getting wifi let alone the lappies well documented troubles. Even in concept that thing is nothing but a pretty boy in his living room brick.
We used to have a Mac lab, in addition to the publications department owning all Macs, which in total is about 50 Macs. In the past 3 years we have spent so much on Mac repairs that the publications department had to reconsider buying Macs. Now, half the department has switched to PC. Oh and the Mac lab, got replaced by PCs, we donated the Macs to the local school.
The major problem isnt that it goes bad, its that to get things fix costs an arm and a leg. We have spent thousands, YES thousands to get the Macs fixed.
Another thing is the initial cost, you can buy two or three good PCs for the price of one mac. Of course you can say that its worth it if you never have a problem, but for us its been nothing but problems. Especially when the failure rate seems to be extremely high.
and how many times the crappy garbage of microsoft needs to patch up, to coverup, to update the virus database, to protect, to cleanup, to…to…
The fact that Mac “failed” in his words, doesn’t mean that it really failed. This guy for sure has no patience, and no desire to investigate the problem. He could simply could go to Apple store, and for sure they would have found something.
Such a negative reaction to his so called “problems” is absolutely rare, I’ve never encountered such a thing.
I could go and go and go about all positive things in Apple. And they outweigh 100 to 1 the negatives, and 200 to 1 all the positives in Microsoft.
And like the commenter remarked, Apple products are not made of air. They need maintenance and care, like anything else, but much it’s a lot and lot easier than windoZ.
NEVER NEVER I’ll put on my iMac anything related to windoZ.
Even NO to Firefox, because SAFARI is SUPERIOR to any other browser. FF is as heavy and bloated as IE.
I don’t need NO antivirus, NO antispyware, NO antimalware, NO CCleaner, NO WinPatrol, NO “defragmentation’..NO..NO…
This piece of ’story’ simply STINKS.
we are talking mostly about HARDWARE, which most of the time has NOTHING to do with Microsoft.
Stop associating PC with Microsoft. PC != Microsoft.
Apple has a long history of putting out awesome designs over a very poor quality product.
ok then… replace Microsoft with “Dell” or “HP” and he still has a point. They all have poor quality products these days because the suppliers (Toshiba, NEC, etc) all make hard drives and power supplies that fail easily. The bigger the hard drive, the more prone it is to fail. It doesn’t matter whether it’s in a PC or a Mac.
When I went to pick up a recovered hard drive from The Geek Squad, I spoke with someone who worked there and asked about a Mac laptop on the shelf. He indicated that half of all the machines they fixed were Macs. (PC users could be sending their machines in to get fixed and I doubt that enough are sending theirs in to make up the difference as Mac has 7%-8% of the overall market.) Not good.
On average, Apple hardware fails the same amount of time as every other hardware. It’s NOT significant if Apple fails. What IS significant is that Apple users think that Apple hardware fails much much less.
What is common is that Apple Users are blind to the failings. Michael, has had to buy at least TEN Apple items in the last TWO years to notice failure. What on earth is going on? And I will bet you that he goes on and continues buying them!
If a mac dies it still looks good. It’s like a sick puppy, that soils your living room. You forgive it. Why on earth do people forgive Apple?
They do forgive them. “Oh yes, it does crash every day, but “it just works!” ”
They forgive Apple, but like a cheating spouse, once enough evidence is accrued, denial is impossible.
The pain of actually owning up to oneself that, “yes, in fact, I was deluded about this brand” is where the damage lies. Nice article. We need more eyes opened about this blinding brand loyalty.
I’ve admired Apple for some time now but have always had Dells as they were significantly cheaper.
I’ve been a fan of the ipod, having 4 over the years and have just got myself the iphone. The iphone has been very glitchy and the battery life is terrible. My Blackberry pearl was so much better but unfortunately I am tied in to a 18 month contract with 02 now.
I’m rapidly going off Apple at the moment and would not entrust one of it’s products to be my principle PC after this experience.
Reading this has made me feel exceptionally lucky to not own a Mac.
I’ve got a PC I’ve had for about four years (Upgraded the graphics card once - with a second hand one from a friend). It’s made from the remains of about four other hand-me-down computers.
The case was a broken one, so it’s got no sides. The XP install isn’t exactly a completely legitimate copy (I had four XP licenses from four computers I owned and I still ended up having to use a pirate copy to make just one work. Thanks Microsoft.).
Yet after that I can’t remember a single problem with it in all that time, although I think that’s mainly down to not automatically installing updates on XP. I just keep an eye out for must have security ones.
Bizarre luck I have.
I think the key is to stay in the past. The future hurts.
I have experienced Apple’s product problems first hand with my iPhone. Unlike Michael, I couldn’t ignore that it was possible to literally watch the power drain from a piece of “mobile” hardware. Apple’s increasing product quality issues and the bad feeling that is growing about Apple (which is acting more and more like the old Microsoft) I believe stem from the company’s “no problems here” attitude and its lack of willingness to throw money at the problem by providing free customer service and other useful free services for people who buy their hardware.
Bullshit!
Agreed….
“The old Microsoft”?? I wasn’t aware that there was a new and improved Microsoft. Please.. go back to work on Vista. We know you work for Microsoft.
Why didn’t apple just choose google for mobile me? Proven (for the most part) infrastructure. I wouldn’t have been unexpected and I am sure google would have been all for it. Just doesn’t make sense.
Mike: You say new users “won’t sit quietly as they try to access broken services via failing hardware.” But will they really bolt and ditch MobileMe. Some recent experiences with downtime at cheap hosting providers suggests that if users like a brand, they will give a service quite a few chances to get it right:
http://www.datacenterknowledge.....yalty.html
Never had an issue on a PC. I have had 3 laptops all with extremely heavy use. Each had an average lifespan of about 5 years. Everything just works for me. My system cost me half as much as a Mac and it is more powerful. Stick to quality hardware (eg Seagate) and everything is fine.
I think that the bottom line is that contrary to Fanboy belief, all hardware, regardless of manufacturer has the potential for failure, and IMO it has a great deal more to do with how the machine is being used(and the experience level of the user) that with how “good” or “bad” the company is.
“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.”
Arrington,
You can’t pass on tax deductible business items as gifts to family members. You have to sell them back or throw them away, or reuse them in a business context like give them to a client. If the IRS found out you are doing this, you are toast.
The fact that you think one hour battery life and dropping calls/applications is acceptable in a portable communications device is sad, pathetic, and indicative of your inferior evaluation skills.
By the way, I’m posting this comment from my Blackberry 8830WE. My battery life is great, I’ve never had to get hardware vendor approval to install any application that never mysteriously disappears. My calls don’t get dropped, I can install whatever I want, and I don’t need to carry a bag of power cords.
Your slavish devotion to shiny objects which look great, but don’t perform under their extremely restrictive vendor lock-in rules is asinine.
I have been an windows user for long time, then I switched to a powerbook, used it for about 1 year along with my windows desktop, but found it too hard to sync between my windows machine and the mac, so switched back to a tablet. Recently, I bought another mac, macbook pro. Within 3 weeks, I experienced major problem of slow start-up and cannot go to sleep. Although I was able to fix it through downgrade the fireport drivers, Apple should not make it this much trouble. I thought the advantage of having a OS that specifically build for one sets of hardware is that it would actually work properly, and I don’t have to worry about all those driver issues, but I guess that is not the case…
I was already an AT&T wireless customer before I bought my iPhone 3G last month. My Samsung Blackjack had the exact same symptoms as the iPhone with respect to handoff problems with the Edge and 3G networks. In fact, my Blackjack wouldn’t even tell the correct time if i used the auto update function. I firmly believe it is an AT&T problem, not an iPhone problem.
I’ve personally owned three different Apple machines. The only problem I had was a bad video card which I bought; the installed card I had was fine. No hardware problems otherwise.
I do think that the MobileMe services, as well as a couple programs within the OS (Mail), need some work. Thankfully, unlike MS, they do listen to their base when problems arise.
However, I do think that Apple is not “flailing” when it comes to their Minis, Airs, Macbooks, and MBP’s. They would not have increased sales and market share if they were having continuous hardware/software problems. The percentage of hardware problems on their machines is most likely small. And it is fact that Apple is not the only one with these problems - Dell, HP, Sony etc. are not immune to this as well.
I’m also no Apple fanboy, but I do love the OS and the software I can run (I have a MBP, an Imac and an iPhone). But the hardware is nothing on my previous Dells. Apart from the 3-year onsite warranty that the Dell’s came with, which gives you a nice warm fuzzy feeling, they never really gave problems.
Contrast with my MBP which has already had a battery replaced under warranty. And my iMac has vertical stripes on the display (a common problem apparently), which started 2 month out of warranty. A one-year warranty?! C’mon. But considering the quality of their products I’m not surprised. It would cost them too much otherwise
Mac User since 1993:
At Home:
PowerBook 100
Performa 475
PowerMac 6100
G3 Blue&White
PowerBook Titanium
MacBook
At Work:
iMac 400
iBook (white)
Powerbook G4 Aluminium
MacBook Pro
iPod:
2nd Gen (me)
iPod nano (my wife)
4th Gen (me)
iPhone 2G
=> With the exception of two mechanical hard drive failures in the Titanium PowerBook and the iPod 2nd Gen after three years of usage (which is not Apple’s fault), I didn’t have a single hardware-related problem in 15 years.
I’ve used and owned numerous Macs over the years, and have had no major hardware problems aside from a G5 iMac that the logic board fried after about five years of use.
But I do freelance Mac tech support for a small number of clients and I’ve seen my share of hardware issues.
The number one rule with Apple is don’t be an early adopter.
Well I bet when those macs are disassembled and spread across a table they still look pretty. Not functional, but pretty.
I’ve owned a macbook pro for 6 months now without issue. I’ve had friends who have owned apple products and had nothing but issues. I’m no way an apple fanboy, but I do have to say this…. 4 out of 7 macs failing is nearly a probability impossibility…yes 2, maybe even 3 in rare cases, but 4…I would look at how you treat the computers before you blame apple…
My boss at work has gone through 3 thinkpad t62s. He won’t let me upgrade from the t42 because of this. But he’s the only person who has problems. He has these problems because he doesn’t take care of it. He’s always rough with it, sometimes even slamming it down on the desk. It’s not lenovo’s fault he doesn’t know how to handle a laptop.
Oh, and macbook batteries do equal epic fail…
I haven’t had any problems with my MBP short of keyboard firmware issues which have for the most part been solved. My Apple TV has suited me pretty well too. However, my new Airport Extreme has been nothing short of a disaster product. Following the same procedure time and time again produces different results, it lacks a cohesive half finished setup wizard, doesn’t detect more than one hard drive concurrently & has a host of other problems. I plan on exchanging the AE but the problems don’t seem hardware related.
On a similar note, I think it’s a bad idea for Apple to attempt to reduce margins and continue its trend towards mass appear via price. The pillar of Apple’s appeal is quality parts and service, and they are begining the shareholder persuit of profitability & growth that will kill any companies core offering.
I’ve been using Apple products since before time began. I’ve had good ones, bad ones, flaky ones and phenomenal ones. But I will never, and I mean never, switch over to anything from Microsoft and be forced to suffer that bullshit that calls itself an operating system. I did not think it was possible to fuck up something as badly as they fucked up Vista.
As with any technology, you get more out of it the more you understand it. If you have problems with hardware, then replace it. If you are simply complaining to be a complainer then grow the fuck up, start acting like an objective journalist and find a friend who obviously knows Apple hardware troubleshooting better than you do.
You do know it’s bad for a computer to be dropped to the floor and stuff?
“Well I bet when those macs are disassembled and spread across a table they still look pretty. Not functional, but pretty.”
Pretty much the same as when they’re assembled.
do you have anything better
Well, people love to generalize from personal anecdotes (hey, that’s what we do!), and the love-love relationship with Apple is well known (hey, Leander Kahney’s great a href = “http://cultofmac.com”>Cult Of Mac site and book could hardly have been written about a ‘ vanilla brand’..). I have owned more Macs, PC’s, phones and PDAs of rival flavors from ‘the beginning’ than I care to enumerate… *BUT* what I picked up on this time was Michael’s comment:
> extra power cords (USB, car, wall) and external batteries
> gets me through the day.
For me, it was the fact that *NONE* of my exta accessories (e.g. car radio, cigarett lighter, etc) with dedicated iPod hookups survived the iPhone 2G -> 3G upgrade… yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa the pin wiring has changed (so the accessories don’t charge the phone… as now documented around the web); to me this represents wanton disregard for the legions of loyal fans who dutifily went through the upgrade cycle.
Damn… sure, the adaptor costs a fraction of all the gadgetry, but it’s the principle: Maybe a little ‘health warning’, or a spare adaptor, would have calmed me down. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
It’s not like they were purposefully trying to screw you. The iPhone 3G doesn’t support Firewire Charging (as the original iPhone did). By removing FireWire Charging, they were able to make the iPhone 3G a lot cheaper.
Why in the hell do you keep defending obviously bad design choices, Poopy? Are you part of TUAC’s Apple Reputation Management platoon or something?
I am so glad that I didn’t run out and get the Iphone 3g. Everyone I know who has made the purchase is bitter about the battery life and the apps constantly being removed.
I’m going to drag my heels a bit longer and wait for the next generation and hope for improvement.
Meanwhile…i’ll stick with my old school sony ericsson.
When you access your iPhone via “Devices” in iTunes, go to the “Applications” tab and make sure that automatically sync applications is checked!
For some reason, I was sure that I had done this, but when I was having the exact same problem, I found that the setting was unchecked.
I think your problems could be attributed to ID-10-T errors.
Enjoy your copies of windows and pc hardware!
I worked in a big carriers for 5 years.So I think we should stand on the side of the ordinary consumers.why lots of people loved iphone?Why some people bought MAC after they pruchased iphone?Only because the clients experiences of APPLE is so different,and so interesting.I think it is the trend that we should make users excited.
Apple generally makes good products but the major shortcoming of Apple, Steve Jobs, and all the Mac fanboys is cognitive dissonance. When something does go wrong it goes ignored, unacknowledged, and unfixed. Excuses are made. Things are downplayed. And the poor user is left on her own.
At least with Dell/Microsoft, you can be pretty certain that someone more important than you has already encountered the same problem.
still better_than_all thats out there
If you scrounge around our house, you will find a Mac 128K, a Mac SE, a blue and white G3, a 1.25 GHz G4, three aluminum PowerBook G4s, two MacBook Pros, and several iPods. Last year I had a serious issue with a hard drive on the MBP, and Apple eventually replaced the machine, but other than that, these machines have been virtually flawless. Five of them are running Leopard. My PowerBook and MBP have logged so many miles that they are undoubtedly eligible for free upgrades, so my experience is uniformly positive. The recent ratings in PC World magazine once again put Apple’s notebooks and desktops well above those of other manufacturers.
Suggestions to Michael: 1) do the updates; 2) completely remove any software that comes from Symantec; 3) pay for AppleCare and take advantage of the local Genius Bar when you have a problem — the ability to get a free battery replacement mostly pays for the service.
You’re using macbook air parts for your $200 dead simple web tablet?
My 1Ghz iMac is 5.5 yrs old and runs 10.5.2 fine. I replaced the superdrive after 3.5 years. No other issues.
I sold my 12″ PowerBook after almost 3 years of use for USD 970. I carried it around and used it daily; never had a problem.
I’ve changed the battery on my iPod mini twice, otherwise still going strong after 3 years of service.
iPod Nano 2Gen: Never had a problem.
MacBook Air since March 2008: I carry it around and use it daily. Never had any issues.
Airport Extreme and Wifi: Since I manually chose a channel for all my devices, no issues in dropping connections with any devices.
iPhone 2G: pwned: No issues, running OS 2.0.1
So this “proves” that Apple is top notch and deservedly at the head of customer satisfaction surveys. I’m sorry you’ve had these issues.
I hear ya Michael,
Infact I just wrote Jobski a break up letter yesterday because I am tired off all the issues. I love my iPhone, it’s a great device, but HORRIBLE phone. I’ve had issues with every single Macbook Pro I’ve ever owned. It even got to the point where they nearly called security at the Apple Store in San Jose when I lost my cool over Apple Care and their lack of support when it came to yet another broken mac.
Ironic your post hits on the same day as the American Cust Sat results. Apple blows away the competition again. They are not perfect, just light years ahead of everyone else: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1357.....l?hhTest=1