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.
My 4 month old Apple TV died a few days ago.
Personally, I liked .Mac, you had to tiptoe around it but it worked most of the time. I liked the email service and the online storage was fine (too small though)for keeping an ‘off-site’ copy of things I wanted to keep.
I really wish they had broken the MobileMe project into segments and turned on each segment after it was tested. And I see no reason why we had to be shoe horned into a system that was untested! We were forced to become the beta testers and they risked our trust and our data.
The $99 a year is pocket change. They’ve given us a total of 3 months in extensions so far. Lets see: $99 / 12 (months) = $8.25 a month. So 3 months is $24.75 which doesn’t seem to be a fair compensation to me for all of the lost connectivity I’ve had to work around.
So, my answer is keep the extensions and fix the product!
I need a new laptop but after the problems Apple had rolling out the last batch I’m going to wait a few months before I buy one of the new ones coming out.
Maybe the problem is a bunch of executives, department heads and managers have gotten too greedy and stopped thinking about the product and company. They are cutting too many corners just so they can pocket more cash.
“But having major issues with four out of seven computers is, um, unexceptable.”
You may want to correct that.
I really don’t think going all personal and empirical on Apple or any company for that matter will do any good to anyone.
This looks to me like we are already getting started on the turn-Apple-into-the-next-Microsoft trend of posts.
They are all consumer product corporations, and as such they will all have faulty units, trashy tech support and angry costumers as their market share grows and their user base multiplies.
I think we should demand better quality and that is perhaps one of the reasons Apple has been growing lately (the quality, usability, stability and user interfase design on their products) so instead of crying wolf, we should encourage them to keep a more strict quality standards.
I, too, have had an Apple ][ back in the day, then a long series of Macintosh desktop and laptop computers since early 1984. I honestly cannot remember having had major problems with any of them, except for a laptop screen that ultimately died (and was promptly replaced by Apple at no charge) and the fact that Apple’s laptop batteries generally seem to drain too quickly after a year of usage or so (but is there a similar problem with PC laptops? Not sure).
Someone complained of a fried hard disk and complete data loss. The first thing you do when you set up a computer is to also set up an incremental backup process. The only way to truly understand the importance of backing up is to learn the hard way, i.e. to lose important data once. It happened to me too, back in 1985 (the last time I ever lost data :::keeping fingers crossed:::).
Apple sometimes comes out with gorgeous, but lame products. It seems to be a habit of Steve, this need, now and then, to be lyrical rather than logical with product design. So far, I am fortunate enough to have been able to spot these products whenever they have been released: I never bought a Cube, or a MacBook Air, for example. I saw the latter “in the flesh” at Macworld Expo and felt that it was meant to suck… it did not feel right. I hope that it dies a quick death.
As for Mobile.me, I am sorry, but it was likely that it would be something of a mess for the first month. I still have not worked with it, as I am waiting for gentle souls (like you) to help Apple fix the bugs before I jump in. Everything is in constant beta on the Web nowadays. If you want to be an early adopter (and it is, of course, your job), then you must be ready to assume the consequences.
As for the iPhone 3G, I have resisted the urge to get one to replace my original iPhone (proudly purchased on June 29, 2007 after a 20-hour+ wait! I guess I am a bit of a fanboy…). I did not feel that the 3G was significantly better than the first generation (except for the extra storage), and I am glad that I waited a bit, when I read about all the issues.
The reason why people complain about Apple is that they are not used to have that many problems with computers (they were not raised on Windows), so when their dear Apple fails them, they’re all discombobulated, they send angry love letters to sjobs@apple.com because, of course, it has to be Steve’s personal failing, etc., etc.
Michael,
“That $1,800 piece of hardware has now been dismantled for parts for a project we’re working on here.”
Please elaborate?
If you read this blog, you’d know they are trying to create an internet tablet with wifi for $300. They will fail.
Sorry about your problems. Kudos for talking about them.
I’m guessing more people have problems with Apple, but they just don’t have as load of a voice as upset MSFT users.
oh no!
My 16Gig Touch (bTW: 14Gig isn’t 16Gig) is getting the 2.0.2 uspdate (downloading right now). When I bought the 2.0.1 update my Touch failed after a day and no matter what me, the genius bar or phone support did it was dead.
So I had to ship it back to them and wait a week and a half for a different one to be sent to me from China.
No charge to me but I had to listen to my co-workers new age country music for 2 weeks!! The horror!!!
I have loads more Macs than you and I have experienced none of the issues you describe. MobileMe is however absolute shit and we have now upgraded an Xserve to handle contacts directories and iCal, so we don’t have to use this terrible service. With regard to the hardware all I can suggest is that you have bad luck or are careless. We have NO issues with MacBook Air wireless, iPhone batteries under normal use although we have noted a battery issue on some of our early MacBooks (3/10) but this well after a year in service with field staff who don’t really care about them, so I can’t discount them being knocked about.
Is it just me, or is the 3G iphone suuuper laggy. It takes me forever to open contacts, takes me another forever to click on a letter to jump to that area, and then takes me another forever to click on a name. For such a critical piece of a “phone”, I would think things would be a lot speedier.
I totally disagree. It seems to be more a “layer 8″ -user problem- problem than any other thing. Any software/hardware could fail, but looking at the overall functionality and performance, Apple just rocks. About iPhone, I’m aware of its weaknesses, however you cannot even compare it with a N95. iPhone is by far the greatest phone ever made.
Keep in mind I work on Windows Vista all the time and I’m not an Apple Fan Boy.
just be happy you are not a gamer mike. trying to play wow on a macbook pro (forget about my macbook air) is an exercise in heat management.
I literally use a belkin laptop tray with fan, smc fan control AND ICE PACKS!!
when they get too hot the framerate goes down to unusable (on the air it just shuts down a core). and yes I know about coolbook, but downclocking??
Apple quality stinks. I have an iMac that blew out two Apple installed disk drives.
I have a Mac Pro Server that doesn’t run XServe raid correctly. Neither are software updates properly done.
What I would love to see is Leopard running on a Lenovo. Now that’s a nice product.
As for Apple hardware, they have always basically sucked. Nice design, poor execution. Hardware manufacturing is a tough business. Steve Jobs has no real execution experience in top notch product manufacturing.
You can’t have a bunch of aged hippies running quality control. The weed gets in the way.
I’ve encountered Apple products on and off since the early 90s, but it was only a few years ago that I bought my first (and only) Apple hardware; the iPod Photo. I was looking for a device to store my photos that I took with my digital camera during a long excursion through Europe, and I thought that the iPod photo should be simple enough (and hence robust enough) to do the job. But as it so happened, that iPod had recharging issues and it sporadically froze during the most critical transfer time.
Of course I called Apple support and they basically reiterated what I incredulously found in their manual; to turn off the iPod for 24 hours before attempting a reset (after a normal reset had failed). So essentially they knew about the issue and documented the defect as if it were a feature that they were unwilling to admit to or fix. To this day, there has never been any new firmware fixes to address this issue and no recalls on the hardware.
As is typical with Apple, they sweep issues under the rug and try to blind users with glitter.
Ultimately I lost a full day of shooting and corrupted photos on that iPod. For that and their unwillingness to address a serious issue, I’ve never forgiven Apple. They can flash as much glitter they want but if they can’t back that up with integrity then what is the point? That was the last product I will ever buy from them.
Here here.
My first Apple product was the Airport Express (which is actually excellent)
My second Apple product was the 2nd gen iPod Nano. I bought it before a 2 week trip to Japan. On day 2 of my trip, I decided to buy a charger from the Electric Town in Tokyo. After a day of walking around and listening, I plugged it in to make sure i would have enough juice for the next day of wandering.
…
…
…
WTF??? what is this
symbol on my ipod screen???
I can’t believe I bricked a 2 week old iPod on the 2nd day of my trip!!
Took it to the Apple store in Tokyo and they were like “we’re sorry. it’s gone.”
No more Apple for me.
Soooo…. You shot your iPod with a 3rd party charger, and you blame Apple???
That’s like blaming Toyota for hitting the tree…
Hi Michael
I am also very unhappy with the service that Apple is providing.
I got an iPhone a few days back, the bug with it is that when you are using the edge network you do not get any calls. I reported this to the Apple service people and the answer was “This is how it works”. The bad thing is you do not get even calls and voicemails you missed.
Can anyone go and tell Apple how miserable their service is.
You don’t have to… Apple just released a Firmware Update (install it via iTunes) that addresses this problem.
At least with the iPhone, the problems can be fixed with firmware updates. Try doing that with one click on any other phone!
Can you say “fanboy”? I thought you could.
Just STFU already.
use foldershare for your file synching needs, cross platform and works like a charm on Macs
I’m Steve Jobs, and I don’t approve of these posts.
(Paid for by the Steve Jobs for President Committee)
Mac sucks… simple as that get a good solid pc… and things work, connect and soft is free
Thanks Mike. I was just about to buy a MAC laptop i am going to hold off.. And i really cannot spend that much amount of money and waste it ..
cheers, Nag
You pay top dollar for apple products. You shouldn’t have to pay for extended warranty if you’re already paying a premium for the product.
anyhoo….have a had a mac mini refurb for more than year with no problems. One thing I did was plug it into a battery backup because you have to figure a device that small is probably very sensitive to power surges and dirty current.
Had great luck with all my apple products over the years. Not a single hardware or software failure. Currently use 2 macbook pros.
I couldn’t agree more with this post, although their aesthetics are always amazing (which is what I like about Apple products), the engineering quality in both hardware and software tends to be pretty piss poor. The wireless on my MacBook Pro is borderline unusable and although I love my iPhone 3G, I have pretty much switched to using it as little more than a basic phone since my battery will be dead before the day is over otherwise. Apple’s lack of quality is the main reason that my main machine at home is a Hackintosh instead of a Mac Pro.
I bought a 40GB ipod a couple years ago and the HD died multiple times and I gave up on replacing it after 3 deaths. Hope my iphone manages to live longer than the ipod since it has a solid state memory, but sounds like that is being too optimistic.
So Apple is falling apart, bla,bla,bla can we sell more web ads with apple or Iphone in the headlines title, bla,bla,bla.
Just stop it, Grumbling will not change anything.
With dell, hp/compaq and microsoft already crying foul with the itunes store, your insight is that apple spread itself to thin?
Were is the sales figures or customer satisfaction polls that back this up.?
Unless you have worked at Apple or have owned apple stock for many years , how can you know where the company is?
Again what it comes down to is the babies toy did not do what baby wanted, so instead of looking for an answer or bright side, the baby cries.
This is expert opinion.
Unfortunately I’ve had a bunch of problems with my Macs and Apple hardware too, and so has just about everyone I know that owns a Mac. There’s a reason Apple’s support forums are so crazy, and sites like http://www.AppleBlunders.com and http://www.AppleDefects.com exist, even Consumerist covers tons of Apple problems and an exploding iPod made the front page of DrudgeReport the other day too…
Get it together Apple!
I consider iPhone 3G to be failure as well, the firmware was terribly buggy, horrible battery life, and miserable 3G reception, supposedly the star feature of the new phone and oh who can forget the mobilemess.
I consider iPhone 3G a failure as well.
This happened to me back in the late 1980s. I had a string of bad encounters and realized that, despite promising interface, Apple was a flaky company based on slavish adulation.
I went to the other side, the IBM PC clones. And you know what? My life got less dramatic. I no longer thought I needed the perfect work setup, just a text editor and some generic tools. I got past the interface drama. Maybe you can too.
Quit using Apple and it’ll improve your sanity.This happened to me back in the late 1980s. I had a string of bad encounters and realized that, despite promising interface, Apple was a flaky company based on slavish adulation.
I went to the other side, the IBM PC clones. And you know what? My life got less dramatic. I no longer thought I needed the perfect work setup, just a text editor and some generic tools. I got past the interface drama. Maybe you can too.
Quit using Apple and it’ll improve your sanity.
Apple needs to offer .Mac users a refund. MobileMe is not a better version of .Mac–it is a completely different service. I don’t have an iPhone or multiple Macbooks, so it is of no use to me. I have nothing to sync! I liked .Mac for hosting websites, and I can’t even navigate the UI to find that anymore.
What are you? Some kind of douche? What the hell do you do to your things that makes them break? And again… Why do you purchase so many products. You consumeristic fat bitch. Go eat a donut to make yourself feel better.
Again. Mike you live in a f*cking isolated world. Apple’s market cap exceeds Google’s and their customer satisfaction index blows by any PC manufacturers. When will you people realize that no one outside the valley, especially those who pay for your overpriced conferences, actually give a sh!t what you think.
Apples are for babies. Go Windows! Go BlackBerry!
Welcome to the John C. Dvorak school of driving web traffic.
Step 1. Write something negative about Apple.
Step 2. Watch your traffic grow.
Step 3. There is no step 3.
well, i can only comment that the quality of current apple product are questionable. i have used toshiba notebooks for several years (8 years to be exact) and still running perfectly (other than battery problem, which is normal when you have laptop that long). my macbook died 2 months after the 1 year warranty expire, and when i visit my local apple distributor (im in indonesia, and we pay more $$ for apple here than in US), they said that the logic board toasted and have to pay (much MORE) $$ (like 650USD) to fix it. im crossing my finger with my dad’s imac now.
hM
Every ipod I have owned (three of them) has failed due to hardware malfunction. Two were in warranty at the time. I have been wondering why no one has been talking about this amidst all the hype. One answer is just how damn wonderful the ipod is. I love it, even though it abuses me.
What gives you reason to believe that this is common?
Yeah… Stil reading/posting/taking calls from my Blackberry 8830we here with no problems, or vendor limitations. I’ve even installed two applications over-the-air since I last posted.
Your dedication to failure, no matter how pretty, is fucking stupid. You should buy a phone that can make and receive calls all day on one charge.
Idiots.
Don’t get me started on my 4th magsafe power adapter. If apple can’t make a power cord that will last longer than 3 months, why not let 3rd parties do it.
I’ve been an avid mac user since I was 14 with my Performa 6200cd. I’ve had a mac ever since. I’ve helped convert dozens of people to Mac. I still am a huge mac proponent. However, sad to say, I am not completely happy with my MacBook Pro. Like Mike says about his iPhone, the pros outweigh the cons, but the products just aren’t as solid as they used to. Meaning that there are things that happen – slowdowns, drags, the spinning beach ball of death – that can’t be explained. Never before did this happen on my Powerbook. It’s OK – I’ll keep believing blindly for you Apple – just don’t take advantage of my loyalty.
I have been a Mac Tech for close to 15 years, off and on. In my experience, it’s the people who know the least who have the most trouble with both hardware and software. It’s uncanny, and sometimes downright amazing. Perhaps there are new iterations of the laws of karma. Not even the 80/20 rule applies here. (80 percent of support issues come from 20 percent of the user population). It’s more like 5/95.
At my last job, we had over 300 Macs. Of course some of them failed. eMacs and G5 iMacs dropped like flies. One due to apparently poor engineering, the G5s due to bad capacitors that plagued the entire industry that year.
Other than the odd premature hard drive failure, Apple hardware has been very reliable in my experience.
The author’s piece smacks of counter-productive whining. OTOH, it’s probably pretty good page-hit bait. (and the multitude of ads take -far- too long to load!) It got me to this site. Once.
Mr. Arrington’s credibility is hovering around zero at the moment.
I have a MacMini with Tiger and a MacBook Pro that I upgraded to Leopard (both are Intels). The Mini just sits in the corner and runs and runs and runs. The MacBook Pro used to do the same thing. After I upgraded to Leopard, weird random things started to happen. Not terrible things, but annoying beachballs. I hope Snow Leopard fixes a lot of things because Leopard was not ready for prime time, just like a certain OS from our neighbors in Redmond
.
I couldn’t agree more. I’m an enthusiastic fan (almost irrationally so) of Apple products. Last week, while the broken hinge/screen of my MacBook Air was getting repaired, I borrowed a MacBook, which subsequently quit on me:
http://www.snap...res/show/813212
Oddly enough, I’d still buy another Mac. Glutton for punishment I suppose.
how much did it cost for Apple to repair the hinge?
Mike, honestly, that’s what you get. I can’t help but laugh at you, and wonder what level of technical expertise you have to choose such lame kit. While you follow the herd to the least innovative technology, real devices have led innovation.
While your silly iPhone plays its one proprietary format, my Nokia N95 8 gb natively plays nearly any audio codec you throw its way. And while the iPhone is the supposed standard in mobile audio players, it not only can’t handle today’s standard digital audio format, MP3, but also lacks stereo A2DP bluetooth! My Nokia does.
Don’t try transferring your songs to another iPod without email or a PC. It doesn’t support bluetooth file exchange, something even the old Moto Razr could do! That’s not surprising, since you have claims of great web access, but can’t even download music from it. PC is your only choice to buy music. No over the air buys. My phone can access the entire web, and buy from any site accessible via PC. In fact, many sites don’t even recognize or consider my browser as a mobile variant, since its so desktop like, not just in looks, but function.
Why is the iPhone the only camera phone without picture and video messaging support? Where’s the Flash for the browser? Why do you call it a smartphone if it won’t multitask? Why is there only one application vendor to control user choice? Where’s the camera flash, TV out, infrared port, online gaming service? I have them all.
By the way, let’s have a typing contest. My T9 vs. your touch QWERTY greasy mess. Don’t agree if you hate losing. Of course, you could cheat and tether your laptop, but better not sell Steve Jobs or the carrier.
The iPhone’s ok, but not for its high price. My phone is similarly priced, with better specs, more connectivity, and is a true laptop replacement. Enter the future, Mike. Apple is for neophytes, just looking to experience some media. Nokia’s Nseries is for true techies that not only wish to experience, but create and edit media. Its the big league phone line. Apple is consumer grade slickness at a pro grade price. Ignore the propaganda.
Feel free to contact me for more information at christexaport@sbcglobal.net, or visit my website and forums at http://www.symbian-freak.com. I’ll be glad to debunk the iPhone mythology.
Despite Michal’s complaints…
Apple’s Customer Satisfaction just set an all-time record high for the entire PC industry.
http://www.thea...sonal+Computers
No PC maker has ever had a higher level of Customer Satisfaction than Apple’s right now.
Julie, the ACSI metric measures subjective response, not actual quality or performance. Apple cultivates emotional brand attachment in their marketing. That influences the score. It’s common to find comments in forums along the lines of “it’s been having problems, but at least it’s not a windoze PC,” which begs the question, if it’s having more problems than a “windoze” PC, what makes it better?
According to Consumer Reports, the Apple laptops have a marginally higher rate of major failure over a five year period than the industry average. None of the other brands in the survey scored worse than Apple. It really undercuts the myth of Mac reliability that is used to justify the Mac tax.
The battery will run down quickly if you don’t turn off the GPS when you aren’t using it. Any application that asks for your location turns it on, but doesn’t turn it off when you quit.
Go to Settings –> General –> Location Services and turn it to OFF unless you need the GPS at the moment.
That switch alone should triple your battery time.
I am one of those new apple customers who will not put up with crappy products. I am not that committed to them or Microsoft. I also use Vista as part of my workflow as well.
A friend of mine uses a Mac G5. He is thinking of adding Vista because of the performance issues he is having with Leopard.
I don’t know why people buy apple products, you can get better products and support elsewhere. Mac’s are only for those who want the “apple customer” image.
I have an iMac g3 running OSX tiger 4.11, no problems. I have an iMac g5 running OSX leopard 5.4. Other than an initial problem with the leopard install (I had backups, thank God), no problems. I have two airport expresses, several iPods and an iPhone. All problem free. No battery issues with my phone.
I also have had the same job 10 years and have been married to the same woman 20. Maybe I’m just lucky but Apple stability is just another boring factor of my humdrum existence.
If not for the fact that I climb mountains for fun my life would be pretty bland.
Macs, PCs and Linux boxen virtually all use the same hardware. If a hard drive fails, surely it is the hard drive manufacturer’s fault, not the box assembler’s or the OS writer’s fault.
Apple uses high end parts for high end computers. So does Dell, HP, Sony, Acer and others. Apple does not make low end computers so they do not use low end parts. Apple’s hardware failure rates must be as low as the failure rates for other high end computers.
All that’s left is the software. Here Apple has a distinct advantage. Anyone who has used OS X, Windows XP & Vista and a flavor or two of Linux knows this. Anyone who hasn’t used them all doesn’t know what they’re talking about.
the laptops seem to have a fair number of lemons, the imacs i use (not mine) hold up quite well. My powerbook has had 2 logic board replacements in last 3 months under apple care, what the geniuses call a looper.
The MB pro and MB air obviously had serious heat venting problems at their product intro’s (2006 and 2008)
http://www.tuaw...k-pro-sob-story
I agree about Apple screwing up the delicate ecosystem associated among multiple computers and sharing contacts/calendars/etc. Their current lack of support for CalDav sharing through MobileMe really sucks and has messed up our office to no end.