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The Dangers Of Expecting Too Much From Apple

November 17th, 2007

This week’s blogosphere freak-out is open war on Apple. Robert Scoble had major problems installing an OS X update and got the blue screen of death. It’s devolved into a long rant fest against Apple in general.

But I feel these rants are worth thinking about further. A few days ago I read a post by Mark Evans that suggests that perhaps the Apple standard has been set too high – either by fan boys that think Apple can do no wrong, or by Apple themselves. WinExtra considers the downside of the mainstream amateurs that are buying Macs. As Apple’s market share rises – so will the expectations and then the complaints.

Apple created this aura of perfection, and it’ll be harder to live up to. Consider MacWorld where last year, the iPhone made devotees cream their pants and get in line simultaneously. It’s hard to imagine anything Jobs could announce at MacWorld ‘08 would as equally industry shaking as a new cell phone, so inevitably, I’m predicting Keynote disappointment. Steve Jobs is not going to announce iRobot.

But back to the Mac problems. I’ve had some. My current MacBook internal drive failed in under a year, and the case got stains. I was annoyed. But I took the machine to the Apple Store and had both replaced free of charge because it was still in warranty, in less than 24 hours. I feel Apple redeemed themselves after the experience.

Still, I have some concerns:

But even with these issues – I have no desire to switch to a PC. I might buy a copy of Windows for my MacBook – if I had a need to.

Whenever there’s a Mac problem – especially hardware – I suggest calling Apple and getting them to fix it, or just make an appointment at the nearest Apple Store. That’s what the Genius Bar and the Apple Store are for. Milk it for all it’s worth. I feel their customer service is better than average and part of the reason why I stick with them. The Genius that helped me in Burlingame was totally nice, calm, didn’t make me feel like a moron, under-promised (he thought the case repair might take a few days) and over-delivered (I got my machine the next day).

And if that fails, you could even film yourself smashing your MacBook Pro, or send an email to Steve Jobs directly.

Addendum: Oh, and fanatic Apple fan boys? Yeah, they’re out there. But I see a lot of PC fanatics, too. The whole Mac vs. PC thing is a tired, tired topic.

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  • Don't be too hard on the MacBook because the HDD failed. I have it on good industry authority that 10% of drives fail a year, so it's really a case of when not if. The problem's getting worse too, as storage increases in density, which probably explains why neither you nor I used to have this kind of a problem. There's almost no chance that Apple's problems are any worse than any other manufacturers since they use reputable drive suppliers. In truth, things like the on-board motion sensor in the MacBook probably make them more reliable than many other machines.

    I had a drive problem in a 1st gen white MacBook as a result of a motherboard issue. The Apple Store ran software (which I was willing to buy for £80, but they saved me the trouble) which fixed the disk enough to recover 99% of everything (yes, I was backed up anyway), and the motherboard got replaced inside 3 days (Friday to Monday). They even let me hang on to the machine long enough to swap the HD out with a spare work MacBook so I could carry on working, and they ordered the parts while I was waiting. They thought the top plate was a bit loose too, so they replaced that as well. I couldn't have been treated better.
  • tom b
    I had an HD in a Macbook die after 15 months. I blame Seagate; apparently, they shipped a bunch of bad ones from China (Where else?).
  • Louis Wheeler
    The problem here seems to be one of expectations; Robert Scoble expected a flawless upgrading experience and he didn't get it. He doesn't know why he had problem and assumed that the difficulty was with Apple. He then constructed a paranoid fantasy that Apple was out to get him. LOL.

    A common cause of the "blue screen of death" in Leopard is a haxie-- A old version of Unsanity's Application Enhancer. Unsanity broke the rule that you are not supposed to mess with the System folder. When Apple makes major changes to its operating system, as it did in leopard by introducing 64 bit Cocoa Intel API's, then the internals that the haxie relied on changed and problems occurred.

    Any major upgrade holds the possibility of creating problems although Leopard's are rather minor. The more a person is a power user, as Robert Scoble apparently thinks he is, then the more likely that he has added something which will produce odd results.

    Change is often disruptive, but often change is for the good. It helps no one to place false expectations on people and companies. Even if Apple is entirely sincere it can make mistakes that will have to be corrected. It helps no one for Robert Scoble to blame Apple when he does not know the cause of his problem.

    The Mac does "just work" when compared with Microsoft Windows. But, Apple has it's own way of thinking and problem solving learned on Windows systems rarely applies to the Mac. The Mac operating system is not perfect and only a fool would think it was.
  • Good points, I must say that the hard drive issue in the MacBook isn't that big a deal, (and blame could be placed elsewhere) and thankfully Apple has even made it ridiculously easy to swap out the hard drive at home.

    Louis, very true. What I'll be watching in the future is how apple deals with people's problems and fulfills their expectations. Personally, I think they've been doing a fine job - and when there is a failing the Apple Stores are there to provide customer service.

    I have a feeling Apple will be contacting Scoble directly real soon now.
  • Viswakarma
    Apple should lock the system folder so that the application developers can not mess with it! If they do the system should put out an error message to the end user who is loading that application and tell him/her that application can not be loaded since it violates Apple Application Development Guidelines.
  • I purchased a SE graphite clamshell iBook in 2000, and the HD died within three months. Apple replaced the HD free of charge. No problems with it since (I gave it to a friend a year ago when I purchased a new MacBook - still running as far as I know).

    Apple has always produced bad models (lemons) as well as good models. Check out the 10 worst Macs ever article on lowendmac.com. They will no doubt continue to produce great Macs, with an occasional lemon thrown in. I don't see that their QC is any worse today than it's been in the past.
  • jeffharris
    A failed hard drive is NOT Apple's problem (directly) nor is it a result of poor quality control on Apple's part. It's a bad hard drive. PERIOD. Yes, Apple will replace bad hard drives under AppleCare. I've had several replaced over the years.

    There's a simple thing called BACKING UP YOUR DATA.

    If you're stupid enough to assume that a hard drive... ANY hard drive, from ANY manufacturer... will NOT fail or CANNOT fail, then you get what you deserve.

    I had a non-backed up hard drive fail and it cost $1200 to recover my data. Luckily I lost very few files. It taught me a big lesson.
    Now I use SuperDuper! to clone my MacBook Pro's hard drive to an external hard drive once or twice a week. It takes a few hours, late at night while I sleep. It's not the ideal, or perfect solution, but it works. It's been there when I needed it.

    Trying to blame Apple for losing data because of a failed hard drive is like blaming McDonald's for spilling your coffee in your lap.

    Who'll pay me for my stupidity? That sounds like a great job. Where do I apply?
  • JC
    Scoble wants us all to believe that he's an Apple fan. But he'll always be a Windows shill, as far as I'm concerned. I take very little of what he has to say seriously. He's a nerd with a Napoleon complex and a child's understanding of how Apple succeeds. He thinks the key to everyone's success is emulating Microsoft.

    Quality control at Apple has certainly slipped over the past seven years or so. But that's part of increasing your output. If you sell more Macs, more Macs are going to fail. And don't get me started on iPods. I have yet to own a new iPod model (and I've had close to a dozen at this point) that didn't fail on me the first time.

    What matters to me, though, is not the rate of failure. That's a problem, for sure. But it's part of the cost of doing business. And it's not yet at the point where it's out of hand. What concerns me more is how Apple reacts to these failures. And while I've read hundreds of horror stories about Apple service, I can't say my own experience reflects that. I've had nothing but compliments for the way Apple has handled all of my customer service issues. I can get plenty negative about some of the sales staff at a few of the Apple stores I've visited, but I have yet to get anything but great service from a Genius.

    I agree with you that Apple has set the bar for itself a little too high. But I still prefer that to setting it too low. And I still believe that the "fanboys" are Apple's worst enemy, because they give the Scobles of the world something to write about.
  • Tom b
    "Scoble wants us all to believe that he’s an Apple fan. But he’ll always be a Windows shill, as far as I’m concerned"

    I think Scoble is probably a decent and thoughtful guy; it's just that the time he spent in the "Redmond Distortion Field" warped his perspective some. He's more open minded than all those IT Luddites in Enterprise who are afraid to try anything new because Macs "appeared" overpriced back in 1984.
  • Is Leopard perfect? Nope. Is Windows? Nope. Linux? Nope.

    I still maintain, whatever works best for you, is the one that's best. That doesn't mean it's the best for everyone, just for you.

    Speaking of Windows vs. Mac... I've been using a Windows Mobile 5 (and now upgraded to 6) Smartphone for about a month. It's ok. I've been using an iPod Touch for about a day, and it's insanely awesome. I can only imagine how much better the iPhone is vs. WM6 Smartphones. If some of the Leopard dev was redirected to the iPhone, it shows.

    I've had more system crashes since upgrading to Leopard than I did the entire time I used Tiger. I don't really care either, because I know perfectly well that they'll be fixed in an update soon enough.
  • Tristan
    I do agree that people expect too much from Apple (classic case - I constantly find myself daydreaming through Dec / Jan, just waiting for Macworld - Really hampers xmas!) Then, I wake up the morning of the keynote (I'm in Australia, so 4am) and have a feeling of 'Oh, is that all'...

    Even if they release something great... Lately, all the good products are being announced 3 - 6 months before they are released! (iPhone, AppleTV, Intel)

    Apple USED to do this a few years ago (announcing products before they are ready for shipping) but then they stopped for a long time and everything was being announced, then available almost immediately... This is where my dissapointment is coming from.

    P.S. Just for the record, I've probably gone through about 15 iPods too... But not one of them has failed *touch wood* in fact, I've been able to on sell mine once new ones are available and loose minimal money...
  • One word: Time Machine. :)
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