A Declining Trajectory
mattgemmell.com
mattgemmell.com
Having iTunes fire up while I'm using my Apple remote with VLC is even more annoying. And since it tends to catch me when I have company, I generally don't feel like pausing a film to fix it either.
I agree that slowing down the upgrade cycle would be one way to regain the trust, as long as the extra time was spent on quality assurance (in all its forms) rather than new features.
Killing some product lines would be another (though be prepared for howls of rage from the 20% that found the product useful).
It's tough, though, for me to give any advice to the folks running a large company without their context.
And at the same time people are complaining that OS X rarely has any new features. I agree that iCloud sucks. But I haven't seen a clear trend up or down since I started using Macs in 2007, except perhaps fewer hardware issues.
The same can't really be said for Windows, I think a lot of that comes down to vertical vs horizontal integration. The majority of issues I encounter with the core OS usually come down to a dodgy driver (usually from Intel) that once removed and replaced with the Microsoft baseline driver resolves the issue.
I'm disappointed to see and hear all the issues people seem to be having with the Surface line, I would have expected those devices to be rock solid. I'm not sure if that speaks to a fundamental issue with Windows or something else but it just goes to show how well Apple is handling it's hardware/software integration.
With my MBP I can close it and throw it in my bag without a second thought. I wouldn't dare try that with the SB because nine times out of then I'll end up with a dead battery.
This was 10 years ago, and even then I didn't understand why a crucial feature like this wasn't given more attention.
My first macbook pro lasted ~4 years, then I sold it for ~50% retail. Second macbook pro died after 2.5 years with a screen hardware issue. Third, and probably last, macbook pro is dying after 1.5 years.
If I was a conspiracy nut, I would say they don't care about declining quality because otherwise people wouldn't buy the next release as replacement.
I'm getting off the Apple bandwagon for my next laptop.
I am pretty sure that there are as many people with counter-examples.
E.g. I haven't had a Mac with issues since 2010. 2008: MacBook white: plastic starts discoloring, the rubber starts peeling. 2008: Mac Mini DVD drives gives the ghost after a year or so. 2009: MacBook 13" aluminium has broken DRAM SIMMs.
The whole article is one person's account. As is my comment. There might be others with counter examples, but learning from one's experiences is what humans do.
If your MacBook Pro is "dying" (what does that even mean? what component(s) are failing?) you should get it repaired. If you put up a stink they might even do it for free.
At a certain point, one has to ask: why pay the premium? Why not just use Linux?
If you don't like their products buy someone else's. If you don't like your Apple Watch stop using it.
I use an iMac and a MacBook Pro for work and they serve me fantastically. Sierra has a couple weird things (like it doesn't automatically load your SSH identities after reboot) but it seems fine. iOS 10 has been fine as well and my new iPhone 7 Plus is great.
If there's something actually wrong with your hardware, take it in for repairs instead of writing a blog post that will accomplish nothing.
If that's what he wants this blog post is really short on actual suggestions or details of specific problems and big on just general "Apple sucks now, it was good before." which is useless.
I'd have a lot more patience for this type of article if he actually went into detail like "My MacBook used to get 10 hours of battery life before updating to Sierra now it only gets 8." or "My wife doesn't like her iPhone 7 because she has had problems with Wifi connectivity and battery life." instead of "She's frustrated with her iPhone 7." Which, again, is useless complaining.
> My Watch is misbehaving too, regularly losing its ability to track heart-rate and thus update in-progress workout calories for ten or twenty minutes at a time. Its battery life is vastly reduced. My iPhone’s battery widget shifts itself around on the widgets screen, and regularly vanishes altogether. There’s an unfamiliar street-address hovering in the Spotlight screen that I don’t recognise, beneath the app suggestions. It’s hit-or-miss as to whether the emoji suggestions feature works in the new on-screen keyboard. I quickly disabled my Apple Music trial after it deleted several of my rare live versions of Dire Straits tracks. And Apple Support finally conceded that my immaculate, obsessively-cared-for 2015 MacBook was beyond repair after three warranty parts-replacements
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Apple's not dumb. I'm sure they're already aware of these issues. It's a question of whether they care enough about quality to fix them, even if it means delaying a launch or cutting products.
In that respect, the author is doing the best he can to help Apple fix them -- by letting them know that long-time fans do care about the issues, and view it as a change in their relationship with Apple.
I should be clear; there are plenty of things to complain about with Apple. They aren't a perfect company and their products aren't perfect. But we see articles like this one make the rounds several times a year and it's always the same "Apple's not as good as it was X years ago!"
In the case of PC manufacturers and the like, they are all approaching the same local maxima at any given time and responding to every trivial gripe and indicator of lowering sentiment is the way they get the .01% better than their competitors that they need to be. Since there is no conversion cost at a next purchase, they've won market for the next quarter. If I help one improve, I force the others to worry just a tiny bit more too.
For Apple, they have their own thing. If enough people complain about their resource allocation then it can fluctuate between a 10% worse deal or a 10% better deal in the measure of a particular demographic, depending on their price sensitivity, compatibility needs, etc.
But if I am in a demographic where they are never going to get past break even against a market at another local maxima, then it is in my best interest to say nothing so the fight at the other local maxima gets as intense as possible and I don't get forced to buy/use the unwanted products, develop for them or test compatibility as often.
These blog posts get a lot of circulation, though, because Apple haters go "See? Apple products are overpriced crap! Even former fanboys say so1" It's really silly and frankly I'm tired of reading them because it's the same thing every time. Articles declaring "Apple devices are crap now! They were good 5 years ago!" have always been written.