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No Problem When Apple Screws Up
By Mark Evans | August 19, 2008
When I was growing up, my brother was one of those kids who would get into all kinds of trouble. Unlike the rest of us, however, he would escape the wrath of our parents by smiling or giving my mother a bear-hug.
In many ways, Apple reminds me of my brother. No matter how often it drops the ball with a service (MobileMe) or product (3G Apple iPhone) that doesn’t work, batteries (iPod Nano, MacBook) that over-heat or slashing prices only a few months a product has been released (original iPhone), Apple somehow manages to stay out of trouble. For whatever reason, consumer have such a love affair with Apple that it can literally do no wrong.
If Microsoft screwed up as badly, the cacophony would be overwhelming with people calling for boycotts and Steve Ballmer’s head.
This is not to suggest that Apple doesn’t do a lot of things extremely well. But why Apple constantly get the benefit of the doubt may have to do with its long-time role as the valiant underdog battling the evil empire (aka Microsoft).
Or it may have to do with the cult of personality given the aura surrounding Steve Jobs. With Steve the Visionary at the helm, it’s impossible for Apple to go wrong because it’s such a cool, hip, leading edge player in an industry chock-a-block with blandness.
Still, you wonder if the Apple will be vulnerable to the same kind of criticism and pushback most companies endure. If Jobs, for example, stepped down would be successor get the benefit of the doubt when things went wrong? I doubt it.
A sign of what’s ahead could be Mike Arrington’s riff on how Apple is “flailing at the edges”. Arrington is probably saying what a lot of people are thinking but don’t want to admit because it’s not cool to criticize Apple.
Technorati Tags: Apple
Topics: Apple/iPod |
August 19th, 2008 at 11:39 am
“If Microsoft screwed up as badly, the cacophony would be overwhelming with people calling for boycotts and Steve Ballmer’s head”
Uh… So, you really don’t think Vista is a colossal failure?? Everyone else thinks so…
August 19th, 2008 at 11:47 am
Jumbo,
You’re right; Vista has been far from a resounding success, and Microsoft has been heavily criticized. I guess what I’m suggesting - or trying to suggest - is that Apple has dropped the ball on a variety of fronts. If Microsoft was doing the same thing, the criticism would be intense.
August 19th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
With all due respect, there is far more bad publicity about Apple than you claim. They certainly are not given a pass with the MobileMe failures as well as iPhone problems past and present.While many have down played these Apple problems. shortcomings and failures, the press has overwhelmingly admitted and printed. Just google and see, or go to many numerous computer web sites, even Macsurfer. Howev er, is quite common for Sm shills and apologist to make the claim that Apple gets a pass for failures too often, but is ispure BS. They need to read other sources, not their most prominent competition. Even Mossberg has printed failures.
Slashing prices may have been needed to continue slowed sales, so what were they supposed to do, keep process high and watch sales and Apple stock price drop? At least people got $100 gift card back. There’s plenty to buy at the Apple store and a monetary refund could have proved disastrous. We’ll never know. Besides, If you use the $100 gift card to buy anything, Apple still loses $100 in revenue. If you buy an ext. drive for $150, you pay $50 and your gift card and Apple loses the $100. Duh!
No need to bring up Vista.
August 19th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
@Bill, there’s definitely press, blog, and forum coverage of all of these issues. That’s how I learn about many of them outside of my own personal experiences.
Not to put words into Mark’s post here though, but I think what’s he’s getting at is the often favorable commenters on these sites once someone has posted something that they view as being negative of Apple.
Now maybe the responses are justified–there’s a lot of incorrect, sensationalist negative thinking tossed around out there–however, there’s no doubt in my mind that there is a strong and vocal community of people that will defend Apple. On this you’d agree?
August 19th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
Microsoft did screw up with the XBox360 and the dreaded red ring of death. Most of my friends with XBox360 consoles are their 2nd or 3rd console. I also have several friends whose game disks have been scratched by these machines. I didn’t hear much media outrage concerning this.
August 19th, 2008 at 8:08 pm
Well, Apple’s fumble with Mobile me, batteries, and prices PALES in comparison to Microsoft. Are you dreaming? Can you say Y2K and leap year? How about open ports for worms and viruses or the Longhorn OS that wasn’t. No wonder people want to boycott Microsoft and have Ballmer’s head on a platter. Give me a break, Apple even APOLOGIZED. Not that it means anything but Microsoft has never done that.
August 19th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
I agree with your post Mark. Apple does remind me of the classmate who never got in trouble. One reason why Apple does get as much flack as Microsoft could be its brand reputation - only for cool people.
August 19th, 2008 at 8:31 pm
“Still, you wonder if the Apple will be vulnerable to the same kind of criticism and pushback most companies endure.”
You should have heard the pundits criticisms of Apple 10 years ago. The company couldn’t buy a positive comment.
August 19th, 2008 at 9:51 pm
Don’t weep for Microsoft. They’ve had it pretty easy.
Microsoft has been promising vaporware and peddling mediocre software for years, but because “its the standard” people just accept what they get. What else could they do?
The press has been complicit in promoting Microsoft despite its ethical lapses and technical shortcomings. Advertising dollars buy influence.
Microsoft solutions are the bread and butter of IT departments. The more problems the better, as it justifies departmental head-count.
Hell, even the US government lets Microsoft off with a slap on the wrist for gross antitrust violations.
On the other hand, Apple is routinely trivialized as producing toys for dummies rather than “serious” computers for professionals. Apple products are belittled as underpowered, overpriced, incompatible boutique machines. Every design and policy decision they make is attacked.
Considering all the criticism (both legitimate and undeserved), why is Apple gaining marketshare? Maybe because, despite its glitches, Apple still provides a better ownership and user experience than the competition.
August 20th, 2008 at 11:34 am
nobody gets a free pass. microsoft has been bashed for vista and apple has been bashed for mobile me. what i don’t seem to hear that much about is the continuing failures of Xbox; some report it as high as 40% and everybody i know who has one has had a total failure requiring replacement of the unit. this is worse for apple because microsoft has a reputation for “shipping betas” while apple’s motto is “it just works” and almost always it does.
there is a different is getting assistance. microsoft’s web site is a mess and their phone support is nothing to write home about. with apple you can always get help and if the person can’t help there is no problem going “up the line” as i once had to do with a 2Wire modem/router and my wife’s macbook.
August 20th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
The biggest Apple fanboy I’ve known was just like Arrington - he always owned a half-dozen Apple computers of various sorts, and he needed to, because several of them were always broken. Always. I can’t even count the number of times he shipped computers back to Apple for repair.
Another friend bought an iMac and I agreed to help her set it up. I took it out of the box, turned it on, and it crashed on its first boot ever.
I’m a PC guy, I buy from Dell and no-name vendors, and I’ve never had a PC fail except for a couple of hard drives that started grinding and got replaced. I try to tell the Apple fanboy “I own just as many computers as you do, and they never break”, and he just won’t hear it - doesn’t change his opinion of Apple at all.
Apple : computer :: Jaguar : car
Apple may (and this is debatable) have software that is superior in some ways to some other computer systems, but their hardware is both inferior and overpriced.
These days Apple is not a computer company anyway. They’re an iPod company that makes computers on the side.
August 20th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
Yep thankgod Apple are finished at least as a maker of “computers for people who don’t use computers” (clearly to be ripped off so much for the same hardware used by a budget no-name PC maker).You can tell the writting in on the wall for Apple by the increase in the frequency and intensity of the painful desperate screams of denial Fan boys have been subconciously trained to trot out. It was always to be - stuck in their insignificant market share, going nowhere year after year, merely supported by shallow brain dead kids and students that are the easiest victims of spin,hyperbole and propaganda to make them delusional to the degree that rational objective thought was erased when they make a comparison with Apple products.
A LMAO eg today one fanboy (saying the usual how perfectley his 25 macs have run cf. use of one PC) said he was PROUD to be part of the CULT. The whole point of a cult is that it is based on irrational emotional thinking the complete opposite of objective fact based decission making, the only valueable way to make the most superior/efficient choice for a functional/labour saving/tool/gadjet.
August 21st, 2008 at 1:32 pm
@ JOBS a BAD un
Apple’s marketshare is not “going nowhere year after year” as you claim. Actually, it has been rising, and if anything, accelerating. If you have proof to the contrary, I’d like to see it.
The Mac which has been marginalized for years has now become a credible alternative to the Wintel PC. A growing number of switchers (fed up with Microsoft Windows) are testifying of their satisfaction with the Mac.
Regarding immature irrational misinformed fanboys, Apple doesn’t have the monopoly (as your own posting proves). Vehement Apple-haters are just as much a cult as those you accuse.
I hope this post was not too “painful and desperate”.
September 1st, 2008 at 1:29 pm
“I try to tell the Apple fanboy “I own just as many computers as you do, and they never break”, and he just won’t hear it - doesn’t change his opinion of Apple at all.”
Which goes to illustrate just how sicko the average Mactoid fanboi really is. They won’t shut up long enough to listen.
For example, I haven’t had any issues with Vista AT ALL. And I love it: it’s cool, intuitive, solid, and makes going back to XP a “ho-hum” eXPerience.
But here they are, dissin’ Vista as if they actually KNOW anything about it. Failure? News flash: it’s shipping daily on gajillions of computers to satisfied users. Truth. But try telling that to a “A-hole.”