IMHumbleO:
Apple market share is gaining. Apple had a 30% sales increase in its computer division last year, up from 8% the year before. They are now 3rd behind HP and Dell in the home computer market. The iPod is the most popular, and certainly the most ubiquitous, MP3 and Mdeia player on the market, bar none, despite the fact that there are many players available that do more and cost less. APPL continues an almost meteoric climb, hiccupping (it seems) only around Apple Keynote Addresses, during with speculation is piqued and "Ohhh, I don;t know about THAT" talk is running rampant. All this seems to bode well for the little company from Cupertino that really owes all its success by innovation to Xerox...but that's another rant. And almost without excepton, Apple product has been rock-solid...hardware-wise, at least. Say waht you will about teh software, scream to the heavens to FTFF, drone on and on and on on blog after blog after blog about the endless battle between Indows and OSX...the products themselves were well-built and seldom failed.
But that seems to be changing. More and more I read about faulty hardware on thread after thread. I keep seeing pix of iPod Touches being unboxed, already on, and in factory settings mode. These neded to be returned. iPhones have faulty screens that don;t register touches across the lower 3rd. Of course the argument here is that these are brand new technologies and are bound to be quirky,and to that I say fair enough...so let's look at the iMac. The new Aluminum machine, which I love and adore, has a power supply that runs around 85º C. The glass cover on the screen is not airtight, causing dust and condensation to accumulate inside it. The scfreen itself is often poorly installed, causing brown spots and ripple effects. None of these issues were particularly prevalent in the last generation iMac...at least, not that I found wiht a casual search. and what of the iPod? The last person's post I read about the condensation issue with his iMac also complained that the iPod Nano he ordered with it also arrived with a faulty clickwheel and had to be replaced as well. And while I can't reference it, I seem to remember some stink about the hardware in the iPod Classic failing.
Is Apple getting sloppy? Are the standards to which they've become accustomed no longer attainable? With success comes volume, and with volume comes cut corners, I suppose...but I'm pretty sure we all expected a little more from Apple. Hopefully this seemingly tremendous amount of issues is soley due to releasing a marathon of new products and updats in such a short timespan, and things will get back on track soon. If not...well, I'm sure Linux has plans on some level to enter the home computer market in the next few years.
Apple market share is gaining. Apple had a 30% sales increase in its computer division last year, up from 8% the year before. They are now 3rd behind HP and Dell in the home computer market. The iPod is the most popular, and certainly the most ubiquitous, MP3 and Mdeia player on the market, bar none, despite the fact that there are many players available that do more and cost less. APPL continues an almost meteoric climb, hiccupping (it seems) only around Apple Keynote Addresses, during with speculation is piqued and "Ohhh, I don;t know about THAT" talk is running rampant. All this seems to bode well for the little company from Cupertino that really owes all its success by innovation to Xerox...but that's another rant. And almost without excepton, Apple product has been rock-solid...hardware-wise, at least. Say waht you will about teh software, scream to the heavens to FTFF, drone on and on and on on blog after blog after blog about the endless battle between Indows and OSX...the products themselves were well-built and seldom failed.
But that seems to be changing. More and more I read about faulty hardware on thread after thread. I keep seeing pix of iPod Touches being unboxed, already on, and in factory settings mode. These neded to be returned. iPhones have faulty screens that don;t register touches across the lower 3rd. Of course the argument here is that these are brand new technologies and are bound to be quirky,and to that I say fair enough...so let's look at the iMac. The new Aluminum machine, which I love and adore, has a power supply that runs around 85º C. The glass cover on the screen is not airtight, causing dust and condensation to accumulate inside it. The scfreen itself is often poorly installed, causing brown spots and ripple effects. None of these issues were particularly prevalent in the last generation iMac...at least, not that I found wiht a casual search. and what of the iPod? The last person's post I read about the condensation issue with his iMac also complained that the iPod Nano he ordered with it also arrived with a faulty clickwheel and had to be replaced as well. And while I can't reference it, I seem to remember some stink about the hardware in the iPod Classic failing.
Is Apple getting sloppy? Are the standards to which they've become accustomed no longer attainable? With success comes volume, and with volume comes cut corners, I suppose...but I'm pretty sure we all expected a little more from Apple. Hopefully this seemingly tremendous amount of issues is soley due to releasing a marathon of new products and updats in such a short timespan, and things will get back on track soon. If not...well, I'm sure Linux has plans on some level to enter the home computer market in the next few years.
