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"Apple doesn't build the quality products it used to" - Survey

KeanosMagicHat

KeanosMagicHat

macrumors 68000
Original poster
May 18, 2012
1,559
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As a UK iPhone buyer, having owned the iPhone 3G, 3GS and 4S, I was very disappointed with the early and continuing reports of poor build quality of the iPhone 5.

Although people have mentioned several different problems, the one that annoyed me most was the poor anodisation on the black model causing it to chip / scuff / scratch (whatever you want to call it) around the antenna bezel.

I personally believe this reflected Apple taking a complacent approach to their market position and sacrificing build quality for extra profit, whilst releasing online movies and TV adverts telling us all how exquisitly designed it still was.

My 4S contract ended a couple of months ago, so I'm primed and ready to make another purchase, I just hope that the 5S makes the quality improvements necessary to deliver the kind of premium product most of us have come to expect from Apple.

UK buyers at least are not optimistic. Survey below;

______________________

The iPhone 5S/6 will be too expensive, poor quality, too similar, and boring . . .

Nearly two thirds of respondents to a survey predicted that the new iPhone will be a flop . . .

The study, conducted by www.mobilephonechecker.co.uk, polled 2,007 adults aged 18 and over from across the UK in a bid to determine attitudes towards the forthcoming release of the new handset.

Of concern to Apple will be the fact that 34 percent of respondents were iPhone owners. 22 percent owned a BlackBerry and just 14 percent already used a Samsung smartphone.

When asked whether they believed that the new Apple iPhone handset will prove to be a success in terms of sales 65 percent answered ‘No’.

The top five answers given by respondents for why they thought the new iPhone would flop were as follows:

1. Samsung’s increasingly dominance in the smartphone market (31%)

2. The iPhone is too expensive (26%)

3. Apple doesn’t build the quality products it used to (23%)

4. The new iPhone will be too similar to iPhone 5 (22%)

5. People aren’t as excited about new iPhone releases as they used to be (19%)

...
Click to expand...

Online Source Link



Of course the iPhone 5S will still sell in big numbers, but even more so if the perceived quality drops on the 5 are rectified.
 
People love to bitch, moan and complain more than just about anything else

I have an iPhone 5 and experience none of the so-called lack of quality problems

For every person on a Forum who feels the need to call Apple out over this or that, there are hundreds or thousands of users like me who are not experiencing the reported issues others are having
 
Own a 2012 macbook pro. I can tell you I've had several problems with it that I noticed my friends that have previous generation macbook pros never had. So I can believe that the quality is going on a downward turn. That being said, I don't believe the issues are bad enough that it would affect sales significantly. Apple has always managed to surprise me in the past by being able to sell their products at exorbitant prices and amidst criticism and trust me I really don't think that's gonna change anytime soon.
 
With iPhones, I think I would agree. With the amount of iPhones they sell, there are bound to be quality issues. If anyone can get that sorted out, it's Apple.

For Macbooks, tablets, etc, they're unmatched. Nothing comes close.
 
KeanosMagicHat said:
If you look at modern marketing / advertising you will see that many claims about a product are presented as "fact" with far less respondents.
Click to expand...

Which only serves to underscore the absurdity of such marketing and statistics
They don't reflect the real world, they attempt to shape and mold opinions based on an agenda
 
Apples poor quality ?

Should I now run to the other manufacture product instead ?

Oh, wait, what about their quality ?

No thank you.... :D
 
There are 2 iPhone 5 in my family and they are great. My wife's iPhone had a problem with the speaker, but Apple fixed it in about an hour.
 
I guess people forgot how badly the back of iPhone 3G scratched easily. Makes the iphone 5 look like pure perfection.
 
Anytime something gets thinner it loses strength. The iPhone 4 & 4S may have had glass front and back but they sure has heck were sturdy and didn't feel flimsy like the iPhone 5 does. It feels like you could bend it just holding it with bare hands.
 
rockitdog said:
Anytime something gets thinner it loses strength. The iPhone 4 & 4S may have had glass front and back but they sure has heck were sturdy and didn't feel flimsy like the iPhone 5 does. It feels like you could bend it just holding it with bare hands.
Click to expand...

Calling the iPhone 5 flimsy is pushing it IMO
 
coming from a repair shop i have seen a lot of iphones 5's in for random repairs (power button, back camera, etc.) that we were not seeing with the 4 and 4s for well over a year after release.
 
Are you kidding me?

rockitdog said:
The iPhone 4 & 4S may have had glass front and back but they sure has heck were sturdy and didn't feel flimsy like the iPhone 5 does. It feels like you could bend it just holding it with bare hands.
Click to expand...

You must be one hunkin dude if you can bend it with your bare hands...and by the way, that is not how i typically use my iPhone.

As to the scratches vs. the glass back, i can live with a scratch a lot easier than a shattered back glass, which was all too common IMHO. BTW, do you say your Mercedes is getting cheaper because the paint gets scratched?
 
MacDawg said:
People love to bitch, moan and complain more than just about anything else

I have an iPhone 5 and experience none of the so-called lack of quality problems

For every person on a Forum who feels the need to call Apple out over this or that, there are hundreds or thousands of users like me who are not experiencing the reported issues others are having
Click to expand...

This is why most don't voice their concerns because of backlash such as this. People will praise Apple all day long, but soon as something bad comes on they're everything, but their name because they have issues and someone else doesn't.
 
Heres a tip...... get the white iphone5 if you are that concerned with chips on the black one.

Haven't had a single problem with my iphone5
 
I have the 5 from launch day - no issues with it, but it really doesn't feel as sturdy as my 4S. I like the larger screen on the 5 just fine, but the 4/4S models felt much more solid/robust to me and I kinda miss that with my 5.
 
Doesn't surprise me when the "company" running this "survey" advertises the iPhones 4 main competitors in a massive banner on its homepage.
 
I could be extremely unlucky, but based on my last few years of purchases, many have gone wrong:

3x MacBook Pro - one dead SuperDrive, one dead MagSafe adapter
iMac - one dead Superdrive, then screen issues
Apple TV - WiFi issues, replaced
Thunderbolt Display - extreme issues with it not working, eventually replaced
iPhone 5 - lock button stopped working
iPhone 4 - home button stopped working

Only non-problematic products were iPads and iPods.

Again, I could just be unlucky, but that's a lot of faulty goods.
 
Another black iPhone 5 since launch day with zero chips or scratches. Is it apples build quality or the way people look after them.
By the way never had a build quality issue on anything in my signature (except the Xbox!)
 
The study, conducted by www.mobilephonechecker.co.uk, polled 2,007 adults aged 18 and over from across the UK in a bid to determine attitudes towards the forthcoming release of the new handset.

2007 people were in this poll while there are millions using apple products. It's not enough
 
I would have to agree that the iPhone 5's design is not as durable as the 4/4S, but IMO it's also not as bad as the general public makes it out to be.

My first 5 (that I returned after 5 days) was fine, of course I couldn't stand the bugs long enough to find out whether the hardware would soon fail or not. My mom has had one since launch day and is on replacement number 3, all due to quality issues. (bad RF, faulty digitizer, and blown earpiece speaker).

I just recently switched back to an iPhone 5 and within a week discovered a dead pixel, Apple replaced the screen for me. Now I noticed the power button isn't as firm as it's supposed to be (and leans back a little), we'll see how long before that fails...

I don't think it's bad luck as much as it's overproduction.
 
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