I see the decline in quality and some of the dubious decisions having occurred before and after his death. All companies make mistakes, but Apples stand out more since they often hype things to impossible levels. Setting consumers expectations so high, Apples their own worst enemy.
I have to agree with this statement 100%. I think Apple makes great products and have been a huge fan ever since they made the switch to OS X.
That being said, I have never been a fan of their quality control. From their server products (when Enterprise computing was actually on the radar for them), development tools (especially products like WebObjects) right down to their consumer computer products - I feel this is just par for the course with them, and has been for a long time. Most companies have some issues - but Apple just seems to try to either sometimes sweep it under the rug, or remain silent about issues. I would have far less issues with their QC, if they would be more forthcoming about issues and spoke openly about time frames for a resolution.
When Apple switched to a Unix core, I was excited about their opportunities for enterprise computing. But I soon realized that the way they managed bugs and problems, along with a total lack of guidance and road maps had no place in mission critical computing.
Well, I flew off on a tangent - and didn't mean to get all negative. Through it all, though, Apple is really the only tech company left that I feel a connection with - and I have learned to take the fantastic with the sometimes not so good.
Back on topic - After we had ordered my wife an upgrade to a 5s, I was a little concerned after reading about all these crashing reports. We have had the phone running for only a couple of days now (with very heavy usage from my wife) and haven't really had any major issues that I can think of. Actually it has been pretty solid, aside from some really minor glitches that really had no impact on the phone's overall usage (so minor I can't even recall in any detail what they were).
Since we just got the 5s, our initial usage was under 7.0.2 -so perhaps things may have been worse previously.
This was a big architecture change for Apple, and I give them a lot of credit for taking the chance to get ahead of the architectural curve and for being able to pull it off so smoothly. I'm also impressed with the speed in which they are trying to tackle remaining problems.
Despite my bit of criticism earlier in this post, I am confident that all will be well in short order...
I like to play with all kinds of tech, and personally currently use an Android phone. I was planning on getting the Nexus 5 when it was released - but after using my wife's iPhone 5s - I'm actually thinking I'm going to end up getting a 5s myself. Between sensor calibration issues and these crashing reports - I wasn't expecting to be impressed - but I have to say I love the 5s.