Of course, only what's on TV is real! My bad. So let's wait until Oprah reports about it ...
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iPod touch The Hunt for the Perfect iPod Touch 4th Generation (7 iPods)...
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Of course, only what's on TV is real! My bad. So let's wait until Oprah reports about it ...
What kind of industry proof? Do you think Jobs would come out with another press conference, like it was regarding iPhone's antennagate? I don't think so... it's very hard for companies to admit their mistakes, but we'll see. So far it really doesn't take a rocket scientist to see something's wrong with a lot of new touches. Time will tell wheter defects persists or not in the future iPod shipments.
To make an accurate determination, you need accurate data on exactly how many units have been produced, how many have been sold, the return/exchange rate, how many units have been found defective at the plant level, etc.
Until you have this data, you cannot make a determination.
"Correlation does not imply causation"
Hahahaha, and you really hope Apple will ever show that kind of data? Apple never shares this stuff with anyone. It's confidential.
Based on your logic, we should never complain, even when we see something's going on, because we don't have a bunch of data reports... Oh please, be realistic for just a one second.
Do you wanna know my data and logic? I was here on macrumors in 2007, I was in 2008, and I was in 2009. Never before there was so many complaints about defective units as there are now after 4gen premiered. That's my "data", based on which I assume there's definetely something wrong with production process.
I never said anyone shouldn't complain. I merely said that this trend of "this is a HORRIBLE product and every iPod touch is faulty, this the worst product ever!" is silly, and there isn't any data yet to support it.
Also, I've been here since 2005. I've seen people whining and bitching over everything under the sun, and it ALWAYS turns out the same - they are overreacting.
So, grats on being here since 2007! Want a cookie?
Man, I'm so happy I bought a refurb 32GB 3G now over the new 32GB, I'm so picky and would have returned it by now too.
Here's some other explanations:
(1) MacRumor forums membership has increased, and so will the complaints
(2) the devices haven't gotten worse, but people's expectations have
(3) The same users are simply reposting their complaints
(4) your memory is selective
(5) complaints are more encouraged now than they were before
(6) etc.
I note that you picked the theory which suits you.
The only data Apple is going to give you is how many millions of units they've sold, how many billions of downloads were made from their ApppStore, how many new Apple Stores they opened over the course of the last year etc. Amazing isn't it?
Only marketing garbage like this.
Or do you seriously expect SJ to say:
"There's one more thing! ... On the iPt 4G we've cut our production costs in half and omitted QC at all. Hence every 2nd device was faulty and we had to exchange nearly 40% of them. To get a grasp of that we've hired some forum posters who steadily try to sooth the masses, to keep the return rate at a minimum."
Only marketing garbage like this.
Or do you seriously expect SJ to say:
"There's one more thing! ... On the iPt 4G we've cut our production costs in half and omitted QC at all. Hence every 2nd device was faulty and we had to exchange nearly 40% of them. To get a grasp of that we've hired some forum posters who steadily try to sooth the masses, to keep the return rate at a minimum."
So you agree that the necessary data to judge QC isn't available, but as a result think it's reasonable to couple anecdote with confirmation bias, and explain it with a self-serving theory? Just trying to get a hold on this here.
#2: People'S expectations have gotten worse? Nevertheless I get what you mean. So it's to high an expectation, to get a device you pay a bunch of money for without any anomalies? Sounds logical. Yeaa, if I think about it for some hours, indeed it does!
Do you know how the odds are in getting 6x in a row a defective unit if those defects are supposed to be an exception? Maybe those guys who exchanged their iPts several times should play lottery?
You do realize that the number of members of this site has increased significantly since 2007. So, there may be more reports of issues but relative to the number of members the percentage may have remained the same, maybe even decreased.
I agree on the first part. But most likely this data will never be available, so there's no point in postponing the whole discussion to the day that never comes.
May I ask if you have an iPt 4G yourself. If you do are you experiencing some of those problems described here?
Considering how subjective the OP's problems were (too hot, yellow tinting) then yes, expectations may be unreasonable.
It's possible for one's expectations to exceed the tolerances of the device, you know? It's like complaining that the t-shirts I buy aren't perfectly colour-matched or that the curve of my windscreen isn't perfectly smooth. It has nothing to do with 'defective units', it's holding the device to a standard which it can't reasonably meet. The OP doesn't have to be happy with the product, but that doesn't mean the product is 'defective'. It's like measuring cutlery with a micrometer and then complaining the forks aren't consistent.
Yes, the point is to postpone the whole discussion, because without the data the discussion is useless speculation mistakenly believing that it's arriving at worthwhile conclusions.
If my iPod Touch demonstrated things comparable to what people are describing in the thread I would either (1) realize that it doesn't affect me, since I haven't even noticed them or (2) return it for an exchange. If my exchange had the problems, I would ask whether my expectations were too high, and if so (3) get a refund.
The t-shirts I buy rarely cost more than 20 bucks and if they were 400 I also would complain about messy seams etc. For that price you can expect a handcrafted and thoroughly examined quality.
With an iPt it's a bit different because the material costs are way higher (less profit) and the procedure is more complicated. Bu nevertheless maybe china is not the right place to produce such a device. Japan or Germany would have been better but unfortunatly you can't change that.
The number of times he exchanged his iPt maybe is unreasonable, but I can understand him very well. If he's waited to get it for several months I wouldn't abandon the idea of getting it on the 3rd try either.
Sure, but for any product, whether 10 cents or 10 mil, you can always hold it to a higher standard than it can meet.
Look, the OP is free to exchange his iPod as much as he can, and I can see it being frustrating. That said, he or she is not going to generate that much sympathy; venting on the forums is a bit misplaced. Apple is also free to tell a customer when the ability to engage in a mutual transaction is strained. Finally, customer service at a store is separate from quality control. This thread, however, has turned into a wreck of a pile-on for every kind of grievance and gripe, having little to do with the OP.
Forum members increased, but production costs decreased significantly too over the last few years. I guess (but I'm not sure) that may be one of the biggest reasons for all the complaints. The demand for Apple's products is rising, so is the units being produced. With this QC always hurts. It's simply impossible to make every unit flawless, when there are houndreds of millions of them to make. Simple as that, but as a customer that's not my problem. Price of iPod touch remains generally the same since 2007, so my expectations for high quality products won't change either. If iPod touch 4gen was priced at 99$ then I'd be ok with minor light leaks, and some clicking noises, but not with the 300$ or 400$ product.
I got mine from Apple online store and its serial begins with C3.
I spent a whole day trying to nitpick any defect but to my astonishment there was none to be found. Given the volumes of complaints surfacing in this forum I could hardly believe I got a perfect unit at first try
I spent a whole day trying to nitpick any defect but to my astonishment there was none to be found. Given the volumes of complaints surfacing in this forum I could hardly believe I got a perfect unit at first try
I got mine from Apple online store and its serial begins with C3.
I spent a whole day trying to nitpick any defect but to my astonishment there was none to be found. Given the volumes of complaints surfacing in this forum I could hardly believe I got a perfect unit at first try
Good for you. Congrats!!!
Enjoy your new iPod. Mine has defects. Not enough to try to trade up for another one. Small light leaks around volume buttons and the Standard clicking video defect.
I got mine from Apple online store and its serial begins with C3.
I spent a whole day trying to nitpick any defect but to my astonishment there was none to be found. Given the volumes of complaints surfacing in this forum I could hardly believe I got a perfect unit at first try
You got lucky
It's posts like this that make me want to try my chance at another swap, but a more logical approach would just be to keep it as it's decent as is. Those who say they have no problems with it, may just be stating an opinion as it is how they see the device (nothing wrong with this in the least). I believe I mentioned this, but I'll say it again: I brought my iPods to the Genius Bar, showed them to my friends, family, etc. Only a few of them (10-20%) saw the light leaks that I saw right away, and only a few of them felt the overheating (that to me was very bad). It is my understanding that every iPod Touch has light leaks that can be seen under certain conditions at certain angles, at certain places. It may be because I am OCD about my electronics (no complaint there), but to me every 4th Generation iPod is going to have a few defects. What got me though is I could see some of these light leaks that a couple Geniuses and the Store Manager couldn't.
This is going to get a little off topic, but when talking to the Manager up at the Apple Store I told her that I could feel my iPod overheating, I gave it to her and she said she didn't (at this point the iPod was on for 20 or so minutes on the Home Screen). She tried to convince me that it was normal for the iPod to heat up at the top of the screen as this was where the CPU was located, but I told her that it shouldn't be heating up that much because it was only sitting on the home screen and not performing any memory intensive processes (or running any background applications, multitasking). She then pointed me to the nearby iMac that has been on all day and sitting on the desktop. She told me that even though it's on the desktop it's heating up. I told her of course it's heating up, it's been on all day, and running numerous background processes. At this point she threw the topic in another direction. This is the kind of instance where I believe that some of these people may not be as smart as they appear to be. Another thing she mentioned is that if a problem isn't listed under Apple's list of common problems, then it doesn't exist (apparently Apple knows everything, basically saying that "the customer is never right" if we don't agree).
You got lucky
It's posts like this that make me want to try my chance at another swap, but a more logical approach would just be to keep it as it's decent as is. Those who say they have no problems with it, may just be stating an opinion as it is how they see the device (nothing wrong with this in the least). I believe I mentioned this, but I'll say it again: I brought my iPods to the Genius Bar, showed them to my friends, family, etc. Only a few of them (10-20%) saw the light leaks that I saw right away, and only a few of them felt the overheating (that to me was very bad). It is my understanding that every iPod Touch has light leaks that can be seen under certain conditions at certain angles, at certain places. It may be because I am OCD about my electronics (no complaint there), but to me every 4th Generation iPod is going to have a few defects. What got me though is I could see some of these light leaks that a couple Geniuses and the Store Manager couldn't.
This is going to get a little off topic, but when talking to the Manager up at the Apple Store I told her that I could feel my iPod overheating, I gave it to her and she said she didn't (at this point the iPod was on for 20 or so minutes on the Home Screen). She tried to convince me that it was normal for the iPod to heat up at the top of the screen as this was where the CPU was located, but I told her that it shouldn't be heating up that much because it was only sitting on the home screen and not performing any memory intensive processes (or running any background applications, multitasking). She then pointed me to the nearby iMac that has been on all day and sitting on the desktop. She told me that even though it's on the desktop it's heating up. I told her of course it's heating up, it's been on all day, and running numerous background processes. At this point she threw the topic in another direction. This is the kind of instance where I believe that some of these people may not be as smart as they appear to be. Another thing she mentioned is that if a problem isn't listed under Apple's list of common problems, then it doesn't exist (apparently Apple knows everything, basically saying that "the customer is never right" if we don't agree).
You are absolutely correct--you have OCD.