Why are people still buying iPad 2's if...

[dabomb665m]

I would argue all it shows is they have a very effective strategy for dealing with customers who come back in to the store and are dissatisfied with their original unit.

Within the manufacturing processes, there ARE variations between units, within engineering tolerances, but variances none the less.

They pull some inventory after hand sampling it and those end up as the so called 'brown box' units.

Will they work with their manufacturing partners to decrease the tolerances in the process going forward?

Maybe. I'm sure they have already explored options.

Final decision is always a balance between cost and business impact.

I agree with everything you stated there, assuming that tolerances is the issue here. However, after seeing so many iPad 2's all exhibiting the same type of bleeding (which seems to be pressure induced, as it is not the same kind of flash light bleeding we see in LCD TV's), I'm inclined to believe it is not an issue of manufacturing tolerances, but maybe a fault in the manufacturing process. Whatever Apple is doing to "fix" the brown box return units can most likely be adapted to the factorys is what I'm saying but ultimately that is just an educated guess and my personal opinion.

 

[cmvsm]

Just got back from an Apple store and spoke to a Genius about the light bleeding. He said that Apple is aware, but will not be changing their manufacturing process, as its considered a 'normal' phenomenon with LCD devices such as televisions, DVD players, etc.

He also stated that Apple is moving to a one time return process. You can only return the one that you have once, and if its worse than the original, you can either choose to keep the original or get a complete refund, but not exchange again.

I've seen others on this forum lately with the same experiences at the Apple stores, so it seems to be turning into the 'norm'.

 

[dabomb665m]

I think that's purely business talk. It just makes no sense to have the chinese lines pump out units with bleeding and not care while having a US repair line here pumping out bleed free brown box units for the whole lifespan of the iPad 2.

They just don't want people to "hold their breath". They want to convince people to buy now instead of hoping for a fix in the future. In the long run, IF the fix process is not complicated, I still think it will be phased in to the chinese factories. It just doesn't make sense to keep handing out refurb units with no bleed if they can nip the problem at the bud. Business wise, it makes sense to say one thing and do another. Again, my opinion.

 

[cmvsm]

I think that's purely business talk. It just makes no sense to have the chinese lines pump out units with bleeding and not care while having a US repair line here pumping out bleed free brown box units for the whole lifespan of the iPad 2.

They just don't want people to "hold their breath". They want to convince people to buy now instead of hoping for a fix in the future. In the long run, IF the fix process is not complicated, I still think it will be phased in to the chinese factories. It just doesn't make sense to keep handing out refurb units with no bleed if they can nip the problem at the bud. Business wise, it makes sense to say one thing and do another. Again, my opinion.

Business wise, it makes sense to do nothing at all. That's what they did with the iPad 1, and still had record lines out the door for the Ipad 2. The same thing will go on with the iPad 3. Allowing only 'perfect' screens to make it through QC would cut drastically into Apple's profit margin. So they let the standards of quality control down a bit to allow not only 'A' panels but also 'B' and maybe some 'C'. The fact of the matter is that most don't notice this bleed, and that majority keep things running as is and without change.

IMO, the Genius' remarks are spot on, and I've heard the same remarks echo from others on the forum about Apple store's across the country.

 

[dabomb665m]

Business wise, it makes sense to do nothing at all. That's what they did with the iPad 1, and still had record lines out the door for the Ipad 2. The same thing will go on with the iPad 3. Allowing only 'perfect' screens to make it through QC would cut drastically into Apple's profit margin. So they let the standards of quality control down a bit to allow not only 'A' panels but also 'B' and maybe some 'C'. The fact of the matter is that most don't notice this bleed, and that majority keep things running as is and without change.

IMO, the Genius' remarks are spot on, and I've heard the same remarks echo from others on the forum about Apple store's across the country.

Again, I agree with what you are saying in terms of business, yield, and Apple's ability to get away with lower QC simply due to high demand of their amazingly designed products. I actually outlined a very detailed post about this exact process that Apple goes through every release in the bleeding thread. However, I still believe that the bleeding thing is not an issue of QC. I don't think they are letting lower quality yields "pass" because simply too many are affected. I firmly believe it is either a manufacturing problem or a problem with sourcing. Otherwise, it wouldn't have taken 2 months on one of the most popular Apple forums for someone to post a picture of a "good screen". The amount of traffic + fans on this forum would have generated plenty of perfect pictures if they existed. I think they didn't exist until recently.

Also, to get back on topic of rumors, the headline today is about LG being the source of the problem. Read here: https://www.macrumors.com/2011/05/0...linked-to-light-leakage-on-lg-produced-units/