All the brouhaha about the iPhone 6 will probably settle down well before Apple is ready for you to buy another product. The one really classic thing that I saw is this statement in a Slate/Business Insider article, Is Apple Accident-Prone?
We asked Apple for comment, but its spokespersons were silent at the time of writing
If you have ever lived inside Apple, you can relate. Seven years ago I wrote an article, Not a great Apple innovation: the robotic spokesperson. Memories from my career at Apple came flooding back with that 2007 kerfuffle over iPhone batteries that resulted in all the "no comments" coming out of Apple.
Though I do not agree with Apple's relentless pursuit of thin and light over reliable and still great, bending of Apple products is not new. Some of the very first Xserves that shipped had cases which bent after they had been in the racks for a while. Apple fixed that and I am sure that they will stand behind their iPhone 6 products as people learn not to sit on them.
The bigger and more serious problem for Apple is that it does not adequately test its software products and its hardware. The company is so devoted to secrecy that broad testing is hard to do. Consumers who buy the products end up being the product quality assurance folks. It is not a great way to run a company but Apple has such dedicated fans that most of them are willing to do just about anything needed to have an Apple product in their hands even if it is a not-quite-final version.
A secondary and almost more worrisome challenge is that Apple does not have a good regular channel of communications with its customers. The company has always limited the number of people that could talk to the press but beyond that the company is afraid of talking to anyone whose views might show up on the web and/or in print. Things have to get to a crisis mode before Apple responds. Other companies know there are better ways of interacting with customers especially those that truly love the company.
The really big chink in Apple's armor is that it is a Cupertino company pure and simple. Apple has little interest in being a truly world company. Most of the world does not have a lot of money and Apple is only interested in those places with the most money. Folks might think Apple is a technology machine but it switched over to being a money machine long ago. Apple has few customers who worry about their disposable income.
A few years ago I helped someone who was having trouble getting his MacBook Pro repaired. He had paid for three repairs at various Apple Stores and his computer still did not work. I got Apple's Executive Relations to intervene. Even after promising to expedite his repair, they could not get his computer repaired. They refunded his money for the repairs. How did the problem get fixed, the guy went out and bought a new Apple MacBook Air.
Why should Apple worry about a few iPhone 6s that are bending and a Software Update that does not work? Their customers will forgive any sin and buy another product to prove their loyalty. Tim Cook must be smiling in spite of all the bad press.
That is it from the Crystal Coast where we spend more time anticipating the great fall weather than we do worrying about Apple's latest product snafus.
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