Apple’s Quality Assurance or Lack Thereof…

You’ll find several places in this blog where I’ve commented on the apparent lack of quality control from Apple. I’m not the only one who thinks this is a current problem for the computer manufacturer. A recent article in MacWorld talking about the new PowerBooks noted problems with a significant number of “out of the box” units they’d received. Now, there is another article on the same at subject the Ars Technica website.

I listened to a pitch by an Apple sales rep at my workplace recently and he noted that Apple really likes their price points. Consumers don’t. They are high compared to their competition (PC’s), and Apple has been able to get away with them because they have brought unique and easy to use products to the table. However, if the product doesn’t work because of a hardware or software defect, then consumers will balk at paying any price at all, much less more money than they would have had to for a competing product that will let them do the same thing.

This is the box Apple has put itself in. No one doubts that Apple is the most innovative computer company out there, but its continuing quality control failures run a real danger of being the iceberg in this Titanic’s voyage. This is the company’s biggest problem. “Zero defects” needs to become as much an Apple motto as “Think Different”.