Apple’s Quality Control—Their Achilles’ Heel?

With the release of the mini iPod last Friday, reports have surfaced today that the new device is sporadically freezing. Unless you’re inside the Apple camp, there’s no way to really know how widespread the problem is. But considering Apple’s recent track history regarding quality control—actually, its lack of it—one has to wonder whether Apple’s great opportunity to bridge into the world of the everyday consumer will be stopped dead in its tracks by the defects in quality control that have been affecting the rest of its products.

Apple ignored the iBook motherboard problems until a lawsuit and emerging bad press forced it to take action. With the mini iPod or any other product that has the potential to enter the mainstream, the damage poor quality control can do the company will be far deeper than that even a class action lawsuit would bring.

As much as I’d like to have a G5, they seem to suffer from a broad smattering of problems that include noise in the audio circuits, noisy power supplies, and the inability of the computers to burn DVD’s using Apple’s latest version of iDVD (iDVD4). Great reasons not to buy a G5 when you’re into videography, as I am. I’m leery of the G5. As much as I’d like to buy a machine, I’m more apt to buy a dual processor G4 not only because they are cheaper but because they’ll give me fewer problems. All the speed in the world doesn’t mean anything if the computer won’t do what you need it to, a lesson I learned all too well on the PC side of the computing world.

How big is Apple’s problem? They’re not talking. If Apple really wants to capitalize on the momentum it seems to have, it needs to return to a very basic business and manufacturing fundamental. Whatever they make has to work and work well, or it is all for naught, no matter how good the overall product is.