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From: mentat@auscso.UUCP (Robert Dorsett)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Apple Hates You and other Misconceptions
Message-ID: <467@auscso.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 12-Oct-87 16:37:21 EDT
Article-I.D.: auscso.467
Posted: Mon Oct 12 16:37:21 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 14-Oct-87 00:45:37 EDT
References: <1629@mit-amt.MEDIA.MIT.EDU>
Reply-To: mentat@auscso.UUCP (Robert Dorsett)
Distribution: na
Organization: Austin UNIX Users' Group, Austin, TX
Lines: 49
Keywords: Monitors

In article <1629@mit-amt.MEDIA.MIT.EDU> bc@mit-amt.MEDIA.MIT.EDU (bill coderre) writes:
>DISCLAIM: This is my opinion, not one of Apple or MIT.
>
>AS FOR THIS BUSINESS OF APPLE "HATING" PEOPLE:
>
>I honestly can't believe people who think that Apple would "unload"
>inferior monitors on anybody. Seriously, why would Apple bother to
>ship inferior product if they knew that it would reduce its company
>image and also cost money since people will send broken stuff back?
>Apple doesn't screen monitors into "crummy" and "good" piles. They buy
>them all built and in the box from Sony (and other places) and ship
>them to you.

When the Macintosh was first released, Apple was really proud of its auto-
mated factory.  In one of the articles on it (I think in the short-lived
"Softalk" spinoff, "St Mac"), Apple was ECSTATIC over the fact that it was
able to produce its monitors for $10-$15--the cheapest anyone had ever 
heard of.  I cannot see them spending a great deal of time (i.e, money)
on quality control of the buggers, since it'd cheaper to just replace the
odd defective item.

So, while I doubt that Apple "hates" people, it's willing to play the odds.
I've never had a serious system problem in over seven years of using three
types of Apple equipment.  However, I know two people who had freaky PAL's
in the back of their machine, two people with bad power supplies, and 
several with bad monitors.  That excludes the people who post to the net.
I'm in no special position to know more Mac owners than the average, and
find the frequency of faults in a product that, after all, has no moving
parts, somewhat alarming.  It's certainly better than the IBM track record,
but can't approach the Apple II record...  

People can pull out the records and point to complexity/reliability factors
all they want.  What the problem seems to be is that a computer "for the rest
of us" should be more reliable than all that.  A hardware problem is probably
the most traumatic thing a novice user can go through.  Especially if it's
one day after the end of the ridiculously short 90-day warranty.  And speak-
ing of 90-day warranties, how's THAT for manufacturer confidence in its 
products?  "Apple Computer: we have the same warranties for our products as
the most minor Taiwanese junk electronics manufacturer." :-)




 


-- 
Robert Dorsett                  {allegra,seismo}!sally!ut-ngp!walt!mentat
University of Texas at Austin	{allegra, seismo}!sally!ut-ngp!auscso!mentat