Apple high failure rate?

I think the Apple business model almost creates a problem with early adopters of a new product.

There is so much hype and secrecy; plus the big marketing event and massive demand. This leads to millions copies of a new product shipping in a few days and without a more gradual build / prototypes in the wild.

Add into the mix the cutting edge engineering (i.e. features before their competitors).

You then have a recipe for problems. But to their credit they (usually) get it right first time.

I have had about the same number of problems with my apple kit as my dell kit. Apple is easier to get fixed though...
 
I've had something go wrong with about 50% of the Apple products that I've bought.The biggest problems I've had are with laptops and iPhones. Most other products have been fine. 50% is a pretty high failure rate but is balanced out by Apple's fantastic customer service when something has gone wrong.
 
I've had no issues with my Apple products....

My iPod classic must be going on 6 years old or so now....

My iPad 2 is still running strong 6 months later.

And, please, oh please, do not get me started on HTC... I've had 3 desires (replaced by O2 - had been in more times than it was replaced for repair), and am about to go onto my next Sensation XE probably....That's in 15 months... When my contract's up, I'm getting an iPhone 5 from the Apple store and am probably going to go with GG or something... I need something that either a) won't break, or b), doesn't leave me with an awful phone for two weeks whilst it's being fixed...

kd
 
I own a fair bit and have yet to have a single failure.

1st gen iPod Touch - gave it to my boss after getting an iPhone 3G. It's still going strong.

2008 uMacbook - Used everyday and in pristine condition. I even bought a spare AC charger as they are known for being poor. The original one has yet to die :(

iPad 1 - My parents use it and it's still in pristine condition.
iPad 3 - Obviously the newest and fine.

AppleTV 1 & 2 - Both fine. The former isn't used anymore though.

iPhone 4 - Jailbroken and pristine.

Apple Airport - the hottest, small router like device I have ever seen. It has remained strong, yet very hot running and outlasted my expectations of it failing on me.

All of those devices up there have been as perfect as the day I purchased them. I have always been impressed with their build quality.
 
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Failure rates seem to be in the middle ground, for example the iPhone failure rate is around 8%, compared to 14% for Android, 9% for W7 and 3.7% for BB.

Of course, because of their limited range of products and some shared components if there is a manufacturing issue it will affect a much larger proportion of their products.

For example the iffy 1tb Seagate drives used in a lot of the 24" iMacs had a very high failure rate, affecting half of Apples desktop product range. Had it happened to a company such as HP it would have been a much smaller proportion of their product line up affected.

poker_999 said:
They are built as cheaply as possible and it shows.
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Hahaha, they're bult as cheaply as possible whilst still maintaining a high standard. Generally they're very very good.
 
It could be down to the fact Apple like to make things thinner and thinner, possibly pushing the thermal boundaries a little more then some other products.
 
Anecdotally, there are a good number of people who have problems with Apple products who tend to have lots of problems. It is possible to draw the conclusion that at least some of this is people who don't look after stuff or have very high expectations of it...

The failure rates are very odd in that respect, people who have issues often have more issues than is statistically likely for a single user whereas many people have few or no issues. Nobody knows the figures as apple don't release them but it sounds very much like rather than 1 in every 10 people having a problem, 2 in every 100 people have problems but they each have 5 problems.

I am moderately tough on my kit (I look after it but I also travel a lot) and I had a niggling signal issue with a (fairly old) 3G which I swapped in store because I could (I could easily of lived with the issue for a month or two and would have if I'd needed to send the phone away for repair a'a samsung or whoever...)

I also had a screen issue with a Macbook Pro which Apple were distinctly unhelpful about really, staff in store weren't interested (to be fair it was out of warranty and no apple care but it was 15 months old and the screen was turning yellow), eventually threatened them with legal action under the sale of goods act and they replaced it free.

The last gave me a bad taste as regards Apple support but other than that it's all been fine and I've had a lot of devices.
 
POB said:
It could be down to the fact Apple like to make things thinner and thinner, possibly pushing the thermal boundaries a little more then some other products.
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This explains why other companies' phones are 4 inches thick and super reliable.
 
I personally never had a problem with any Apple hardware I or friends owned. For the price you pay though they should be rock soild (stable wise). No one wants to fork out £500 on a phone for it to fail in a year or something:P

Anyhow the Apple products are well built so reliabilty would be what I would expect from it.
 
j6m said:
Aren't many SIM-free smartphones similarly priced? I've often wondered how one would go about getting one on PAYG.
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Almost all top end phones are typically priced between £500 and £600, though they end up being cheaper as time passes where as the iPhone remains the same for at least a year, but if you sell it you get more money back, so it's swings and roundabouts. The prices are all roughly the same.

The networks sell the iPhone for an absolute fortune because they are greedy and people are happy to pay it, it's not the fault of Apple.
 
The limited dealing I have had with apple products has been great, the other half has a unibody MBP that is around 2.5 to 3 years old and I'd say it has held up fantastically compared to 90% of laptops I have seen in similar age, hinges on the lid are as tight as the day it was purchased, doesn't have a tendency to get scorching hot in its old age. Keyboard response as Is the trackpad are stil great and the unibody is durable and stylish still today and it is no slouch atall, all in all a fantastic bit of kit that ( touch wood) is reliable too.

I owned the first iPhone and that took an absolute battering, stripped down and reassembled god knows how many times, it lasted well beyond any device deserved to with such mistreatment, I only hope my iPad is as reliable!
 
I wouldn't say that they have high failure rates (touch wood) ... of the Apple kit I've had:

80GB iPod - worked fine for the period it was in my possession (sold working).
G4 Mac Mini - worked fine for the period it was in my possession (sold working).
Apple TV (gen 1) - worked fine for the period it was in my possession (sold working).

iPod Touch 16GB (gen 1) - still in daily use and works fine (battery still lasts a reasonable time too). Only reason it hasn't been replaced is that I can't justify doing so as I have no problems with it.
early 2009 Mac Mini - Works fine, no issues. Runs 24/7 as my Plex server
2x 2010 Mac Mini - Both purchased second hand off a popular auction site. Both work fine with no issues.

There will always be kit which was assembled on a Friday afternoon and is a bit flaky but the Apple kit I have had, and that people I know have had, has always seemed to be pretty reliable. The only hardware issue I have with the Mac Mini I use as a day to day general machine at the moment is that the mouse is getting a bit dodgy ... but that's a Logitech one :)
 
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