Fanboi site squeaks on crocked iMacs
Let's count the cracks
A grassroots fanboi site has sprung up to document what would appear to be widespread hardware problems with Apple's latest iMac desktops.
In recent weeks, iMac buyers have complained of cracked screens, flickering displays, and even machines that turned up dead on arrival. Scott Pronych - a web designer based in Bedford, Nova Scotia - was among those whose iMacs arrived with a crack in the lower left-hand corner. As he waited for a replacement, he launched imac.squeaked.com in an attempt to determine how prevalent these problems really are.
The site culls data from the Apple support forums while inviting buyers to share their experiences firsthand. As it stands, Pronych has collected information on 280 problem iMacs. Of these, 173 arrived with flickering displays, 51 arrived with cracked glass (42 in the bottom left corner), and 11 wouldn't boot. Other lesser problems include dead pixels, noisy fans, and noisy hard drives.
A majority of the problems occurred with machines offering Intel's quad-core i7 chip and a 27-inch display. Notably, these are build-to-order models only available on the web.
Pronych - a Mac user since 1984 - tells The Reg he has now received a replacement for his cracked iMac. His second machine arrived 10 days after he returned the first. Some users have complained of a slow-turnaround on replacements, while others have said Apple is slow to ship machines the first time around. ®
COMMENTS
280.....
280 units out of the millions made by Apple, and we're all complaining?
Absa-frickin'-lutely.
Apple is a leading "IT Toys" firm and hence uses the top manufacturers in the game. These guys AND Apple should be working to design and manufacture their products so a "6 sigma" level is acheivable. For those who prefer not to look up google, that approximates to 3.4 failures per million units.
So, say they do what, 100 million units, that's 340 fails right, so 280 is good?
Wrong, that's 340 fails DURING assembly, and not 340 fails shipped direct to the poor schlem who's shelled out serious dosh for this piece of crap.
For 280 failed units in a short period of time to be dispatched is shocking. It's a bloody disgrace, and given the types of failures I would seriously be looking at the design (marginal tolerancing???) of the product (Apple), the design of the packaging (oh look, it's Apple again) and design of the assembly process, which, guess what, Apple has approval sign off over. Recurring fails like this should be being pounced and fixed. I'm not saying that NO faulty product should ever be shipped but seriously people, from my point of view, this is a major QA failure and they should have fixed it. I'm not saying it's "Product Recall" time but, allowing it to continue is a disgrace.
It's also worth noting that this is only 280 people who have posted on this guys site, so who wants to hazard a guess how many HAVEN'T posted? Betcha it's a number larger than 280.
Rant over from your local New Product Introduction Engineer... specialist in getting it built right first freakin' time!!!!
So Ty, Fanboi, pipe down and think about the whole process rather than instantly leap to the defence by attacking everyone who might malign your precious Apple. Consider that maybe other minds, better minds than yours, may well actually be right.
Context ?
OK, so 280 Faulty iMacs have been delivered. But:
- How many of these were damaged in transit ? (Cracked screens could be due to either poor manufacturing, or poor handling in transit.)
- How many non-faulty iMacs have been shipped ?
- How do these numbers/percentages compare to other manufacturers ?
A bare number on it's own means nothing. Give it some context.
@Ty
Seeing as they also use the term fanboi to describe rabid fans of other brands I guess they probably will be using it if Apple's market share ever reaches 20%. But well done on marking yourself out as a fanboi by your immediate assumption that it must be a term for describing only rabid Apple fans.
This, folks, is a lovely example of "irony".
(Cue accusations of me being a braindead MS fanboi, no doubt - personally I think the Spectrum sucks, C64 roolz, noobz!)
Yeah...
..but they are shiny. And expensive.
Shiny and expensive with an Apple logo on them.
It doesn't matter if they are shit.
Meh
When I still blogged (I stopped blogging about 8 months ago) we got a load of Dell desktops that were DOA* over a one month period. I blogged about it, even our head of IT did but we didn't get into the register at all. WTH Reg?!?
*Of the 45 we got in 4 shipments, 28 were dead most likely from not being handled properly somewhere along the way. This Apple shipment sounds like much the same thing, someone in China dropped a shipping container.
