Apple's Quality Control and Software Has Really Fallen Off The Past 10 Years - An In Depth Write-Up

[TripleYoThreat]

Apple being the largest company in the world is quite astonishing to me when I encounter Apple software & hardware issues so frequently.

This is not the quality I expect from whatever company would be, quite literally, the biggest company in the world - and I'm genuinely baffled a company can put out product like this and continue to grow and become the largest company. In fact, most of their ascend has been over the same 10 years.


Apple is no longer the "it just works" brand that it had always been and was known to be.


Let's start with a list, of just issues I've particularly faced, so this is not including ones that others may have faced with different models.

~2011 Macbook Pro GPUs essentially cease function & need to be replaced (only for them to die again) or switch to software GPU.

~2014/15 Macbook Pro "Staingate", where the anti-matte film / coating on the screens, would smudge and start to separate itself, creating a horrible look. The solution was to use cleaner and essentially remove the whole thing

2015-2018 Macbook Airs, Pros, and 12" Retinas - Keyboard Recall. This was huge - practically all MacBooks in a 3 year range had their keyboard replaced for free, because it was that damn bad.

Big Sur 11.0.1 was essentially bricking external exFAT drives. I had done the update and plugged in a drive with footage from a client. All gone, the partition totally ruined, while another was fine. I didn't realize until I plugged in another drive, and the same thing happened, and process of elimination which led me to realize it was Big Sur. Turned out to be a common problem. Luckily the client was easygoing and had a local backup of all source files so I was able to drive over and get another copy

Monterey 12.3 broke AMD Drivers, which was later fixed in 12.4
From my understanding, Monterey updates also bricked many Macbooks worldwide, with no rhyme or reason.

Ventura 13.3 broke plugins with Final Cut Pro. They broke their own software. I installed plugins for a client which "didn't work" and I reasonably, did not get paid. I later searched and realize this was a problem specifically introduced in 13.3, not fixed in 13.3.1, and eventually resolved in 13.4

Ventura Continuity Camera - I updated a client's computer I had built to Ventura, and Continuity Camera would not work. It took about 90 minutes to eventually deduce that it did not function as expected until a webcam was plugged in -- which does not logically follow particularly considering Apple sells the Mac Mini, the new Mac Studio, and the Mac Pro, 3 units that do not ship with a built-in camera. This feature would be most useful to users of these units. However, it does not function reliably until a camera is plugged in. It leads you to believe it wasn't even tested on the most basic level - simply trying it on all devices in their existing lineup. It has now been 1 year since the release of Ventura and this has not been remedied.

iOS 15 - Since the iPhone 13 Pro, Do Not Disturb was drastically modified with the accompanying "Focus" feature set. Prior to this, there was a toggle if DND was enabled and the screen was on, to choose whether you wanted to see notifications or not. Since the iPhone 13 Pro, this toggle has been removed. Since my phones are always on silent & DND, if I am actively using the phone, I will not see notifications. (and I also believe, they do not show up at the top of the notification center because they are understood by the system to be "seen")
It is shocking to see the removal of features or toggles which allow a choice between two options. This is understandably a minor deal for most, and I've become accustomed to it too - but it doesn't change the fact that it was once an option that we could choose between, which has now become forced one way - for no good reason.

There's also been a bug where, if you force close an app, and quickly open it again, the iPhone will show the last screen you were on, and quickly jump home. You can try this one, it still exists. Force close an app and quickly open it again, and it will jump back home

iOS 16 - since the iPhone 14 Pro with the dynamic island, I frequently encounter a bug where, if I open the notification center, then close it or open it again, the screen goes black when my thumb passes the proximity sensor - as if I'm on a phone call.


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Now, I am in no way irritated at the "lost wages" or lost time - but putting these issues in a tangible form helps convey the fuss and spent energy in a way we can all perceive. In fact, I'll opt against attaching any dollar value, because I don't aim to devalue the message here. I'm sure you have an idea of how these issues can lead to so much spent time, and, time = energy = money.
For some, an Apple side issue may have even bricked their whole computer, which is unfathomable to me.

I'm tired of all the half baked goods from Apple.
Especially when they lead to me spending extra time or money to alleviate or solve them.

 

[redheeler]

Roughly 2014-2018 was a bad era for the Mac, aside from a few isolated releases like the 27" 5K iMac that were standouts. Slow 5400 RPM HDDs in desktop Macs, neglecting the Mac mini and Mac Pro, butterfly keyboards.

However, with a few 180s on things like butterfly keyboards and the introduction of Apple Silicon I think we've seen it return to a slightly better place, with the exception of the Mac Pro (and this is still a good argument for switching to a Linux box for me as I want an upgradable cMP-like system).

 

[TripleYoThreat]

Roughly 2014-2018 was a bad era for the Mac, aside from a few isolated releases like the 27" 5K iMac that were standouts. Slow 5400 RPM HDDs in desktop Macs, neglecting the Mac mini and Mac Pro, butterfly keyboards.

However, with a few 180s on things like butterfly keyboards and the introduction of Apple Silicon I think we've seen it return to a slightly better place, with the exception of the Mac Pro (and this is still a good argument for switching to a Linux box for me as I want an upgradable cMP-like system).

Shortly after I wrote the thread that exact thing came to mind! HDDs in base iMacs until 2017?! Which were more expensive than they are now, starting at like $1499. That's a joke. So if a layman walked in and bought an iMac thinking they're getting the top of the line, no sir, they were getting a Corolla, without knowing it would slow down a lot in a few years and replacing drives on those is rather difficult. Can lead to cracks, etc.

And then, fusion drives until 2019?! Good lord.

And somehow through all this, they continued to grow exponentially. With products that were very overpriced for what they were bringing. Should we talk about the price of 1tb HDDs over the past years? Apple probably paid $20 for them, realistically 😂😂

But yes back to the brightside, the 5k iMac has always been a beauty. And the iMac pro is just a work of art. It's a glory. I'm one of those that has always been a huge fan. It's again, ridiculously priced, but the cooling system on it is so unique, it actually ran with decent thermals, even for creatives who were video editing etc.

Tbh, I like the butterfly keyboard, I just didn't want it to be so fragile. The 2019 edition was great, and I actually like it better than the m1 / m2 chiclet. Or so I think, I haven't used it too extensively because I instinctively preferred the butterfly. It too is a work of art, it just needs to be executed properly. The v2 & v3 in the 2018 & 2019 models were a great middle ground to me. But I'm aware I'm in the minority who enjoyed the very little travel
It reminded me of qwerty keyboards on phones back in the day like blackberries and the sidekick

& to your last point, absolutely. I run a custom mac that I built myself and it's just a dream. Runs leagues better than a real mac, liquid cooled, with complete expandability and customizability as I please. It's the one in my avatar
But most of all, I have full knowledge that if anything happens to it, I can yank out the drive and put it in an enclosure, move it to another computer, etc.

Apple silicon though, has been pretty impressive to me. Beyond the benchmarks, the battery life and smooth operation [for the layman] is what I praise. The m1 air even is enough for the bedroom musician, photoshop work, etc. Even light to moderate video editing can be done on it. Silicon is a step in the right direction power wise, and the lower prices too. But apple charging $400 for a 2tb ssd is also a damn near crime 😂😂 I truly wonder who has the specific need for that much space, but not the knowledge that the going rate is way less (see: faster m.2 ssds on Amazon for less)

 

[I7guy]

Apples product line includes more than Macs. Overall I think the software quality of good.

 

[HDFan]

I'm genuinely baffled a company can put out product like this and continue to grow

And how much larger is their code base since 2011? The number of ways the millions of lines of code can interact make 100% debugging impossible. Customers will always find a code path that developers did not expect. If you have ever worked with code debugging then you know how difficult it can be to fix things even when you are able to duplicate and find the problem.

 

[ibaconi]

I've been a hard core Mac user for over 35 years, through most of which it's been fabulous. But the past few years, maybe since Jobs passed, it's been going downhill fast. Every "update" brings in new challenges. I've had to move away from Apple in many apps, like the AppleTV app, which was absolutely absurd. File data maintained by the program rather than held, where it should be, in the video files (I've heard they eventually corrected this, but I don't know). And stupid little things like the info window for each file which holds an image file in the upper left corner, the image is sometimes there, sometimes not. Or even the hardware. They've gone to USB C after years of connectors that worked fine, now, on my laptops, it's a constant series of disconnects. If my cat jumps into my lap, or I set the unit aside, or even for no reason whatsoever the external drives get disconnected. The network connections have become unreliable. Share Screen I've had to replace with Acronis Cyber Connect. They're literally making billions from the labors of slaves (it is said). However, in spite of the disappointing situation, they're still the best out there. I'm praying for a new computer genius to come along... Maybe Elon Musk... Ooop there we go again, "Disc not ejected properly." Wasn't ejected at all!