Customers Ask: Is Apple Going Rotten?

[aryayush]

Karma. Doing the "right thing." Thinking different. Apple's enlightened approach to building customer loyalty is now famous, generating big headlines every time CEO Steve Jobs takes on Hollywood or the music industry. Attempts to raise iTunes prices? "Greedy." A fight with NBC over revenues? "Give peace a chance." That's Apple, your socially-conscious corporate friend, who does right by you while standing up to big bullies -- sort of like a character from a Pixar movie.

But over the past two weeks, Apple's fans have been grumbling that the company they knew and loved is transforming into another Microsoft, making short-sighted, anti-consumer decisions and carelessly releasing products with user experience-diminishing problems. In response, an increasingly angry erosion of Apple's brand loyalty is beginning, with complaints mounting all over the Internet, including on the company's own discussion forums. This time, it's not just a cadre of Microsoft fans trying to anonymously stir up trouble for the Cupertino-based company, but rather legitimately upset Apple customers who are threatening boycotts of current and future iPod, iTunes, and Mac offerings. Read more...

[Via iLounge]

[Gigacore]

Hmmm i think it should be preserved in a refrigerator

[alsiladka]

As and when a cos diversifies and gets bigger, such problems and accusations are bound to be there. Now what is to be seen is whether Apple accepts them or how does it react.

[aryayush]

Is Apple on the wrong path?
By Christopher Breen

An ill-defined, nagging something in the back of my brain has been bugging me lately, and until a recent gathering of my wife’s family, I couldn’t bring it into focus. On the fourth day of that clan gathering, it suddenly became clear.

In regard to Apple, we have forgotten the Three-Day Reunion Rule.

The rule is simple and undeniable. It states that no family reunion that hopes to end in anything but tears and recriminations must last more than three days. The reasoning is just as simple.

Human beings are incapable of disguising their true nature (which, for all but the best of us, is the person we were at age five) for more than three days. Come the fourth day, that sister who generally spends her off-hours dashing into burning buildings to save orphans can’t seem to let go of the fact that you were allowed to wear make-up at 14 when she had to wait until her Sweet 16th. Your dog-collared cousin, who is a shining example of piety among the priesthood, brings up, for the hundredth time, that his celibate existence is due solely to your ruining his one chance at a girlfriend when you dumped a toad down the unfortunate girl’s back. And a somewhat boozy father, echoing the twelfth year of your life, thunders, “No, you can’t go see Biff, you’re going to stay right here and finish your damned dinner and be pleasant about it!”

And this applies to Apple how? Just as we tend to forget, on Day 1, that our sister is, at heart, a selfish prig and our cousin a vindictive blowhard, so too are we blinded to the fact, after years of success, that Apple has a self-assured nature that, when unchecked, may not serve its customers (or itself) as well as it might. The “round mouse” that shipped with the original iMac is a prime example. It looked cool but was a terrible ergonomic design. Yet Apple clung to the thing for years because, well, it apparently knew best.

I regret that I’ve seen an increase in this kind of thing lately, and the timing couldn't be poorer. Apple is currently Wall Street’s darling after being the Street’s ugly stepchild for far too many years. While I agree that Apple does some amazing work and deserves every point of its success, much of the world’s view of Apple (and this includes the financial world) is emotional. People are passionate about Apple—for both the good and not so. Regardless of what Apple does in the real world—release great hardware, offer up the finest operating system computerdom has seen, make incredible content deals—if it returns to the days of the Arrogant Apple, it’s going to lose its darling status in a hurry. And this is the path I fear Apple has returned to.

Examples?

The iPhone’s recessed headphone jack: As much as some have tried to explain away the iPhone’s headphone jack—the one that doesn’t accommodate standard miniplug jacks without an adapter—as a design to somehow protect the structural integrity of the jack, the truth is that Apple designed it this way because it liked the look. Forget that countless people have eschewed Apple’s earbuds for others that sound and fit better. It’s all about the iPhone’s lines rather than the convenience of Apple’s customers. If you don’t care to use Apple’s earbuds, you’re welcome to drop a few more dollars on an ungainly adapter. Read more...

[Via Macworld]

[goobimama]

Yep. They seriously are screwing it up for themselves. I hope they come to their senses....

[aditya.shevade]

This is bad.... I was gonna come up with, Apple once, keeps customer support away for life.

[Nav11aug]

Originally Posted by aryayush

Apple's fans have been grumbling that the company they knew and loved is transforming into another Microsoft,

heard that recently, and it seems true.
Looks like Apple's takin shrt-sighted decisions , they seen to be so desperate in increasing market share, infct ,not to lose it mayb

[aryayush]

Originally Posted by aditya.shevade

This is bad.... I was gonna come up with, Apple once, keeps customer support away for life.

Please do not misinterpret the article!

It talks about how Apple seems to making a series of very poor decisions lately but that does not take anything away from the fact that the company still provides exemplary customer service and support. Seriously, man - Apple's customer care department rocks!

[aditya.shevade]

^^ what I meant was that apple H/W and S/W is so good that you will never need any support.