On apathy

I was reading Ben Worthen's blog yesterday where he talks about how rabid Apple fans can be. Over the top. But you sometimes wish we could get just a bit of that in the PC ecosystem.

I took my daughter's laptop to the authorized Toshiba repair shop. Second time the motherboard has failed in its 6 month life. I call yesterday - it's been 9 days. I beg them to get it done before I leave town today. And the guy goes "phone calls like yours take me away from fixing time. I'll do my best". I call today. Lady answers and basically laughs when I turn a bit testy. Can I please at least have it back Friday? She laughs again - no guarantees, she says.

Not looking to give Apple fan boys more to gloat about but between Vista issues,  XBox 360 failures, Toshiba motherboards and now this dealer, I wish the Microsoft ecosystem did get a bit of the Apple pride and passion.

Comments

[Bruce Stewart]

The Apple ecosystem (I have been a part of it since November 1984) can be a mite overbearing from time to time, and certainly during Apple's nadir of quality and product in the 1990s if it hadn't been for that user-led passion and its counterpart in the dealers that were hanging on there might not be something to compare the core PC ecosystem to today.

That said, I often wish (even though I am a devotee of OS X rather than Windows) that the Apple fans could cool it just a bit from time to time.

Hope you get your family's machine fixed soon. No matter what the reasons, none of us are happy with poor service anywhere - and that's increasingly what's on offer almost everywhere.

[vinnie mirchandani]

Bruce, get to hear from you...will send email.

[Richard Young]

Hoping not to gloat, but when my MacBook hard drive failed a month ago (Seagate's fault, although you might point the finger at the rather warm MacBook, too...), I took it to the Apple store. Although it was six months out of warrant, the Apple Genius - unprompted - offered to swap out the drive for free. It was done within 24 hours. No wonder I'm a fanboy...

For me, this is about a focus on the user experience rather than the technology. Microsoft has never learned that: every new generation of products adds complexity and "smartness", but drops the user back onto a steep learning curve. And because there are hundreds of hardware manufacturers, you'll never get the "whole user experience" that Apple can offer.

(And yes, I appreciate a hard drive swap is child's play, while a motherboard issue is a bit of a nightmare. But it's all in the attitude. Good luck with your daughter's Tosh!)