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Is it me or has Apple lost its mojo? I mean, one cock-up is fine, forgivable almost, but then there’s two, three and so on. Bugs with the iPhone 5 launch blocked people’s Wi-Fi, and now an infinite iTunes loop blocked people downloading games, apps and music over the weekend. Is Apple just having a run of bad luck, or has something actually failed here?
Basically, Apple changed the terms and conditions for access to its store, which sent people trying to download apps, or anything else from the iTunes store, into an incredibly annoying infinite loop that you just couldn’t get out of. It was a glitch, for sure, but it shouldn’t have happened, and it comes after a long line of bugs, problems and miss-steps that are plaguing Cupertino right now. In fact, even its cloud storage is having issues, with a glitch apparently gifting people 25GB of free storage until 2050 (not that we’re complaining).
Everyone can have a bad day, week, or even month, but this is Apple we’re talking about here. It’s shiny, never-wrong white coat is starting to look a little grey and tatty round the edges. Is this the Apple we knew under Steve Jobs falling apart at the seems? It certainly feels like it.
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With all these recent fails, bad press and apologies Stevie must be fuming down there in special hell.
You know, I wonder whether it’s just because we, as the press and geeks, have the spotlight on Apple at the moment. I mean, it’s not like it’s been the perfect company forever, and every company makes mistakes like this, but it just seems Cupertino’s making a lot of them right now.
Apple are starting to remind me of when Nokia were at the top. Lacklustre models, dull software followed by a series of silly mistakes saw them fall from grace very quickly.
It’s because Apple is its own worst enemy
It has put itself on this pedestal so every little error, however small is magnified.
It’s the same reason the iPhone 5 was a let down, Apple kept bragging and saying how advanced it was compared to others, and released new amazing features and then they switch and say it’s all about quality.
They themselves put themselves in that position where certain things are expected form them, so when they don’t deliver its looks worse for them
There is nothing people love more than tearing down someone on a pedestal.. Especially if they put themselves up there in the first place
I don’t see that they had any choice; their line has always been ‘our products are beautiful and you should buy them, look at our new features’. They couldn’t exactly say ‘our iPhone 5 is like the 4s but a bit better, please buy’
I refuse to think Apple cocking up right after Steve Job’s departure is a coincidence.
Issues with testing as well as quality control on the production line it would seem.
I got a replacement iPhone 5 today, the first had damage on the edge, the second sealed unit came out of the box, yes it too is cosmetically damaged. Sent pictures to Apple, they are sending me a 3rd unit.. Not good, expected better to be honest.
Really?, what were you saying about the new design being better quality not plastic and you were happy pay more for quality
3rd iPhone 5 Taf? bet your fealing a bit of a plonker now eh!
Not at all! Thing you need to realise is that I always call it how I see it. My opinions are honest. If something unexpected happens then why should I hide it? It is what it is!
Do I like the iPhone 5, yes very much so, no changing that the design is beautiful, the screen top notch, iOS does everything I need it to, and the metal and glass feels great But…. the manufacturing quality controls weren’t always up to standard expected. Apple have been great over the phone and tried to resolve as quickly as possible. The cosmetic blemish on either handset wasn’t that significant, about a 1mm perhaps, but you expect a perfect product when you pay over £500.
Think*
spell check predictive thing, no good on this handset.
They have rushed things and not taken the proper time to test. The maps fiasco is a perfect example. Apple easily had enough money to have paid Google the fee to use their maps app and then when they had a solid replacement product release to the acclaim of all it’s fans.
Hmm, If my blog’s mobile site had had a text encoding bug on special characters since the thing had been released over 6 months ago I might not be so keen to point out the flaws of others.
BTW, your mobile site has a text encoding bug on special characters. HAS GIZMODO LOST IT?????
I am sure i read earlier on a post elsewhere here that they are aware of the problems with the mobile version of the site, but due to very limited budget in setting up the site, they cannot afford to fix it yet
Or something like that
Precisely. As much as it pains me to see it, there’s not a lot we can do right now. Trust me, we really want to fix it.
When you do get money/time to fix the mobile site please burn it to the ground. And then pay a (decent) web designer/developer to build a Responsive site.
Mobile users don’t want your content in a weird mobile framework. They want this site formatted for mobile viewing.
And a responsive site is the only way to achieve that.
Still got enough time/funds to jam in those well annoying Virgin overlay ads though.
i tend to view giz site in pulse or flipboard when out and about, so have had little experience with the mobile site, and i use ad blocking on my pc so no ads for me
can you get an ad blocker for android or IOS?
You can get it for IOS if you jailbreak.
Indeed, limited budget is NOT an excuse Apple can use unless it ever needs to buy a country.
Based on GDP, with $117 billion in cash reserves, Apple could buy Mozambique, Zambia, Iceland, Haiti, Barbados, Somalia, Zimbabwe, Vanatu, AND Belize, and still have a few billion left over…
…which might be just enough to pay their developers to locate all those countries on Apple Maps.
No, once they own those countries they will simply get them to change everything so it matches Apple Maps, Cities will be renamed, relocated or irradiated, landmarks will be steamrollered flat, roads will become rivers and vice versa. This will allow Apple to claim that there was never a problem with maps in the first place.
…so Iceland will become iCeland?
It’s a good thing they can’t afford iRan otherwise they would get attacked by a Flock of Seagulls..
So far away…
Once again, the cycle repeats itself…
A company becomes hugely successful and is lauded by the pundits for the vision and genius of its leader.
However, that company finds that the process that led to such success in years gone past doesn’t seem to be producing the goods any more. They don’t want to tinker too much with the process (after all, it worked so well in the past) so they start making incremental changes. Unfortunately, competitors who are hungrier for success are more willing to try something radical and slowly start to eat into their profits.
Eventually, the company settle down to be a successful member of the Fortune 500 and all the pundits will forget their ridiculous forecasts of $1,000/share. Until the next success story appears and gives them another bandwagon to hitch themselves to.
The same thing that happened to Kodak, Pan-Am, IBM, Xerox, Microsoft and many, many more. Apple will be no different.
I wonder what the next fad will be…
Called it !
I’m not sure Apple have “lost it” so much as journalists and suppliers have lost the fear of Apple. As Giz well knows, Steve Jobs could have been a world champion at long distance grudge holding. If you messed with him you became persona non grata to Apple, suppliers contracts were not renewed, Journalists were not asked to events or given access to products for advance reviews. This appears to have changed now and as a result Apple is leaking like a sieve and journalists are being massively, openly critical of their failures. Given that Apple stories get pagehits/sell papers/get viewers this now means that the stories are all over the media, which makes Apple’s position look worse than it really is.
I hate it when she does that..
I think Steve Jobs had a clear vision for the company and the products as a whole from software to hardware and how the two were unified, but I guess since he’s gone nobody at Apple really knows what that vision was, and they’re just sticking to what they did before with no idea how to really evolve it.
Aside from the numerous software issues such as maps and wifi (which has plagued all Apple devices for years) I also think without Steve demanding perfection they’re getting lazy with their design decisions too like the 16:9 screen, which at first glance seems like a case of simple is best but almost every reason for that decision can be countered and outweighed by the alternative of increasing the size to 1080×720 and keeping the same aspect ratio, for example they argue that you can use it one handed but you still have to use two fingers to pinch to zoom to see web pages in portrait.
I think its indicative of just how unfocused and lazy Apple have become and with out that focus and perfectionism they’re just like any other tech company.
And people called me mad for not updating anything ever released by apple.