[opendtv] Comment: Complexity bites Apple, puts reputation at stake

  • From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: "opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Fri, 9 Apr 2010 15:17:30 -0500

Perhaps Apple should consider dialing back to 802.11g mode, to see if that 
makes the signal more reliable. It might, in that MIMO would not be used.

It will be interesting to see whether this same problem occurs in upcoming 4G 
LTE, in its higher bandwidth modes. I'm not sure how a highly variable bit rate 
can be avoided by mobile users, given that these schemes all exploit the same 
MIMO design. Does anyone really expect the multiple propagation paths to remain 
consistent as the device moves? How?

Bert

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Comment: Complexity bites Apple, puts reputation at stake

Peter Clarke
(04/08/2010 6:55 AM EDT)
URL: http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=224202191

Apple has screwed up. I don't yet quite know how, but one way or another it 
has. The question is: can it recover the situation?

The next few days could represent a threshold for the company in terms of 
customer relations. Will Apple retain its reputation as the innovative company 
that makes technology-based products that are elegant to look at and easy to 
use. Or will Apple start to be regarded as being - just like all the rest.

Apple Inc. (Cupertino, Calif.) was always the opposite of Wintel. Whereas 
Wintel made technology products that encouraged you to take an interest in the 
deep secrets of computing, and sometimes made you jump through some arcane 
hoops, Apple prided itself on making technology simple for people who had 
better things to do with their lives than troubleshoot their tools.

I don't know what proportion of purchasers is having problems with the Wi-Fi 
connection on their new iPad. It may well be only a small fraction, but reading 
through 25 pages of frustration on the Apple support forum makes it clear that 
for the people suffering, the pain is very real.

The detailed and often highly scientific steps this group of disgruntled iPad 
users have taken to try and get a steady signal and the download speed they 
expect - or just to understand the problem - is humbling. These are real 
electronic and RF engineering and computer science experiments, albeit often 
done in the absence of the complete facts.

To be fair to Apple a number of the aspects of wireless connectivity are beyond 
its direct control. This reminds us why Apple has always liked to retain as 
much control as possible over hardware, operating system and applications. But 
the Internet and connection to the cloud is something which Apple must provide. 
The complexity of Wi-Fi standards and the number of modes of operation, the 
different security systems and 2.4-GHz versus 5-GHz and diversity signaling 
quickly produces scores of use cases which it can become hard to check 
comprehensively. But that's Apple's self-appointed job; to take that complexity 
and the tremendous bandwidth it promises and make it work reliably for the 
users of its products.

So either there is a engineering problem with some proportion of the Apple iPad 
production or, a significant number of early adopters of the iPad are just not 
up to making Wi-Fi work on their new toy. If the latter, then Apple has managed 
to make a product that is difficult to use and failed to meet a number of early 
adopters' expectations. And remember these early customers are Apple fanatics.

Things are not helped by Apple suggesting solutions that do not obviously 
address the core of the users' complaints. Apple has acknowledged that, under 
certain conditions, the iPad may not automatically rejoin a known Wi-Fi network 
after restart or waking from sleep. The issue can occur with some third-party 
Wi-Fi routers supporting multiple bands when users use the same network name 
for each network or use different security settings for each network, Apple 
said.

But what the vast majority of contributors to the support forum are complaining 
about is weak and dropped signals and generally worse connectivity than they 
have experienced on previous Apple products. And solutions which require 
changes to router settings are not practical when users expect to connect to 
third-party hubs at work, in libraries, bookshops and airports.

That might be the Wintel way, but these iPad users clearly EXPECTED a similar 
experience to that enjoyed with previous Apple products and it is this failed 
expectation that is potentially Apple's biggest problem.

In fact it would be better for Apple if there IS an engineering problem. At 
least then there could be an engineering solution. If it's a hardware problem 
it may require a recall which could be expensive, depending on the number of 
units affected. If it's a software problem, then a downloadable patch might 
help. Oh, yes download is the problem!

But if Apple insists it is not an engineering problem then the company has 
committed the ultimate marketing sin of failing to meet the expectations of its 
customers.

And then, instead of buying additional units and acting as word-of-mouth 
advocates for the product, those customers return their products to the store 
and tell potential buyers to steer clear not just of the product but of the 
company as well.

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