Mac Forum / General / Hardware / September 2007

One data point does not make a trend. You can check the various online
and offline consumer resources and you will find that Apple is second to
none in customer satisfaction in the types of products it sells.

What exactly is the problem with your Mac mini?

I have been using Macs since 1986 and only twice have I had a serious
problem. A IIci failed on me with a broken motherboard after several
years of continuous use (rarely shut down) and a G4 failed for reasons I
don't know for sure, but probably bad memory after several years of
continuous use.

My G5 at home runs close to 24x7 since I bought it 3 years ago. No
hardware problems. My MacPro in my office also runs 24x7 and the G5 I
had before it, no hardware problems. Same with the MacBook Pro I am
using now. All have been excellent in terms of hardware reliability.

If you describe the specific details with your Mac mini's problem,
perhaps you may find that its something other than hardware. In working
in the IT industry for many years, I have found that on most computer
platforms, the problems one has aren't with the hardware, its with the
OS and software. You didn't post any details at all, so its impossible
to say what the story is with you.

As for the iPhone, its first generation. Anyone who buys cutting edge
technology, the first generation, is buying bleeding edge technology and
sometimes when you do that, you bleed. If you are risk averse, wait for
a generation or two before buying an iPhone.

As far as competition, except for its media players, Apple has tons of
competition and even in its media player business, there's a lot of
competition, but its not very good.

I'm going to guess yes, and you should be. I'm a little curious what you
mean by "broken" though, since that's very vague in the context of a
desktop computer. I doubt, for example, that the case has literally (and
spontaneously) cracked open.

Every bell curve has tails, and the quality of individual pieces of
computer hardware is no exception. You've got one data point, not a
trend. Want one in the other tail? I've got a Mac from June, 1988,
that's still going strong; the only failure it has ever had was physical
damage caused by an inexperienced technician.

Bluntly, you don't have enough data to make an informed statement. You
realize, I hope, that Apple really does very little in the realm of
hardware manufacture. Most of the components in modern Macs are
commodity parts and virtually all manufacture and assembly is
outsourced, as is the case with most system vendors. As such, the
failure you experienced could have happened just as easily with a Dell
or HP sticker on the case.

Not really, largely because the implication you've made doesn't really
follow in any logical fashion.

......

No, it doesn't work that way at all. Tight control on the combination
of hardware and software has traditionally led to better (if not cheaper)
products such as those from Apple (w/OSX), IBM (w/AIX), Sun (w/Solaris),
SGI (w/IRIX), DEC (w/VMS) etc...

The brutal competition at the entry level tends to keep prices
down as well as quality. Your hardware experience with the mini
is atypical.

What's wrong with it?