It's the long-term reliability that concerns me and Apple's underwhelming response to it.
That about sums it up for me too. It's not just this or that particular issue, but an ongoing pattern of Apple continually rushing in to new technologies which it doesn't fully understand and hasn't fully tested, married to insufficient quality control and premium prices. I wish Apple would stop innovating for awhile and just focus on building rock solid devices that aren't generating stories like this one. That said, I'm not sure it's an Apple issue specifically, but more likely an industry wide pattern. You know, Samsung devices seem to always be exploding etc.
I had a strategy for this for awhile. I haven't bought a new Mac in 20 years, though I can easily afford one. Instead I've been buying used machines for a fraction of the price. You know, if you can buy 3 or 4 used Macs for the price of one new one, the chances of all those used machines dying is slim to non-existent. If one dies, you chuck it, fire up the next one, and are still ahead of the game. You can't ride the cutting edge this way, but not many people really need to do that. I entered this strategy after a $2,000 new iMac died completely not long after the warranty expired.
But buying used isn't nirvana either. I thought I had a reliable vendor, but came to learn they are compulsive liars, and I might as well be buying used Macs out of the back of some strangers truck. Will spare you the stories...
I did have a great experience with Apple once, and if they could guarantee that for the future I'd drop all my concerns. I bought a new Mac and it arrived with a dead modem (quite awhile ago now obviously). I called Apple and within 48 hours they had somebody at my house to replace the modem. All I had to do was make one phone call. That's reasonable, acceptable, no burden shifted on to me. I really resent any huge corporation shifting the burden for their problems on to me.
The bottom line problem is probably that Apple has built the best brand in the world, and is thus now richer than God, and isn't really a computer company anymore anyway, but a phone company. I read somewhere that the Mac represents something like 15% of Apple's profits (if I recall correctly) so the Mac probably gets 15% of their attention. Such is life.
I'm currently pondering a new MacBook, but I'll have to put myself in to a kind of state of illusion delusion denial to actually pull the trigger, because I know there is a chance I'm buying some kind of big hassle that's going to make me real unhappy. Uh oh, I seem to be emerging from illusion delusion denial here, so I'd better stop typing if I want a new laptop.
