Is Apple 1.0 Some Form Of Beta Testing You Pay For?
If the on-going debacle that is MobileMe is to highlight anything it is this: don’t do Apple 1.0. They may have some great ideas but their history with introducing new products is terrible. Even I was shocked when I started making this list of their recent 1.0 snafus.
Just look at their 1.0 product short comings that a subsequent version fixed:
- iPod: firewire only, no iTunes for Windows, no service to replace old batteries, mechanical scroll wheel
- iPhone: no 3G, no GPS, no third-party software, no contacts search, no corporate e-mail/contacts/calendar sync, 4GB model, couldn’t easily use third—party headphones, no music ringtones, etc
- iPod Touch: pretty much the same list as the iPhone but you have to pay for each update even though they are free for the iPhone and new iPod Touches
- AppleTV: couldn’t purchase or download content on the AppleTV, measly 40GB hard drive, no support for Dolby Digital 5.1, had to be connected to a computer to do anything, apparently people are still unhappy with the state of AppleTV
- Mac OS X: launch version had almost zero software, ran very slowly, no DVD playback, no CD burning, no Windows/Samba file-sharing, no built-in search
- MacBook: palm rest discoloration, cracking plastic, low quality 6-bit LCD panels, you could only order it with 512MB of RAM, had draft-N wireless support but you had to pay $5 to use it, excessive heat made Apple label it a notebook instead of a laptop (because it is too hot for your lap apparently)
- And now MobileMe: “1%” of users couldn’t access their mail for weeks (as of this writing I’ve seen reports that some still can’t), Apple’s idea of PUSH technology isn’t actually a PUSH at all, exchange contact and calendars don’t sync, and now they are adding MobileMe software onto non-MobileMe users’ PC via iTunes without asking or even telling them
Basically, within a year or two of each product coming out a new revision/version comes out that fixes the glaring bugs and notably missing features, and sometimes even costs less. If you ask me, it really does seem like 1.0 is more of a paid public beta test for Apple. The thing that amazes me is how they can get their users to forget about all of this. That is some amazing marketing…
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10 Responses to “Is Apple 1.0 Some Form Of Beta Testing You Pay For?”
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It’s true what you say. Without you making this list, all I could think about was how shiny and sparkly every new Apple product is.
It really is kind of insane how many issues or missing features their 1.0 products have isn’t it? I had thought this for a long time, but until I made this list I had no idea. I mean no CD burning or DVD viewing in OS X when it launched in 2001?
i think you are confusing Beta with 1.0 release. There is nothing beta about these list of features
“firewire only, no iTunes for Windows, no service to replace old batteries, mechanical scroll wheel”
because the original product was for the mac, where firewire is common ( and much faster) and the mechanical scrollwheel was fine. It was a 1.0 release not a beta.
iPods went to Windows later due to demand. The iPod was not a beta on launch.
“launch version had almost zero software, ran very slowly, no DVD playback, no CD burning, no Windows/Samba file-sharing, no built-in search”
You are on stronger ground here ( except for the zero software nonsense, that is chicken and egg) but any 1.0 release has to be a compromise. Features have to get dropped to make deadlines. So it goes.
A silly game overall. Try it with windows 1.0. Or 3.5 for that matter.
Your argument misses a significant point: which SmartPhone could you have bought—at the time—that has advanced as much as the iPhone? Which vendor’s Windows laptop or desktop could you have purchased—at the time—that has advanced as much as a Mac running OS X? Which MP3 player could you have purchased—at the time—that has advanced as much as the iPod? (Do you remember that most MP3 players were pure junk!)
Most long time Mac users remember that the first Macs that shipped with OS X 10.0 included OS 9. I personally passed on the first version of OS X and used OS 9 until 10.1 was released… which has since rocked the entire PC market—check vendor stock values. And those new Macs with OS 9 upgraded to 10.1.
Your point is well taken: when you buy a “new” Apple product you typically get their worst version on first release.
Mac OS X: launch version had almost zero software, ran very slowly, no DVD playback, no CD burning, no Windows/Samba file-sharing, no built-in search
you take this completely out of context. you have to remmeber that in order for Apple to regain some kind of relevance in the OS arena, they had to make a bold decision to revamp their OS offering. without making this move, OS 9 would have sunk into obscurity. besides, most people were able to run their OS 9-native applications without a large number of issues. or they could choose to continue to run OS 9 and not upgrade to OS X at that time.
if i remember correctly, i think Adaptec/Roxio or whatever they were at the time followed on shortly with a native version of CD burning software. and at the time, did windows 2000 have built-in CD burning? i don’t think so. did windows 2000 have built-in search? no. no OS had this at the time. and it wasn’t until apple included Spotlight in future versions that MS actually took this feature seriously.
listing this “missing features” going back in time is akin to faulting a 1970’s era auto for not having anti-lock breaking systems. its an anachonism since both these features (anti-lock breaks and built-in search) weren’t invented at the time.
Beta testing? Hardly. In most of the cases you’ve mentioned, hardly. What subsequent versions of products — any products, technological or otherwise — do not introduce new and improved features? It’s true with laundry detergent and its true with iPods, Zens and Zunes, Macs and PCs. So the first four items on your list are absolutely meaningless.
The fourth makes an important distinction. Apple needed developer support to get OSX off the ground, but it needed to show a stable, public build of OSX to do it. Developers were leaving the Mac in droves at the time. This was the best approach. Apple widely said that even X.1 probably wasn’t ready for most users.
Your second to last point is more of a quality control issue than a beta testing one.
The ONLY one that has any merit whatsoever is MobileMe. It was clearly launched without enough testing on Apple’s part. It’s a big blunder, to be sure. Was it blatant public beta testing? Nah. Semantics, maybe. No excuse for it, definitely.
Truth be told, living on the bleeding edge is always somewhat of a dangerous game. There are ALWAYS issues with new products. It’s not just Apple.
What you say is true, but your hysteria is misplaced. There is a price to be paid to be the first on your block to have anything new. Why? Because the final testing is always customer testing.
A company can try its best and still not get things right. Often, new ideas are flawed where the technology and implementation are inadequate. But if you want prducts to improve, and who doesn’t, the public must expect that some of the new features are boneheaded.
You need not single out Apple INC, though. This is true of any technological devise. Just look at the long series of failures that Microsoft has produced. At least, Apple, eventually, gets thing right, so that the product goes on to be a success. This is not true of many other companies.
@Dave,
You act like the iPhone was/is unilaterally the best phone on the market for any usage. Blackberry is still much better for e-mail. Also, Palm and Windows Mobile are truly open platforms, and again iPhone 1.0 didn’t support third-party apps at all.
I love that you “first version of OS X and used OS 9 until 10.1 was released” that completely proves my point. BTW, I don’t look at stock prices to decide if my software does what I need in the way that I like it done.
@Scott,
Windows 2000 didn’t have built-in CD burning, but XP did and it came out in 2001 as well. So OS X and XP are contemporaries. XP had CD-burning, could watch DVDs, had a built-in search (not as good as Vista’s or Spotlight though). There is simply no way you can compare OS X 10.0 to Windows XP favorably, and I don’t even think pre-SP1/SP2 XP was any good at all.
@Rich,
Can you really say it’s meaningless that Apple sold a 4GB iPhone one year ago for two-and-a-half times morethan an 8GB iPhone 3G costs now? Or that only two months after the iPhone 1.0 came out that they started selling the 8GB version for $100 less than the 4G had cost?
I will agree with you that bleeding edge tech can be a painful experience. It just bothers me how Apple and many of its followers act like launch products are perfect with Apple. Arguably their products may be below average for their industries though. My Treo worked great when I bought it, and the price didn’t drop like crazy right after I got it. Apple rarely gets the flack like Microsoft, Motorola, or many other companies do. Can you imagine how bad the outcry would be on Microsoft or even Google if Hotmail or Gmail (which are both free) had the issues MobileMe has?
zOMG! Products actually improve as they mature!
Film at 11!
Nothing to see here…move along.
More of the same Wintel **** we always hear…