The Macalope took a well-earned day off this week and what do you people do? You blow up the Internet. Not with butts, but with an “Apple fan” criticizing Apple.
“Apple has lost the functional high ground“
That’s “controversial iOS developer” (turns out if you are successful at what you do and have opinions about things like coffee and headphones you’re “controversial”) Marco Arment decrying what he perceives as a slide in Apple’s software quality.
Arment has long been a favorite of Business Insider
Apple’s hardware today is amazing—it has never been better. But the software quality has fallen so much in the last few years that I’m deeply concerned for its future.
Oh, boy. Heeeeere we go. And, yes, away it went. Business Insider, Huffington Post, Wall Street Journal, CNN, CNBC and probably the Catering Industry Association Newsletter all jumped on the post like seagulls on a french fry.
“APPLE FAN THINKS APPLE SOFTWARE QUALITY IN NOSE DIVE BLAZZLE ROZZLE FLOZZLE ENGAGE CAPS LOCK DEATH MODE”
What set Arment off was a post by a developer (since taken down, probably for traffic reasons) saying he was leaving the Mac for Linux. Well, OK, but that’s not exactly a trend as Apple continues to sell more Macs every year. The Macalope doesn’t know if you’ve used Windows 8.1 or any recent flavors of Linux, but he has and he can tell you the grass is not greener. Even over the septic tank parts.
This, however, is true:
But it should be troubling if a lot of people are staying on your OS because everything else is worse, not necessarily because they love it.
While that is the standard we’d like to see Apple hold itself to, the Macalope is of more a like mind with Daniel Jalkut, who points out there have been complaints about Apple’s software quality going back to when the company was first founded by Howard Stark in the days after World War II. Some people said Lion was Apple’s Vista, for crying out loud.
But, while the Macalope might disagree with the tone, if not the content, of Arment’s piece, he’s not going to pick apart the whole thing. Why?
Update: I regret having published this.
Only after publishing his piece did Arment realize how it would be weaponized into a deadly nerve gas of dumb capable of taking out the rational thought centers of a million brains and somehow replacing them with store-brand butterscotch pudding. (Scientists have yet to figure out how that last part was accomplished.)
All of [these publications were] using my name, and a few of my words, to create drama, fan the flames, and get some views.
Uh, yeah. The Macalope makes a living mocking that business model. Not a great one, mind you, but he gets by. He could have told you that sharks gotta… uh, shark. They have to swim mindlessly through the ocean like the chewing machines that they are. Which the Macalope made into a verb. I shark, you shark, they shark.
An “Apple fan” criticizes Apple’s software quality? Of course they’re going to run with that, like Forrest Gumps who, it turns out, really do need those leg braces and probably should not be running at all.
In their defense, that story is more interesting than “guy who constantly criticizes Apple criticizes Apple again” (they, of course, publish that as well). Because if you’ve been saying Apple’s doomed for the last 10 years you’re… well, you’re Rob Enderle or John Dvorak and everyone already knows what you think. When your thoughts could fill a pamphlet, it’s not hard to memorize them over a 10-year period.
As the Macalope said, he doesn’t doubt Arment’s post resonated with many people, but this coal mine canary has barely developed a cough. Does Apple have a huge problem with software quality? The Macalope would say no. Should it pay more attention to it, though? Yes.
Instead, I looked back at what I wrote with regret, guilt, and embarrassment.
Well, lesson learned. Surely Business Insider (and all the others) have updated their coverage to reflect Arment’s update and hahahahahahaha are you new here? Business Insider did, finally, update that piece about a May 2014 survey that they claimed was magically affected by Bendgate (Boy Genius Report has not). The piece still calls it an “end-of-year win over Apple,” so the year ends in May now. Please update your calendars accordingly.
Accuracy isn’t exactly high on the list of many of these publications. Or, well, at least it’s clearly below “Internet feeding frenzy”.