Frankly I think a big part of their quality decline is their approach to bug tracking. And maybe their internal bug tracker is just as bad as their external on

Frankly I think a big part of their quality decline is their approach to bug tracking. And maybe their internal bug tracker is just as bad as their external one. If you want me to bother to help you find bugs in your system, you have to make it easy to file bugs and you have to make me feel like part of the team when I do that. Apple does not. Before I even get into interface issues, let's just say that Apple's bug reports are like a ginormous black hole. I've filed plenty of bugs that have never been properly closed or even updated, and it makes no sense. In any other system I've seen, you would at least be able to see that your issue had been assigned to someone, and given a priority, etc. Apple has none of that. The only thing worse than filing a bug that no one responds to is having to spend 20-30 minutes writing it in the first place, and Apple excels there, too. Their reporting system is too complex (too many fields that should not be necessary, especially the ones that seem to ask the same question twice). It's not automated in any way. It is not integrated with the OS; e.g. why can't I turn on a "developer mode" on my Mac or i-device that lets me instantly do things like "compose new bug report for this OS version" or "compose new bug report for this version of this application", etc.? Also, despite Apple's attempt to redo the web interface a few years back (because developers had complained endlessly about the even-worse previous bug reporting page), today's web interface is still mostly a repaint to look iPhone-like. It doesn't really address core usability problems. It has created new ones though; for instance, right at the bottom, right where you'd expect to say "submit" and send in your last 20 minutes of writing, is the DELETE BUG AND OBLITERATE FOREVER button!! I once destroyed a bug report that I'd spent a long time writing and I was extremely frustrated. It made me instantly decide that Apple didn't really need to see my bug report after all. And that is a broken system.