3 ms·

A couple anecdotes of broken machines does not make a trend, or a commercial failure.

by sdurkin 18y ago

evgen 18y ago
And to prove that the plural of anecdote is not data, today's news is that Apple has once again topped the PC industry in consumer satisfaction scores [http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10019711-37.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5 http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10019711-37.html?part=rss&...] and is the only company in their class whose satisfaction rating actually increased since the last survey.
- mattmaroon 18y ago
  Consumer satisfaction is as much about marketing as it is about sustained product quality. Apple customers may just be happy to be part of the club, even while their iPhone drains in one hour or their Macbooks are in an out of the shop, because it's better than using Windows. I'd be much more impressed with them leading something comparable to the IQS JD Power does for cars. It's kinda sad that nothing like that exists.
  - evgen 18y ago
    Ah yes, the old "they are all stupid sheep" explanation for results which do not support your particular worldview. The study in question is pretty open about its methodology, and includes everything from product quality to customer complaints and perceived value of the products. I guess the difference between real social scientists who build econometric models to rank consumer satisfaction values over tens of thousands of subject interviews and you is that the former can speak from authority and you speak only for your own biases and perceptions.
    - mattmaroon 18y ago
      Has nothing to do with stupid sheep or Apple in particular or my world view. It's about sound methodology. The reason the IQS metric is the gold standard in the auto industry is because marketing ensures that quality (from the reliability standpoint) and customer satisfaction are two very different things. One was being used as a proxy for the other here. Apple products could be somewhat unreliable yet still score high in overall satisfaction, apparently even given the methodology they used. Also, since it specifically mentions that the 3g iPhone is not included, that probably means that the older version and iPods are. Is it fair to rate Apple against HP when most Apple customers have used only their portable media players? Do HP's printers count in this?

A couple anecdotes of broken machines does not make a trend, or a commercial failure.

by sdurkin 18y ago

A couple anecdotes of broken machines does not make a trend, or a commercial failure.

evgen 18y ago

And to prove that the plural of anecdote is not data, today's news is that Apple has once again topped the PC industry in consumer satisfaction scores [http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10019711-37.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5 http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10019711-37.html?part=rss&...] and is the only company in their class whose satisfaction rating actually increased since the last survey.

mattmaroon 18y ago
Consumer satisfaction is as much about marketing as it is about sustained product quality. Apple customers may just be happy to be part of the club, even while their iPhone drains in one hour or their Macbooks are in an out of the shop, because it's better than using Windows. I'd be much more impressed with them leading something comparable to the IQS JD Power does for cars. It's kinda sad that nothing like that exists.
- evgen 18y ago
  Ah yes, the old "they are all stupid sheep" explanation for results which do not support your particular worldview. The study in question is pretty open about its methodology, and includes everything from product quality to customer complaints and perceived value of the products. I guess the difference between real social scientists who build econometric models to rank consumer satisfaction values over tens of thousands of subject interviews and you is that the former can speak from authority and you speak only for your own biases and perceptions.
  - mattmaroon 18y ago
    Has nothing to do with stupid sheep or Apple in particular or my world view. It's about sound methodology. The reason the IQS metric is the gold standard in the auto industry is because marketing ensures that quality (from the reliability standpoint) and customer satisfaction are two very different things. One was being used as a proxy for the other here. Apple products could be somewhat unreliable yet still score high in overall satisfaction, apparently even given the methodology they used. Also, since it specifically mentions that the 3g iPhone is not included, that probably means that the older version and iPods are. Is it fair to rate Apple against HP when most Apple customers have used only their portable media players? Do HP's printers count in this?